Plug in your real guitar and play along as notes come down the highway. Load your own tablature files (.gp3, .gp4, .gp5, .gp, .gpx) or start with more than 200 short lessons and 23 included songs. See which notes you hit and how early or late you were. Optional modes adapt difficulty or tempo.

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Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“GuitarSesh is a solo project, and it is already playable from start to finish: you can plug in a guitar, play the included lessons and songs or your own tablature files, and use Career Mode, the practice tools and the stats today. Early Access lets me build the rest with the people who play it. Player reports show me which problems matter most, how the game behaves on hardware I do not own, and which features guitarists actually use. Screens and features are still being reworked, so player feedback can still change how they turn out.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“I estimate 3 to 5 years. I build GuitarSesh alone, part-time alongside a full-time job. It took more than four and a half years of that steady work to reach Early Access, and the changelog in the main menu shows recent updates. The estimate may change with player feedback and development progress.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“My plan is mostly to bring what is already here to release quality: a smoother first-time setup, more consistent screens, better stability and performance across different systems, deeper progress analysis and more included song content. These are goals, not guarantees; the exact scope will follow player feedback.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The current version is playable from start to finish. It listens to your own guitar and scores single notes and chords as you play. It includes more than 200 short lessons and 23 songs, and it loads your own tablature files (.gp3, .gp4, .gp5, .gp, .gpx). There are four assistance modes, including Dynamic Difficulty and Dynamic Tempo; a Career Mode with 18 countries, 73 cities and 292 venues; Measure Master drills, goals and setlists; a Song Report for every song you have played and a stats report across your library; a tuner, Setup Doctor, a built-in amp with effects and a chord library; separate player profiles; and an interface in 29 languages.

What still needs work: some screens are still being reworked, the newest text is not yet translated in every language, and bass note detection is still in development. The way the game stores your progress may still change before full release; updates are built to carry your profiles, scores and progress forward, but I cannot rule out an update that changes or resets some saved data. See "About this game" below for details.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Yes. I currently plan to raise the price at full release. Every update to the base game during Early Access is free for everyone who owns it. Any future DLC or expansion content would be a separate purchase.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Player feedback already drives a lot of the work, and that is how I want to keep building GuitarSesh. In the main menu you will find a feedback form, a community poll, the changelog, and the known issues and to-do list, with Discord and the Steam forums linked from the same place. I prioritize bugs by how many players they affect, and hardware reports are especially useful because I can only test on my own equipment.”
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About This Game

Plug in your guitar. Play your own tab files.

Load your own tablature files and pick which guitar part to play, or start with more than 200 short lessons and 23 songs that come with the game. Notes come down the highway, and GuitarSesh listens to the single notes and chords you play, showing which ones you hit, your running accuracy, and whether you were early or late.

No special controller is needed: plug your guitar's 1/4" output into your computer with a guitar-to-USB cable or an audio interface. A built-in tuner and an input check help you get set up before you play. See System Requirements for display and audio details.

What you can play

  • Your own library - load your tablature files (.gp3, .gp4, .gp5, .gp, .gpx) and choose which guitar part to play. You can hear your own guitar through the built-in amp, with a backing track if you add one (WAV preferred, MP3 also works)

  • GuitarSesh Academy - more than 200 short lessons in 40 modules, from first notes and first chords to barre chords, bends and blues

  • 23 songs across two albums, composed by the developer's own rule-based music software

As much help as you want

  • Dynamic Difficulty - thins the chart out when you struggle and adds notes back as you improve, across 11 levels

  • Dynamic Tempo - keeps every note in the chart, raising the speed while your accuracy holds and easing off when it drops

  • Tempo (Static) - a slower speed that you set before the song and that does not change while you play

  • No Assistance - the song exactly as written

Find the bar you miss, then drill it

  • After a song - the Results Hub shows your grade, accuracy, personal best and XP, and each saved play is added to that day's automatic setlist

  • Song Report - every play of a song, your misses on the fretboard, accuracy over time and a measure-by-measure heat map

  • Measure Master - shows your weakest sections and loops them, at a steady tempo or speeding up step by step, until you reach your target accuracy

Career Mode

Tour the world: 18 countries, 73 cities and 292 venues. At each venue, play a setlist drawn from your library, your imported tab files included. Earn stars and XP, level up, and unlock new cities and countries.

