Green Grass Expert GTR Solo 2H-2I: How did you do it?

[resident360]

I'm an experienced if not skilled expert guitar player from Guitar Hero I & II, so I started my Rock Band guitar solo career on Expert without even thinking about it. Through the first 44 songs I only failed once (on Flirtin' With Disaster), but I was unable to play the tricky and fast as hell solo section 2H and 2I in Green Grass and High Tides on my old X-Plorer when my Strat's downstrum broke. I put it aside thinking it would be easier with my replacement Strats' solo buttons, but now that I have it I still consistently fail at 84-85%.

For those of you who have survived the ridiculousness of the second solo in GGaHT: How did you do it? What guitar did you use and if the Strat, did you use the solo buttons? When exactly did you deploy Overdrive?

I've been practicing these sections a little and I can 100% them at 70% speed, but anything over that and my timing gets a little off and suddenly it'c clank-clank-clank. I know there's no secret to this other than practice, but just knowing others are struggling as much as I am will make me feel better. I have way too much pride to play through a hard career (I 5-starred Freebird damnit!), so it's like Rock Band is holding 140 achievement points hostage until I conquer this song.

[Incoment Troll]

Just play the game till you bleed! Ha Ha Ha newb

[FultonPub]

I am okay at guitar ( i played through most of the hard level on all the GH games) and have only tackled a handful of songs on expert on GH. I started out on RB in Hard after seeing how easy the medium level was compared to GH. On hard I only failed on Enter Sandman and Flirtin With Disaster on my trek through the setlist. When I got to GGaHT I basically overdrive'd my way through it. I was totally unprepared for what was about to be unleashed on me. My rock meter pretty much hovered near the dead zone through the entire solo and if it werent for me hitting the overdrive phrases I would have been a goner.......

I don't look forward to playing this song again anytime soon, at least until I get up to it on expert.

[TheTogfather]

I fail routinely at the same two spots. Still working on it, one tip I got from another forum was that there is a slight pause in there that might be tripping people up. I haven't tested it out yet, but supposedly instead of a fluid y-r-g-r-y-r-g-r-y it's actually y-r-g-r-pause-y-r-g-r-pause-y. If true, that might be what's getting me, cause I thought it was constant.

[milesodanglers]

I'm an experienced if not skilled expert guitar player from Guitar Hero I & II, so I started my Rock Band guitar solo career on Expert without even thinking about it. Through the first 44 songs I only failed once (on Flirtin' With Disaster), but I was unable to play the tricky and fast as hell solo section 2H and 2I in Green Grass and High Tides on my old X-Plorer when my Strat's downstrum broke. I put it aside thinking it would be easier with my replacement Strats' solo buttons, but now that I have it I still consistently fail at 84-85%.

For those of you who have survived the ridiculousness of the second solo in GGaHT: How did you do it? What guitar did you use and if the Strat, did you use the solo buttons? When exactly did you deploy Overdrive?

I've been practicing these sections a little and I can 100% them at 70% speed, but anything over that and my timing gets a little off and suddenly it'c clank-clank-clank. I know there's no secret to this other than practice, but just knowing others are struggling as much as I am will make me feel better. I have way too much pride to play through a hard career (I 5-starred Freebird damnit!), so it's like Rock Band is holding 140 achievement points hostage until I conquer this song.
Honestly i have been playing guitar hero and such for a while and im not gonna lie its hard if you get out of rythm its very tough i can do it on the xplorer but its much harder and on the strat i just use the solo buttons makes it much easier for me.

[Rocketsauce]

I hate idiots that give advice like hit more notes, suck less, quit being a n00b...

This is how I did it brother. For me, the first solo was not a problem. There are three to four hard parts in the second solo I had a hard time with. The first is the B-Y-R over and over again towards the middle of the solo. It happens twice in a row. For this, I had to use the solo buttons. I could get in on strumming but once I practiced the timing in practice mode it was easy. It is fairly easy to recover to strumming after these sections as well if you are worried about that.

