Question from a total beginner about fast stretches of notes

[montereypoet]

Please bear with me, as I know this is going to be a pretty silly question, but I'm going to try throwing it out there to see if there are any tips, tricks or constructive suggestions out there to help me out a bit...

I've never played any of the Guitar Hero games before this...so Rock Band is my first introduction into this kind of game. And surprise, surprise, I'm loving it WAY more than I thought I would, originally. So, consider me hooked. :-)

In light of never playing, I've started on easy to learn how to play guitar and get a sense of how the game goes. And with only three buttons to hit, and nothing more than one note every half-note down the bar, I've gotten pretty good (and cocky) about playing most all of the songs. Of course, with the fan caps and song unlocking and venues that aren't available on easy and all that, I'm trying my hand at medium now. Adding the 4th button isn't so bad...but here's what is:

On songs like "When You Were Young" or "Roxanne", on stretches of the song where there are 8-12 notes in a row that are (if I'm reading it right) quarter-notes, I'm having a really, really hard time maintaining my multipliers down those stretches. So, I'm looking for some tips from those of you who are awesome at this to see if there's anything I can do to get better at these sorts of parts.

I've been reading the forums for a week or two now, and I've seen lots of posts about practicing...and for what it's worth, I am doing just that. I've experimented with strumming both up and down on these stretches (normally, I just strum down for every note...never up). I've even experimented with some suggestions from people to put your index finger on Red instead of Green, as you use more of the Red/Yellow/Blue buttons later on than anything else. But, ultimately, it's a strumming issue for me, and I'm hoping to find some suggestions about things I can practice to really be able to nail these fast-note sections that are often strung together.

Please be gentle.... I know I'm a total newb here, and not looking to start a flame thread. Just hoping those of you with some experience can offer some insight and maybe some good tips I can try out while practicing to get better at these parts.

Thanks in advance for your help and consideration....

-montereypoet

[DesiredFX]

Honestly, long stretches of repetitive notes tend to be my bane: if you're off even slightly, it will catch up to you and force you to miss a note somewhere down the line.

It really is a question of practicing it, and on slower levels, you might want to try mentally counting the measure as you play ("1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" gets you through a measure of 4/4 time using eighth notes) and see if that helps.

[MrNazraq]

Yeah, I had trouble with those fast strumming parts, too. I figured out the best way (for me, at least) was to do the down-up strumming thing.

Also, in order to keep the rhythm, I move my whole body to the rhythm of the music (back/forth or up/down, and sometimes side/side). That way, I'm not just relying on my strumming hand to keep the rhythm. This especially helps once you start the drums, since your hands will be busy with the pads, and your right foot will be busy with the bass pedal. You'll have to use your body to keep the rhythm (or your left foot, which I'm not very good at...)

Another thing that helps me is counting the beats. I'll count, "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8" and then again, to the rhythm of the music. This also helps if there are only 3 or 5 of the same note, then it switches to another note. You can keep track of how many times you've hit that note so you know when to switch to the next one.

Anyways, hope this helps! Lemme know if it works.

[montereypoet]

DesiredFX: Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one. I know I'll get better with more practice...but, man... when there's (in some cases) 16 or more notes in a row... it's just like you say... the first 6 or 7 I'm ok, then I'm evidently too early for #8, and then I keep going for the rest. I've found I can strum up and down fast enough to not actually miss any notes (taking the games advice in one splash screen to "strum up and down quickly to crush fast notes"), but I'll be strumming too fast, and lose the multiplier. Meh.

MrNazraq: I'll definitely try counting it out like that. I've been playing with manually calibrating things, too, so maybe between the two I'll figure something out. Those sections with 3 or 5 notes in a row are...doable, for the most part. But, it's when there are 10+ notes in a line, all the same color, but just coming at me as eighth notes (I don't think there are 1/16th notes in Medium, is there?), and inevitably, I'll lose that multiplier around the 7th note or so. I'll keep trying to count out the notes and see if that helps steady my strumming a bit.

