Hard Difficulty Help Needed

[Quad_Ridin_CPA]

Hi everyone! Been rocking out on the PS3 RB for a few days not and I would just like to ask some of you advanced shredders out there for a little help. I'm a veteran of the PS2 Guitar Hero I, II, and the 80's, so I've played quite a bit. My problem is that I can absolutely dominate most everything on Medium, but when I go to hard, I get slaughtered. Well, the same has happened with RB and it troubles me to think that I've topped out on Medium of a $180 game, ya know?

Now, before I get hated on, I'm not whining. I have a wife, son, and demanding job, so I don't get to play nearly as much as I'd like and realize that is part of my problem. What I'm looking for is maybe some pointers on making the move. I know practice, practice, practice is the best, but I'm looking for tips on how to make that practice time pay off. Right now, I just find myself mashing the frets wildly when I get to hard and I ultimately fail.

I am an avid gamer and real-life sports player, so I don't have any issue (I don't believe anyway:-) with coordination, I just think that maybe my approach to the Hard difficulty level is flawed.

Any help y'all could give me would be very much appreciated! Rock On!!!

[melman101]

Ok people might disagree with me, but at first, start out ignoring the orange button. Your hand moves wildly at first when trying to get use to orange, and if you keep the notes going w/ the other buttons you should be fine (unless its a song that heavily relies on orange. If so pick a different song). This will help with getting you up to the speed you need to be on for Hard. Once done, experiment with your hand and do your best to know where it's located.

I can pretty much play hard, but I haven't tried expert yet.

[seafisch]

I'm at the same stage as you - hit a plateau on medium, want to move up to hard (and eventually expert), currently facing a mental block with the orange fret. One thing that I've found helpful is knowing what sections of the song use the orange fret extensively. Many times these sections don't use the green fret much, so you can just keep your hand moved over a fret and treat the green fret column as though it wasn't there, rather than moving your hand back to the default medium position when it's not necessary.

Obviously, this works better on the rhythm sections than the solos, and may not be as useful on the higher difficulty songs, but it may help you feel more comfortable with the orange fret.

[skagen]

Here's some advice... take it or leave it...

REPLAY medium.. with your pinky on the orange button, ring on the blue, middle on the yellow... and pointer on the red..

When you see green, practice shifting your pointer to hit the green.

Essentially, play Medium with just 3 fingers. (with your pinky stuck to the orange).

Once you can do that, you'll find that hard will not be as difficult anymore.

[Eman311]

Ok people might disagree with me, but at first, start out ignoring the orange button. Your hand moves wildly at first when trying to get use to orange, and if you keep the notes going w/ the other buttons you should be fine (unless its a song that heavily relies on orange. If so pick a different song). This will help with getting you up to the speed you need to be on for Hard. Once done, experiment with your hand and do your best to know where it's located.

I can pretty much play hard, but I haven't tried expert yet.

No don't ignore the orange, that's developing bad habits.

Try not to flail wildly, think about what you have to play and then do it. Even if that means missing a bunch of notes, it's important to get the rythm down or you'll be doomed.

[jsorge]

I don't know whether this will work initially in the transition to hard, but when I play expert I find it's much more comfortable and easier to play the passages with my hand resting on red/yellow/blue/orange instead of green/red/yellow/blue.

I find, the less you need to move your hand back and forth, the better because you have less of a chance of being out of position. With that in mind, when trying to keep your hand in one spot, I find it easier to stretch my index finger down to the green fret rather than stretching my pinky (sp?) finger up to the orange fret.

This advice has helped my friend with the transition to expert level Guitar Hero and I figure that, like most people, since you play mainly on medium your first three fingers will be stronger and more dexterous than your pinky because you're more used to using them. If on medium difficulty you use only your first three fingers and move up and down, the advice I have given you will not be as effective as if you keep your hand stationary and use all four fingers. I suggest that if you are the former to practice on medium, but force yourself to keep your hand stationary and use your pinky for the blue fret everytime.

