Learn your way around a six-string with Guitar Wizard

Think your ability to five-star "Green Grass and High Tides" means you can actually handle a real guitar? We're not talking about a five-buttoned plastic peripheral, mind you, we're talking about the real thing, steel and strings. We understand that some of you might be scared off by the transition from digital to analog, and the idea that big boy guitars are played without colorful tracks and Star Power. Luckily, the Music Wizard Group has developed a system for Guitar Hero-spoiled technophiles like us to learn how to shred on a real axe.

While we're not sure how well the system will handle, the teaching methods in Guitar Wizard are pretty clever. Each string is designated a specific shape, and each fret on that string is designed a specific color. On a side-scrolling track, colorful shapes move across the screen in a manner that the Rock Band crowd would be very comfortable with. While we're fairly certain that Hendrix didn't learn to play by watching Lucky Charms float across a computer screen, we're excited to get our rock-thirsty hands on the Guitar Wizard bundle (which includes software, a MIDI pickup and a real Washburn guitar) when it drops this fall.