Thank you both for the helpful responses (and for bearing with a poor rocking rookie. *grins*)....

-montereypoet

[ZkDotNet]

Okay, since you're totally new, I just want to make sure you're aware that you don't have to press the fret buttons each time. You've mentioned strumming being you're problem, so you probably know that (and it's probably in the tutorials), but I just wanted to throw that out there.

Other than that, it's just a matter of getting the rhythm of the song. As mentioned, some people count or tap their foot/move their body. (I do neither... I just try to hear the rhythm... which works.. mostly.)

Couple other random things I'll throw out there. Keeping your index finger on red is good practice for the jump to hard, but not really recommended on medium. Also, personally... I'd downstrum those sections....alt-strumming would screw up my rhythm with the notes that slow. (but, alt-strumming them would be good practice for hard/expert.)

Edit: I'll add... long notes of just pure rhythm (no note/chord changes) I do pretty bad at. When You Were Young is an example where I tend to break my streak unless I'm in the groove.

[DesiredFX]

Edit: I'll add... long notes of just pure rhythm (no note/chord changes) I do pretty bad at. When You Were Young is an example where I tend to break my streak unless I'm in the groove.

Funny, I was just thinking about that song, because as of today, the bassline (on Hard) stopped giving me any kind of trouble. I've just finally locked into the rhythm of it and get--as you said--in the groove.

[montereypoet]

Okay, since you're totally new, I just want to make sure you're aware that you don't have to press the fret buttons each time. You've mentioned strumming being you're problem, so you probably know that (and it's probably in the tutorials), but I just wanted to throw that out there.

Roger that! I'm not too proud to admit that I went through the tutorials before I started with anything else, so yes, just to confirm, I'm holding down the fret and not trying to tap it for each note.


Couple other random things I'll throw out there. Keeping your index finger on red is good practice for the jump to hard, but not really recommended on medium.

Good to know. If/when I make it up to Hard, I'll switch my index finger down to Red (as suggested in other posts), but for now, I'll keep it on Green and just keep practicing there.


Edit: I'll add... long notes of just pure rhythm (no note/chord changes) I do pretty bad at. When You Were Young is an example where I tend to break my streak unless I'm in the groove.

*nods* Yeah, I played When You Were Young on easy and was doing just fine. So, this was one of those places where I got a little cocky....hit it on Medium, and then all of a sudden, here come stretches of 12 or 16 notes in a row at me. I'm sufficiently knocked down a peg now. *grins* But, I will say at least this.... it makes me feel a lot better to know that this isn't an uncommon place of difficulty for others. I'm sitting here practicing on my own (for when my friends come over on our band days), and I just kept thinking that maybe I was just doing something totally wrong. But, if I'm not the only one, then I'm perfectly fine with just continuing to practice, practice, practice. :-)

Thanks for taking the time to reply with the advice. It's much appreciated....

-montereypoet

[Frederf]

I've seen quite a few people through GH/RB guitar beginnings and I've seen every sort of problem and tendency dozens of times to demonstrate how pretty much everyone goes through the same phases when learning the GH/RB guitar parts.

It seems like you've progressed past the initial problems of not-fret-anticipating and earlyitus long ago and now you're setting up your fret buttons long before you strum and are no longer hitting notes too early. Everyone goes through those phases; I remember when I did.

Now let's take 16 8th notes in a row or more: The tendency is to freak out when you see something difficult coming up, especially when it's a great many notes on the screen all at one time. It's very normal to think "Geez, that's a lot of notes, I'm going to have to play really fast to play those." One of the tricks is to relax and just play the notes as they come as they are never as fast nor as tightly spaced as they appear. The second trick is to break a complicated part into more simple components.