Other than that, there isn't a lot of other advice I can give you besides practice.

[Quad_Ridin_CPA]

Here's some advice... take it or leave it...

REPLAY medium.. with your pinky on the orange button, ring on the blue, middle on the yellow... and pointer on the red..

When you see green, practice shifting your pointer to hit the green.

Essentially, play Medium with just 3 fingers. (with your pinky stuck to the orange).

Once you can do that, you'll find that hard will not be as difficult anymore.

That's not a bad idea at all! This is all the kind of advice I was looking for. I've posted this same question before and was bascially told that I suck and to just shoot myself since I couldn't play hard (not really, but you get the idea:-) Thanks a lot man!

[luminary pants]

Take the songs in to practice mode and slow them down. Once you can understand and see what your hands actually need to be doing, it is much easier to play instead of just guessing.
It will take practice, but eventually you will be able to shift your hand back and forth, as well as extend a finger to hit all the notes you need.
Also make sure you take advantage of hammer ons and pull offs in the fast section, as that will make things much easier if you can get that down.

[Quad_Ridin_CPA]

I don't know whether this will work initially in the transition to hard, but when I play expert I find it's much more comfortable and easier to play the passages with my hand resting on red/yellow/blue/orange instead of green/red/yellow/blue.

I find, the less you need to move your hand back and forth, the better because you have less of a chance of being out of position. With that in mind, when trying to keep your hand in one spot, I find it easier to stretch my index finger down to the green fret rather than stretching my pinky (sp?) finger up to the orange fret.

This advice has helped my friend with the transition to expert level Guitar Hero and I figure that, like most people, since you play mainly on medium your first three fingers will be stronger and more dexterous than your pinky because you're more used to using them. If on medium difficulty you use only your first three fingers and move up and down, the advice I have given you will not be as effective as if you keep your hand stationary and use all four fingers. I suggest that if you are the former to practice on medium, but force yourself to keep your hand stationary and use your pinky for the blue fret everytime.

Other than that, there isn't a lot of other advice I can give you besides practice.

That is an AWESOME idea! That's when I get mucked up is when I try to hit with my pinky on the orange (when it's resting on the blue) and it just screws up the rest of my hand pretty much. I get the same thing when I'm drumming and I start to miss bass drum beats; it's all a mind over matter thing but I haven't developed the kind of mental control necessary to overcome this I guess.

[tf5_bassist]

after you play through the songs on hard once or twice, you'll learn what parts of the songs require you to have your index on green, or on red. I've found it's pretty easy to keep my finger on red for the most part, and reach over to green when I need to real quick, because it's easier to reach your index finger to green accurately than it is for your pinky to go from blue to orange.

basically, learn what songs and what parts in songs require you to keep your hand in a different "home row" position than other parts/songs. Also, remember that Hard is only a more fleshed out version of Medium--same framework, same structure of the note chart, just with more notes thrown in between. Learn medium, and you already know at least half of hard. :D

[luminary pants]

I personally don't think keeping your hands in one place is a great way to do things. Every song is different, and for some songs that might work to just move your index finger down to green when you need to, but I find it easier to shift. That way you can play any song, no matter what set of notes are comming up next. You just have to get used to shifting quickly and then knowing what fingers will be hitting which buttons. It might be harder to do at first, but imo it will be worth it in the long run.

[eaglegoalie93]

Let me play with your wife for a bit and then she will be playing the shaft on expert! And singing on hard!

[sonicbrew]

Let me play with your wife for a bit and then she will be playing the shaft on expert! And singing on hard!

It doesn't require much of you to be an absolute cement headed asshat does it?

[seafisch]

REPLAY medium.. with your pinky on the orange button, ring on the blue, middle on the yellow... and pointer on the red.. When you see green, practice shifting your pointer to hit the green.


I find it easier to stretch my index finger down to the green fret rather than stretching my pinky (sp?) finger up to the orange fret. I figure that, like most people, since you play mainly on medium your first three fingers will be stronger and more dexterous than your pinky because you're more used to using them.

