Though I’d have to admit that I’ve spent hours in front of my TV playing Guitar Hero, the guitarist inside of me has longed for something more. It finally sounds like my prayers have been answered. Developer GameTank has announced Guitar Rising, a game where players use a real guitar, any real guitar, instead of a plastic one. Players will be able to plug in their guitars using either direct input sounds cards, microphones, or a guitar-USB adapter, and rock away to a library of songs on their PC or Mac. Though GameTank hasn’t licensed any “popular rock songs” they are in the process of doing so and the songs will be appearing on their website, http://www.guitarrising.com/, upon finalization.

After all of this information the question still remains: How does it work? Well the answer to that is explained by GameTank’s CEO Jake Parks:

“Guitar Rising has six rows which notes travel down; the six rows represent the six strings on your guitar. Inside each note is a number that tells you which guitar fret to press. For example, if a note is traveling down the top row with the number "2" inside it, this cues you to play your top guitar string with the second fret pressed down. This is in essence guitar tablature notation that moves across the screen.”

Guitar Rising is slated to be released late this year. I know I’m excited about it. However, since the release is so far away, I’ll leave you with this video demo of the game.