Noob confused on Medium

[Agrajag]

I'm having a blast with RB after being entirely frustrated by GH3 (which was my first experience with the series). I'm an older player who found it through my 13 year-old. The family is having a blast.

Anyway, I enjoyed EASY but find that MEDIUM really allows the guitarist to play to the beat more. As a result I'm trying my best to adjust to it. However, what is the best strategy for figuring out power chords like Green/Yellow followed quickly by Red/Blue and back again with singles in between?

I find I have trouble making my fingers do that. Getting the middle finger and pinkie to reliably work while leaving my ring finger out of it (Red/Blue) is not as easy as I'd have thought.

I also wish there was a better tutorial with levels. I'd love to get this Hammer thing down but just can't find good places to try it out. Any song recommendations where it's obvious and easy to work on?

[Murderous_Urges]

I don't even use my pinkie but other than that all I can say is just practise.
I hate my pinkie never bends or moves the way I want it to without some other finger tagging along

[KMFH]

I've found that with just practice, it gets easier. I'm no means very good at RB, but I used to do the green/yellow with my pointer/ring finger and the blue/red with middle/pinkie. It does get difficult and now I'm starting to just slide my hand up and down the neck using pointer/ringe for green/yellow, red/blue and yellow/orange.

Different songs call for different ways to hit the keys for me, though.

[Goldfoot]

Basically, as has been said, you just need to keep practicing. Not necessarily Practice mode, although you can do that too. Just play the songs that give you the most trouble more than the easier ones and you will get better. You're definitely going to need to get used to chords because after a while you'll get like green/red or yellow/blue chords. The yellow/blue are especially hard because you have to keep your ring finger from pressing down the yellow. Not trying to discourage you, just preparing you heh.

Edit: Whoops, I got my colors mixed up. What I meant to talk about is what you mentioned in your post. When I first started playing GH I had a hard time with those chords too and now I can do them fine. Like I said, I just kept playing the songs that were giving me trouble and after a while you just get better at them

[TheCrimsonSaint]

Best advice I can give you (I play Expert if that adds to my credibility) is to shift your whole hand down the guitar and play R/B chords with your index and ring finger. This prepare's you for Hard and Expert really well, since those difficulties pretty much require you to keep your index finger over the red fret in normal situations (at least I do because it's easier to move your index finger up than it is to move your pinky down). All of that said, the only way that it'll ever get any easier is through practice. At some point it will just click, and you'll be fine.

[Tronage]

Also don't be afraid to shift your hand down. What I mean is you don't HAVE to keep your pointer on green, middle on red, ring on yellow and pinky on blue... Sometimes you'll get those chords and I'll play w/ pointer on green/ring on yellow, but then the chord changes to red/blue. rather then trying to reverse my grip, you can just keep your fingers as they are, and slide it down, so now pointer on red, ring on blue.

You'll realy need to get used to this as you progress into hard and expert when orange comes into play as well, but it doesn't hurt at all learning now.

Also just as with real guitar, a good rule of thumb about moving, is once you move stay moved till there is a reason to move back... so as in my example above if you are playing red/blue with your pointer/ring fingers, you can hang out there till a green note comes by forcing you to shift back to the standard position. This won't come into play much on medium, but as the tracks get harder, you'll see the practice you do now will help you.

Good luck!

[Agrajag]

You guys are great. Thanks for the responses. It's much as I thought. Last night I got into a great rhythm on one of the songs (wish I could keep them all straight in my head) and found that just moving my hand up and down the fret was the best way.

Looking forward to putting this into action.

As an older player I will say, I wish there were more like 6 or 7 levels to choose from as each one jumps you pretty harshly ahead. Instead of needing to learn one new thing you need to tackle often three or more at a time.

As I also said, I would have really loved to see more tutorials on things like hammers and such that take you step-by-step. The ones there are nice but they're too short for some tasks.

Regardless, this is minor compared to the fun. My wife and I have been gaming for longer than most here have been alive and this is the most fun we've had in a game in at least a decade, if not ever.

[shadebug]

the levelling works pretty well if you play through.

back when i was starting out I found the best way was to play one level until you can play no longer, then play a harder level until you can play no longer, then drop back to the one you were on before and try to keep going, with any luck your experience on the harder levels will give you the skills to beat the harder tiers of the easier levels, if that makes any sense

[fiddolbrfrho]

also, don't be afraid to stretch your fingers apart. for example, to play green/yellow you don't have to necessarilly use your index and ring finger, you can use your index and middle finger and just stretch them apart a little. this can help especially if you're playing chord sequences like G/R G/Y G/R... you can do that using only 2 fingers.

if you thought the jump from easy to medium was hard, i've got bad news, lol. the jump from medium to hard is even wider... not only will you have the orange button to worry about but there are 2-3x more notes. by the time you get to expert the notes are generally as fast and complex as the actual notes in the songs.

good luck! with practice your muscle memory will get used to it and things will get easier.

[Tribaldemon]

If I remember correctly back to when I played the first GH, the GY RB switching really got me at first too. It helped me to practice moving those finger sets independantly while I wasnt playing (at work, at a traffic light, listening to a boring conversation), and just alternate raising and lowering the index/ring and middle/pinkie sets. It feels uncoordinated at first but becomes easy once your hand gets used to it.