Wow, that was way better than my advice. :p Gonna have to try that.

As a follow up question, if you get a green/red combo, do you shift just your first and second fingers, or your whole hand? I would think it would be more comfortable to shift your whole hand, but just curious what you guys do.

[surgesnugs]

You'll need to play the songs a few times to really know when to do what, but I generally find that on sections that are a series of single notes, I keep my hand with the pinky on orange and handle both green and red with my index finger. With chords, you'll have to decide when to shift your hand up or down based on the progression, and where the breaks are that allow you to move your hand. I generally keep my hand with my pinky on orange as my default position, and move it up as needed. It's just easier for me.

[Quad_Ridin_CPA]

With the exception of eaglegoalie, thanks for the help guys! I'll have to try it out this evening!

[ericL]

This may be obvious, but don't use Star Powe...er.. Overdrive until you absolutely need it. Generally, there are just one or two really hard parts and if you've saved overdrive for them, you can use it and easily hit enough notes just by flailing to get yourself back up to green.

Oh, that implies that another tip is to really focus on learning the Overdrive sections before tackling any hard parts where you can just use overdrive to flail through them.

[MSFTsucks]

Check your PMs. Hope it helps.

-MSFTsucks

[pvtGramps]

I did the practice mode thing. *sigh*

The other thing I did when I went through Hard was I learned how to play some songs on the real guitar to build finger strength up. I can get through a very muddled rendition of Jimmy Buffett's "Last Mango in Paris" and do Expert Rock Band, not a bad trade, IMO.

[jsorge]

Wow, that was way better than my advice. :p Gonna have to try that.

As a follow up question, if you get a green/red combo, do you shift just your first and second fingers, or your whole hand? I would think it would be more comfortable to shift your whole hand, but just curious what you guys do.

Yeah, some positions will require you to shift down, but I find that you're better shifting down rather than up the neck because it's easier to do and you don't have to do it as often.

Keeping your hand higher on the neck is just a suggestion on what you should try first. I felt that this was the best advice for someone at that skill level. After you get good at that, you'll obviously need to shift around more to do better, but knowing where in the song to shift and getting used to it just comes with experience.

[luminary pants]

Wow, that was way better than my advice. :p Gonna have to try that.

As a follow up question, if you get a green/red combo, do you shift just your first and second fingers, or your whole hand? I would think it would be more comfortable to shift your whole hand, but just curious what you guys do.
I shift my whole hand.
I always start first finger on green, unless I know the song will start and stay higher then that. I can shift my hand quickly though for any situation, im sure my actual guitar/music background has something to do with that though.


This may be obvious, but don't use Star Powe...er.. Overdrive until you absolutely need it. Generally, there are just one or two really hard parts and if you've saved overdrive for them, you can use it and easily hit enough notes just by flailing to get yourself back up to green.

Oh, that implies that another tip is to really focus on learning the Overdrive sections before tackling any hard parts where you can just use overdrive to flail through them.
This will help with beating songs..but it doesn't really improve skill. You should be able to beat everything without overddrive when you play on solo mode. Not everyone can do it(I can't do it on GG&HT on expert, stupid descending triplets.) But as a rule of thumb you should be able to play it without overdrive, otherwise you really arn't getting better.

Yeah, some positions will require you to shift down, but I find that you're better shifting down rather than up the neck because it's easier to do and you don't have to do it as often.

Keeping your hand higher on the neck is just a suggestion on what you should try first. I felt that this was the best advice for someone at that skill level. After you get good at that, you'll obviously need to shift around more to do better, but knowing where in the song to shift and getting used to it just comes with experience.

When playing on hard, I would think it's easier to start on green. I find that the songs don't have a ton of orange in them, so there is no point in really keeping your hand planted up there.

[skagen]

It's good practice, because when you get to expert, there will be a lot of orange, so might as well build up a comfortable technique for yourself on hard.