The second obstacle was the Y-R-G-R pattern over and over again which turns into B-Y-R-Y after that section is done. With this, I also had to use the solo buttons. I have got down now but to stumble through it I played it similar to the B-Y-R I described above and did not even bother with the last note. So instead of hitting Y-R-G-R just keep hitting Y-R-G to get through it. The second (B-Y-R-Y) section is longer so keep it up.

After this I play the rest of the solo entirely on the solo buttons - it is just easier for me. The walkdowns (O-B-Y-R) are simple if you get the timing down with the solo buttons. Again, practice the timing of this section to get it down. When you get to the end and the final hard part (O-B-Y) which is real fast and close together, go into overdrive if you have any left and do one of two methods. Tap it out real fast like you were playing the William Tell overture on your fingers or you can do the slide method. This consists of sliding from Orange down to Yellow for each small section. This is easier than it sounds and again if you get the timing down it is not that hard.

In conclusion, I can not stress practicing enough. There is no sense in playing a ten minute song and wasting ten minutes of your life if you are just trying to stumble through it. Timing is everything. Once you get the timing down, give it a run. Also, Overdrive is your best friend and there is tons of it in this song and in the last solo. I think I went into overdrive with a full meter at least twice in this second solo alone. Do not give up and you will eventually get it.

[Rocketsauce]

I fail routinely at the same two spots. Still working on it, one tip I got from another forum was that there is a slight pause in there that might be tripping people up. I haven't tested it out yet, but supposedly instead of a fluid y-r-g-r-y-r-g-r-y it's actually y-r-g-r-pause-y-r-g-r-pause-y. If true, that might be what's getting me, cause I thought it was constant.

This is true. If you want to stumble through it, forget the last note and just rock Y-R-G slight pause Y-R-G. This is how I initially beat the song before I got that goofy timing down...

[MorningThief581]

I've gotten pretty good at that section. I can keep a streak going for most of it, and a couple times I've actually made it through each run without missing a note. When I first failed GG&HT I thought I'd never be able to do it. Then I went into practice mode. I think I started at 80% speed to make sure I had the timing down. Then I just set the speed to 100%, let it loop over and over, and kept doing it until my fingers 'remembered.' The hardest thing about it is keeping a steady meter while moving your fingers so fast, so it might not hurt to try and do two runs at a time first, taking a pause in between to make sure you're still in time. y-r-g-r-y-r-g-r-y... rest... y-r-g-r-y-r-g-r-y... rest. When you have the timing down, then try to keep it going for longer. Also, there's no pause between any of those notes like someone implied earlier.

Oh, and solo buttons are your friend. That section's infinitely easier without needing to strum to get it going again.

[resident360]

Do you recommend using your left or right hand for the solo buttons (playing right-handed)? I think I will end up using the "skip the second red note" method since I can do three note pull-offs easy enough. Just need to practice to get the timing down.

[Apples]

Just play the game till you bleed! Ha Ha Ha newb

This type of comment provides no value to the forums. Shape up or your stay with us will be short.

[TheTogfather]

Do you recommend using your left or right hand for the solo buttons (playing right-handed)? I think I will end up using the "skip the second red note" method since I can do three note pull-offs easy enough. Just need to practice to get the timing down.

Yah, I think I might try that as well. That must be what the person who claimed there was a pause did, just treated it like there was a pause and forgot that fourth note in the sequence. I need to spend more time w/ the solo buttons too, it's obvious they would help...I just always seem to do worse with them since I hardly use them.

[MorningThief581]

Do you recommend using your left or right hand for the solo buttons (playing right-handed)? I think I will end up using the "skip the second red note" method since I can do three note pull-offs easy enough. Just need to practice to get the timing down.

Left hand. There are breaks in most songs before/after the solos where it's not too tricky to get your hand in place on the solo buttons. Once you adjust to them, they really do make fast solos much easier.

[AdamBomb629]

Left hand. There are breaks in most songs before/after the solos where it's not too tricky to get your hand in place on the solo buttons. Once you adjust to them, they really do make fast solos much easier.

