Here are some suggestions to the product manager of Guitar Hero:

Start off Teaching Rhythm

The icons running up the screen indicate when to play, but you could easily add in measure indicators so at least you would know timing.  After a few easy level of quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes, move up to eighth notes and sixteenth’s.  Players spend HOURS starting out and something so basic should be achieved.

Intermediate Levels Can Teach Strings

The keys on the fake guitar are colored, and you make the player coordinate the colors of the notes with the colors of the keys. So make the 6 lines correspond to the 6 strings and work each string at different levels, then mix in rhythm and different strings at higher levels.

Turn the Music the Right Way

After a user plays Guitar Hero for too long, they may end up thinking reading music is like driving on a road. Turn it sideways and start getting players used to reading it the right way…. just like you would read a book – left to right, top to bottom.

Teach Notes

You’ve got 6 strings, the music written horizontally, and rhythm down pat. All that’s left is to introduce one note at a time and add some notes in between strings.

Teach Chords

The same way you would teach all the others – one chord at a time w/ fingering and tab shortcuts.

New Goals for Power Users

Not like gaining high score bragging rights and celebrating with your virtual trashy whore groupee is bad or anything, but imagine someone playing Guitar Hero for a couple years and finally picking up a guitar actually knowing what everything is… how’s that for success?

Imagine experts at Rock Band sitting down with real instruments knowing how to play a complete song with an entire band. That would be amazing… and there would be thousands of people who already know the song, ready to jam!

Think about the marketing leverage when someone’s at the store comparing games when one of them offers to actually teach music, while the other is just a game.