This is a little music theory that you can skip if you like. I'll try to keep it brief. Most rock music is done in 4-4 time, meaning a measure is the same length as 4 quarter notes. In 4-4 time each measure has 4 beats: "1, 2, 3 ,4." Eighth notes are simply half the length of quarter notes, so you can fit 8 of them in one measure. If you wanted to count all 8 eighth notes in a measure you'd count aloud "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" where half of the eighth notes fall on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4, and half of the eight notes fall directly between the beats, generally every time you say "And."

The lines on the scrolling "chart" have meaning in that the thinnest ones represent the "And" between beats, the thick lines represent the beats, the double-thick lines show the boundaries between each measure, and the triple-thick lines show the beginning and end of the whole song.

You can use the lines to help you play long stretches of eighth notes in the following way: Generally a long stretch of 8th notes will have notes landing alternatively on thick "beat" lines and thin "and" lines. Try to play the "thick line" notes using a down strum and the "thin line" notes using an up strum. The beauty of this method is that usually you only have to worry about hitting the down strums on the thick lines. The thin line notes take care of themselves so long as your up strums are generally half way between your down strums. This effectively halves the speed and number of the notes you are trying to hit.

Try to focus all your effort on hitting your down strums to happen right on the thick lines. Can even ignore the note gems themselves, just looking at the lines. Think: "My strum bar is hitting down on all the thick lines." It's pretty much impossible to miss the up strums since your down strums will be right on.

You should be able to strum any length of 8th note string without "slipping out of time" since you resynchronize yourself with the beat every downbeat. You can even play the game in practice mode at down to 50% speed and loop it over and over on a single section. You can up the speed at any time during practice using the D-pad. Also, you can play just the 8th notes that fall on the down beats during practice (down strum only) and fill in the "filler" notes between later (up strum for the filler).

[davidshek]

This is a little music theory that you can skip if you like. I'll try to keep it brief. Most rock music is done in 4-4 time, meaning a measure is the same length as 4 quarter notes. In 4-4 time each measure has 4 beats: "1, 2, 3 ,4."

Just don't try to count like that for Blackened ;) Lars liked to mix up the time signatures back in the Justice days. If you look at the drum tab for those songs, you'll find they often switch time signatures every few measures...

Another tip for the OP: Get used to the alt-strumming (down, up, down, up) no matter how slow the song is or how few notes there are. Do it always and it'll make things much easier once you get to Hard and Expert.

I saw some kids playing GH3 in Best Buy the other day, playing Rock You Like a Hurricane on Expert. One of them alt-strummed, one didn't. Guess which one won :)

[Harsher]

strum up and down really fast. but for medium you shouldn't really have to strum all that fast, it's all about timing and staying in tune. practice makes perfect!

[Brane Ded]

All I can say is it's all about rhythm. You can learn it, it's easy. I, like others, like to count notes as I play. It helps you stay in rhythm. Play Paranoid, it's a deceptively easy song on hard, given its location in the set list. Just use practice mode.

One good trick I learned to keep in rhythm during a ridiculously long stretch of the same note/chord is to shift most of your attention to the bar of notes at the bottom. Keep a close eye on how far the notes are making it past that bar before you hit them. If you're hitting the notes a little before they pass the bar, slow your strum a little. If they're passing it up before you hit them, speed up a little. You'll know what I'm talking about when you try Parainoid.

Another note, just to parrot what some others are saying, alt strum(down/up). You may not need to now, but it becomes absolutely essential on some songs on hard/expert.

[Keebler]

I've found unless the notes are incredibly fast (think "Creep" during the chorus on Expert), you should always just downstrum a riff with repeating notes. If you try to alt-strum to keep rhythm, chances are unless you are a perfect strummer, you will throw yourself off by going too fast or slow.

[hkhawk]

Its all a matter of practice. WHen I started playing Guitar Hero I had the same problem. Now I love songs that just have lots of the same note in a row really fast as I can now annihilate these sections. On Medium there is no need to strum up and down. I think that will mess you up even worse.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Practice strumming really fast even without playing the game just focusing on moving your hand and arm as little as possible. I say this because most beginners have very inefficient strumming motions. You want to be relaxed and able to strum very quickly with very little effort if you are going to play better.