I've actually been using my right hand for all the solo sections throughout the game...

However, 85% through GG&HT CAN SUCK IT.

[monoxidehektik]

I tried a few different methods for this, especially down on the solo buttons. I tried left hand only, right hand sliding back and forth...none of that worked for me. So hear this advice! It worked for me. Use your left hand, on the regular fret buttons. Use your index finger to hit Green and Red and tap the Yellow with your middle finger. You will have to move your hand up for the RYBY part and it will seem unusual, but it also works there too. I managed to keep a multiplier going for some of this part using this method, as i had to replay it a few times even after i got through due to the insane ending.

[gpitter]

This is the one song that gave me any real problem at all, and it pulled me back from the Les Paul... though having learned the groove of that section of death I might now be able to do it without solo frets. It's worth warning... switching to an instrument with solo frets won't make you better immediately... exactly the opposite, in fact. It takes a fair amount of playing on the damned thing to get used to the new finger spacing and to have any chance at all to move your left hand to the right place.

But once you're used to it, the pattern of death you're complaining about isn't all that bad... just let the groove carry you and don't worry too much about where you are relative to the beats, since over-thinking is your worst enemy on it.

It took me no small amount of both practice and attempts to nail the song, but that's what makes the reward oh-so-sweet.

[JesusSilencio]

I fail routinely at the same two spots. Still working on it, one tip I got from another forum was that there is a slight pause in there that might be tripping people up. I haven't tested it out yet, but supposedly instead of a fluid y-r-g-r-y-r-g-r-y it's actually y-r-g-r-pause-y-r-g-r-pause-y. If true, that might be what's getting me, cause I thought it was constant.

Yeah, the timing there is really weird. Instead of being fours (dotted thirty-second notes) like they are in free bird, the Y-R-G are sextuplets, and the last R is a sixteenth note.

so its like Y-R-G-R--Y-R-G-R--Y-R-G-R--, where every two spaces is a sextuplet.

[ForTheSteel]

left hand on solo buttons, right hand on strumbar for repeated notes and when i feel like strumming. the trick to getting those really fast sections is to stare really hard at the screen and concentrate on getting the notes as acurately as you can. really concentrate. its easy to think you are getting into a rythem when you really are slightly off, so you have to keep concentrating throughout the entire fast part.

[Rocketsauce]

I use my right hand for the solo buttons but I also can use my left if I know I do not have to recover to some obscenely difficult section.

[GoclFaThER]

I cant get past the fast part in green grass and high tides. I did it good wen i would practice it but wen i do it in solo tour i cant get passed the fast part. I was wondering if anybody had tips on beating it.. I am doing it on medium and I dont wanna go to easy. So if anybody knows anytin that could help me get passed it I would appreciate it.

[Path0gen1]

If your having a hard time beating the solo, try "tapping"

During a "Blue Solo" you can use the smaller buttons at the bottom of the neck and you don't have to strum... Just "tap" at the right moment.

This is an advance method of playing, and you'll need to use it in the future on a lot of content.

[Looter]

Are you talking about drums or guitar?

[GoclFaThER]

my bad im talking about the drums

[Kinnetik]

I ended up just ignoring the kick pedal I think through the fast part.

Between keeping some energy stored and getting all the rest right I sort of survived.

I feel stupid though because I got 3 stars on it at the end, and it's like the 3rd highest score in my characters profile even though I sucked horribly on it.

[SSPWOLF]

you beat this song the same way you get to Carnegie Hall.

[phulcrum1984]

you beat this song the same way you get to Carnegie Hall.

Sleep with the conductor?

[GoclFaThER]

Ya, I dont know if I can ignore the foot pedal, because I kinda tried that wen I would get up to the fast part, and I would still fall. I just cant keep the rythm going.

[GoclFaThER]

bump- really need help

[macafied]

Practice mode! Slow it down and play over and over and over... etc.