Tune it, set it up, dial in a tone

  • Tuner - four views, plus two tuning mini-games

  • Setup Doctor - checks your intonation string by string and suggests which saddles to adjust

  • Amp & Effects - 5 amp models, 7 speaker cabinets and 8 pedals to shape your tone through your speakers or headphones

  • Chord Library - teach the game your chord shapes and check that each one registers

Also included

7 tunings (E Standard, E Flat, Drop D, D Standard, Drop C, Open G, Open E), goals, setlists, a daily streak, a stats report across your whole library, a local leaderboard for the player profiles on your PC, an interface in 29 languages (the newest screens may be in English first), left-handed mode and 29 animated menu backdrops.

A work in progress, built with its players

GuitarSesh is in Early Access and made by one person: me. It is still changing, so expect rough edges, and screens and features that get reworked between updates. A lot of what I work on comes from what players report and ask for. If something does not work for you, tell me.

System Requirements

Windows
macOS
    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows 10 64-bit (1903+)
    • Processor: Intel Core i3-4330 / AMD FX-6300
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: GPU with Direct3D 12 or Vulkan support — NVIDIA GTX 600, AMD Radeon HD 7000, or Intel HD 500-series (6th-gen Core) or newer. 1 GB VRAM
    • DirectX: Version 12
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
    • Sound Card: DirectSound compatible, <20ms latency capable
    • Additional Notes: 60Hz display required (not 59Hz, 144Hz, etc.). Requires an electric guitar with 1/4" output jack and a USB audio interface. A guitar-to-USB cable or a low-latency USB audio interface is recommended. Bass is currently supported for tablature viewing/playback; hit-detection for bass is in development.
    Recommended:
    • OS: Windows 10 64-bit (1903+) or Windows 11
    • Processor: Quad-core processor (Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600)
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1050 / AMD RX 560 or better with 2GB VRAM
    • DirectX: Version 12
    • Storage: 5 GB available space
    • Sound Card: Low-latency USB audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett or similar)
    • Additional Notes: 60Hz display required (not 59Hz, 144Hz, etc.). Requires an electric guitar with 1/4" output jack and a USB audio interface. A guitar-to-USB cable or a low-latency USB audio interface is recommended. Bass is currently supported for tablature viewing/playback; hit-detection for bass is in development.
    Minimum:
    • OS: macOS 10.15 Catalina
    • Processor: Intel Core i5 (2016+) or Apple M1
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Metal-capable GPU (Intel Iris 540 / Apple M1 or better)
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
    • Sound Card: Core Audio compatible, <20ms latency capable
    • Additional Notes: 60Hz display required (not 59Hz, 144Hz, etc.). Requires an electric guitar with 1/4" output jack and a USB audio interface. A guitar-to-USB cable or a low-latency USB audio interface is recommended. Bass is currently supported for tablature viewing/playback; hit-detection for bass is in development.
    Recommended:
    • OS: macOS 13.0 Ventura or later
    • Processor: Apple M2 or Intel Core i7 (2020+)
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Apple M2 GPU or better
    • Storage: 5 GB available space
    • Sound Card: Low-latency USB audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett or similar)
    • Additional Notes: 60Hz display required (not 59Hz, 144Hz, etc.). Requires an electric guitar with 1/4" output jack and a USB audio interface. A guitar-to-USB cable or a low-latency USB audio interface is recommended. Bass is currently supported for tablature viewing/playback; hit-detection for bass is in development.
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