2. Count out the notes in your head. This can be hard if the string of notes is really long but it really helps. This is basically how I play every song. Most songs I am just saying to myself "1,2,3. 1. 1,2. 1,2,3..."

3. Practice. Soon enough it will seem easy.

[bart2712]

ya, i gotta say i agree with everyone here, and i find i do exactly what they all said with the rhythm and all even tho i dont think about it when i do it...only thing i dont do is alt strum, but then just barely working on hard now i dont really need it yet, i find i can usually just down strum those notes fast enuff to hit em all once im used to the rhythm of that part of the song, which took some time and just playing the song enough(ya, and ive found i cant keep the rhythm in my head to stay on the notes unless i can hear the music for some reason, like if theres too much background noise i gotta turn it up so i can hear it to "feel" the rhythm).
Also, ive found theres something with these fenders that come with the bundle where they seem to constantly miss one note in the middle of those streams of notes...in the case of my fender it seems to be really touchy on the down strum where i only have to tap strum bar lightly to hit a note, if i do this during those streams i can hit every note, but if i try strumming a little harder than that i always miss one in the middle, so i guess in that case best thing to do is relax and just keep strumming lightly...too hard on the strum bar and it seems to catch a double strum, and i have one of the ones with the switch with the plastic piece for registering the strums. Hope some of that helps, but thats my experience with it, altho i know ill have to alt strum once i make it farther into hard and expert.

[Zeldias]

When I was playing Guitar Hero, I would get a mental count of the clicks, and use that to track how many times I need to strum. It means you need to be more familiar with the song, but after a while I was able to flawlessly play something like Beast and the Harlot.

Rock Band's guitar doesn't click, though. I usually just count of "1, 2, 3, 4" as fast as the notes are coming. Strumming up and down, and keeping a count, I can usually associate the odd numbers with downstrumming and the evens with up-strumming and it helps keep me in tune. It definitely doesn't work as well for me as the click-counting method, but it helps.

Or you could just go spastic and bang on that bastard and pray you survive. I do that too, sometimes.

[Quastor]

Here's my two cents on the topic...

First, you're playing on medium, so realize that you are not playing every note. For example, When We Were Young, the main guitar part is 8th notes (I believe), but medium has you playing quarter notes (every other). I would suggest focusing on feeling the beat, and concentrating on getting the timing of the notes right. Nothing on medium should be coming at you so fast that would make this impossible.

As for alt-strumming, while it's certainly helpful, I don't think it's completely necessary to learn where you are. It's one of those "nice to be able to do" things, but you certainly can get by the majority of songs and difficulties just downstrumming.

Here's my list of the order to work on the technical skill for playing guitar.

1) Develop muscle memory on all 5 frets and chords.
2) Gain an understanding an expertise at basic hammer-ons and pull-offs (the most common two-three note patterns).
3) Learn to alt-strum.
4) Learn to shred the really fast solos and start getting a hang of the more crazy HOPO sections.

Most of all, keep practicing! I've been playing Guitar Hero games for over 2 years now, and I still fail some songs on expert. Hang in there, and you'll get it!

[montereypoet]

Wow...didn't expect to come home to so many responses!

As I may not have the time to recognize each of you individually, let me just take this moment to say thank you to each of you for taking some time out of your day to respond and give me some really great advice. I admit that I was a little nervous about posting at first, as I knew the bulk of it is just practice....and I feared I'd get those "Hey, stupid... stop complaining and practice more!" sorts of responses. But, you guys were all great about it, and your advice has made a lot of sense.... I'll definitely be trying out a lot of those things when I'm playing from here on out.

So, yeah... for all of you who posted... thanks for going easy on a beginner and really, a sincere thank you for offering me some really good help. :-)

-montereypoet