[jlc510]

If you've practiced as much as you've said, than it's a mental thing and not a skill thing. I had a hard time with it on the drums on medium and I just passed it. My tip is to play songs that are faster paced that you're good at that use similar paterns. NIB worked well for me. And once you get to that fast part of GGHT, make sure you save your energy and don't use it in the fast parts unless you are about to fail. This will give you a break though out the fast part. And most importantly relax when you are playing the fast part and use the breaks to gain your rythym back and just try to survive from break to break. If you use your energy than concentrate on getting more back to keep the breaks comming.

[GoclFaThER]

ya I know i tried that and I would do it good, but wen I would do it in solo tour, well i fail at the fast part. I just cant match the pedal at the right time. but i guess I just keep trying.

[shoombabi]

I suppose learning rhythm is out of the question? :p

I imagine it's like hard where there's a constant hit going on and then either an alternating bass / snare or the bass falls on a double hit? Just rock back and forth a little, enough to keep timing going.

If you ever get off track, don't look at the notes. First priority is listen to the music for where to come back in. If you can't establish that by sound alone, look at the scrolling bars. Thick lines represent measure bars, smaller lines are the beats as subdivisions...sync that up with your brain, and then associate each drum to a point of the measure.

(i.e. I know I'm going to hit the kick pedal on every 1 and 3 of the measure)

Put everything into a pattern. The worst thing that could happen is that the pattern breaks for a measure or two and then sets right back in. Eventually you begin to anticipate the fills and the broken patterns, or you can even begin to react to it on the fly, but you need to establish where the patterns are. And believe me, drums are a very monotonous instrument for a lot of songs in a lot of sections. Mindless at times. Use that to your advantage.

[resident360]

If you just want to beat the song to continue your solo career and you don't care about getting "good" on drums, just ignore the bass pedal and play the red and yellow. Since you're playing right half the time you won't fail; you'll just hover in limbo. Also save Overdrive for that part and you'll soon be on your way to the next tier.

[GoclFaThER]

If you just want to beat the song to continue your solo career and you don't care about getting "good" on drums, just ignore the bass pedal and play the red and yellow. Since you're playing right half the time you won't fail; you'll just hover in limbo. Also save Overdrive for that part and you'll soon be on your way to the next tier.


So on the fast parts if I dont play bass I wont fail? hmm sounds easy. Cause I dont give a crap about the song, I just wanna move on. Just that stupid bass pedal throws me off wit the red and yellows and I panic. Ill give it a try. Thanks

[dolphin57]

Yeah that songs suck and even when i dont use the kick pedat i still fail. Who the hell decided on that freaking song anyway. They need to remove it.

[AeroTrain]

I had a very difficult time with this song on medium too. It took using practice mode, starting at 50% speed practicing the fast solo 2 section. Then incrimenting 10% at a time until I could do it atleast ok at full speed.

Even then I didn't pass it after about and hour of that practice. I came back the next day, warmed up just a little in practice and proceeded to kill it when I played in career mode.

That beat appears in many other songs down the road. It seems to be kind oa standard drum beat. Once you have it down from this song, you'll be glad when you see it popping up later in other songs and you'll have no problem nailing it.

Just keep practicing and eventually it will just click.

Good Luck.

[rmcdermid]

It took me two times to finish this song on medium. I have prior experience on drums but the guy a couple posts up was right. Get the beat in your head and close your eyes. That is what I did. once I started missing like 3 notes in a row i opened them back up and kept playing. First time I tried that it worked :)

[MrNazraq]

Hey, man, if you don't get good at that kind of drumming pattern, the later tiers are gonna be even harder. And then, hard level is gonna be near impossible.

In my opinion, each song, regardless of whether I personally like it or not, has a technique to teach me. I'll practice that song until I have that technique down so that I don't fail the harder ones later on.

I'd say, just practice it until you've got it. I practiced the hell out of that song on medium. Took me about 2 and a half hours but I finally did it. Now I know how to do that kind of rhythm and when I go back to it on medium (I'm playing hard now), it's pretty easy.

[shoombabi]

Don't forget to take mini breaks. If I hit a wall (as defined by me failing a song 7-10 times), I'll go into practice mode, learn the rhythms 3 times (50%, 80%, 80%), try it again, if I fail, I do something else, think about it, come back refreshed, and usually pass it.

[bookwormcc]

to add to my (and your?) humilitation this is the song I cannot get past 73% of the song, playing the drums. My 8 year old daughter did it in about 3 tries. Now when the song comes up she is like, mommy, do you want me to do it for you???

[resident360]

I DID IT!

I've been putting it off for awhile now (why practice a hard solo when you have the rest of such a great game to explore?) but today I put the time and effort in and walked away from the Expert guitar solo tour victorious. I'd like to thank TheTogFather, MorningThief, and expecially RocketSauce for all their helpful advice in this thread.

Man, I feel like such a (fake) guitar god right now.

[palofex]

What I did to be GGAHT for Solo sections 2H & 2I is I only hit the Yellow, Red, Green notes and skipped the second red. So I strummed yellow every time and just PO the red and green notes. The key for me was to ignore the second red note and just keep hitting the yellow red green. You will go into the yellows but once you get good at it you can beat it every time. For 2I I just use starpower and try to hit as many as I can. I find it very easy to beat this song once I figured out this tactic. At the very end of the song when you have to PO Orange, Blue, Yellow a bunch was easy for me but thats also a hard section for some besides 2H & 2I.

[DAMdude85]

I tried on practice mode over and over again, and eventually got better. Key is don't try practice mode on a different speed other than normal. Yeah you might get better at it, but when you (or at least for me) try it full speed, your timing will be crap.

P.S. The first time I passed I was online. Sad Face.

[chaoticprout]

the secret in doing this is really really simple, for the I and H part, use your index and middle fingers from right hand and index from left hand, and just hit yellow red green and skip the 2nd red on the solo buttons and if you hit the first 3 but miss the 4th your life bar doesnt move at all, so just do that and you'll be fine.

[cristinin45]

I just got to 90% I was so close when...... wel you know what comes next, I FAILED!!!:mad: it is so annoying whoever chose that song is really stupid

[resident360]

A thread about playing GGaHT on medium drums was merged into my thread about the second guitar solo on GGaHT expert guitar. Kind of confusing.

I finally passed this song to beat the expert solo tour tonight. I ended up with 89% and a 240 note streak. I actually saved my last Overdrive for the very end part where it goes crazy and just played 2H-2I by npt sweating the second red note.

[shoombabi]

I feel like the only person who does solo tapping with both hands like a real guitarist :(

To the topic question: I used an x-plorer when I first beat it (same problem with the stratocaster). Saved up star power, got down just about as far as I could possibly go, then activated it, attempted to hit as many as possible anyway, and you have to make absolutely sure you nail the overdrive phrases. At most there are six notes you have to play to hit them. Ignore the ones around those if you have to, but if you hit them, you'll be set. Try not to have to use overdrive for the O B Y R sections, another fast stream of OBY OBY OBY OBY ends the solo, and it might catch you offguard without overdrive.

[MorningThief581]

I finally passed this song to beat the expert solo tour tonight.

Congrats! :D

[Bababadong]

Just play the game till you bleed! Ha Ha Ha newb

You're a dick. Why don't you help people if you consider yourself so good? Oh that's right because your not. People who call someone a newb or a noob or however it's spelled, obviously can't find something informative to say. So next time STFU. But to the point of the forum, I came across the same problem. I asked my friend Levi to do it, and while I was watching him do it, I noticed instead of hitting down on the notes, he repeatedly just held two fingers down somewhere on the three notes that are continued and just strummed whenever he missed it, which was only once or twice. I swear I don't know how he did it, but he did. So that's the best advice that I can give you.

[Nazzrath]

Here's how I beat it on Expert.

Normally I use the Xplorer guitar for almost all the songs, since I'm not to crazy about the new strum bar. I attempted GG and HT with the Xplorer about 5 times with no luck. I always failed on the 2nd solo section. So I switched over to the Strat and started practicing using the high fret buttons for the solos. It took me a few tries before I eventually beat it.

The 1st obvious trick is to save your Energy and go into Overdrive on the 1st set of GRYRG slides. If you're good with the solo buttons you could pass it without using Overdrive. What I did is hold down the GREEN button with my index finger, then tap the RED and YELLOW with my other index finger. You need to kinda gallop the tapping. IE: tap YELLOW, RED, very short pause, RED and repeat.

As for the Orange to Red slides, I just hammer on and pull off using the solo buttons. That part took a lot of practice to get the timing right. I usually pulled off too fast.

One other slightly useful tip regarding the solo buttons. If you see a double note coming (ie two BLUEs in a row) tap the button and hold it down, then strum for the 2nd note.

Good Luck.

[tigervscrane]

I JUST BEAT IT!!!!

My secret....finger rolls
take your index finger and roll it back and forth on those three notes in an even pace
if you are hitting the notes keep it at that pace

I swear it works

[Shinobi51190]

Tried it. Can't get past about 92-95% of the song. Doesn't help that I'm starting to experience the dreaded double strum either.

[rotciv50]

91 %,,, I will keep practicing

[Parodygm]

Yes, I've passed it on Expert and I'm still improving at it. I think it took me a good six or seven attempts. Yes, I use the Strat. No, I don't use the solo buttons at all (aside from big rock endings).

I'm decent at the four note runs in either direction - if I'm focused I can usually 100% those sections. The trouble for me when first attacking this song was definitely the three note zig-zag patterns. The more I've played them the better I've got at hitting a good chunk of them.

I've found that if I really look hard at the note chart for the first note of each zig-zag I am better able to get the timing down and get my fingers into the right rhythm. Using the strum bar and the regular fret buttons aids me in getting that rhythm correct. I don't enjoy the solo buttons at all.

Key for me was to hit as many of the white notes throughout the solo as possible (there are a number of relatively easy sections where you can do this). I think you want to be able to make it through the first zig-zag section without using overdrive. Then look to max it out for the second (longer one). Finally, collect more overdrive power for the final set near the end. Being able to pretty much perfectly nail the up or down four note runs is a virtual imperative of course.

[tbradshaw]

The way that I mastered those Y-R-G-R-Gap sections was to try and emulate the "real" hand position as close as I could and place my fingers on the solo buttons like this: (I don't end up playing it like the real notes are played, pull offs are just too different without a string.)




This diagram is arranged from the perspective of the player
looking down at the guitar. (LI) is the Left Index finger, (LM)
is the Left Middle finger, (RI) and (RM) are the Right Index
and Right Middle finger, respectively.

(LI) (LM)
| G | R | Y | B | O |
(RI) (RM)


With the fingers arranged as shown in the diagram, the Left Index finger is pressed the first time G is needed and then held down for the rest of the run. This simplifies the run, making Y-R-G-R-Gap into a Y-R-Gap-R-Gap. But placing your fingers in this position, you further simplify the motor skill requirements by using your right hand for the first two notes Y-R and then hitting R the second time with your left hand.

It makes this very challenging run a very basic motor movement of just "(RM) (RI) (Slight Pause) (LM)". I practiced this slow and then sped it up until I had it.

The Catch! Now that you've simplified things to just three taps, split over two hands, you're going to be very tempted to hit your (LM) when the pull off for the G key is going down. Resist! Picture the run as a series of four note sequences. Always hit your (LM) on the last note of the four note sequence.

Anyway. Eventually this very difficult run has turned easy. You can do this run, and then move the same fingers "up" such that you do R-Y-B-Y in the same fashion. After practicing that sequence until it was easy, my hardest part was just not screwing up the timing for the "four note runs" followed by the silly fast O-B-Y runs at the end. (I did them with my right hand like I was typing.)

Good luck!