Of course, moving down the fret is an important skill for later difficulties too, so keep up with that as well :)

[gocryemokid]

Get a technique you like, and practice it. Practice it a lot. For medium, you never need to move your fingers. Green is always index, Red is always middle, Yellow is always ring, and Blue is always pinky. GY is just index+ring, RB is middle + pinky. For these transistions, I'd suggest just using all 4 fingers. Get into the habit. Once you get medium down come back for some tips on reaching the orange, many people will have plenty of tips lol.

[shadebug]

ok, don't listen to that guy, he's encouraging some extremely bad habits

unless you don't want to progress through the game and will be happy on medium, then his advice is sound

[gocryemokid]

Odd you say that because that's how I started and now play on expert 95%-100%. Bad habits right ? I got nowhere :/. Once you start learning how to get through the chord progressions then you can start learning the orange. That's just one way though, let him do whatever he wants. Whatever way he wants to choose, I'm just trying to help.

[HeadHunter67]

The Red-Blue chord is my bane as well. I can get the adjacent chords (GR/RY/YB) easily and GY is no problem for me... but RB shows up and tanks me.

If you're like gocryemokid and can play RB with your middle finger and pinky, more power to ya. But I'm in the same camp as the OP, and can't keep my ring finger off the yellow fret when doing so.

So I've started to learn to move my hand down a fret to do this chord.

One piece of advice I'd give: In my experience, it's been easier to learn a new difficulty level on Bass, to get the fundamentals without the tricky parts. There are fewer chords and a steadier beat - then once you've got that down, try the same songs on guitar and you can concentrate on the tough spots without worrying about having to learn the rest at the same time.

There's a lot of good advice and different things to try suggested here and I'm grateful as well. When I first tried GH in 2006 I sucked awfully and thought I'd never be able to do it, even on Easy. I started playing GH and RB a couple months ago, and figured "OK I can eventually nail Easy but I'll never be able to do Medium!" Now I find I can do pretty well on Medium for most songs, except those that have the RB chord or quick chord-single fret-chord jumps.

I'm sure with practice I'll get better. And while I can't imagine playing on Hard, let alone Expert, I'll bet I get that down eventually too. I'm not a kid any more so muscle memory takes longer, but it's bound to happen!

[gocryemokid]

If you're like gocryemokid and can play RB with your middle finger and pinky, more power to ya. But I'm in the same camp as the OP, and can't keep my ring finger off the yellow fret when doing so.

So I've started to learn to move my hand down a fret to do this chord.


If you can't keep your finger off the yellow and wanted to try my method, the only thing I can recommend is practice. Otherwise, if that doesn't sound helpful enough (which it probably doesn't, lol) someone else's post would be more helpful.

[HeadHunter67]

I wasn't intending to criticize you, just mentioning that I have the same difficulty with it as the OP. They're both valid techniques.

[shadebug]

interesting... the jointed ring finger could be quite an issue. Have you tried playing with just your index, middle and pinky finger? Leave your ring finger raised and tucked behind the other fingers and play by sliding up and down. Might work

[Agrajag]

Everything I've read here has been helpful and it's much appreciated. Everyone is different so there's no need to be harsh with people who did it another way.

The biggest problem, which is no surprise, when trying to slide the fingers back and forth is getting lost mid-song. I had my worst session last night doing this, as expected, as I would get off by a button and realize it after several wrong notes. When it worked it was awesome. Plus it felt more like what I would expect playing guitar to be like.

I wish I could remember the songs. Blitzkrieg Bop is an example of Medium song that I like because it's initially hard (very fast) but the sequences are easy to get down and it's just a matter of keeping up and staying with the beat. I hate when a song just goes "out of beat" so that you're doing things that don't seem to match with the beat.

[Sarge51]

Listen. Everyone has their own way of fretting and strumming with the guitar. Just keep playing, and you'll figure out what works well for you. I remember when chords that weren't beside each other kept messing with me. But I eventually got to where I could play them easily due to all around getting better at fretting.

For your example. I use my index finger for the green and the finger next to my pinky to hit the red. Then I just slide my whole hand down one notch, so that my index is on the red and my other finger is on the blue. Red and Blue usually messes up alot of people when on medium. If you need to, practice more on Easy for awhile. Or on a song without certain chords that mess you up, but revisit occasionally.

and practice practice practice my child. ^_^

[sultan_of_skoal]

Seems everyone has avoided the original question about hammer ons. I used to strum them all but after playing the hand that feeds a few times I was able to get the hang of them, I found it easier to practice them on an actual song then the short tutorials

[gocryemokid]

I wasn't intending to criticize you, just mentioning that I have the same difficulty with it as the OP. They're both valid techniques.

Were you talking to me ? I didn't mean my post to seem angry... I was just responding. I wasn't taking offense :)

[HeadHunter67]

That's cool - I just wanted to be clear as I'm oft-misunderstood. :)

[HeadHunter67]

MEDIUM really allows the guitarist to play to the beat more. However, what is the best strategy for figuring out power chords like Green/Yellow followed quickly by Red/Blue and back again with singles in between?

I find I have trouble making my fingers do that. Getting the middle finger and pinkie to reliably work while leaving my ring finger out of it (Red/Blue) is not as easy as I'd have thought.
Sorry to necro this, but I discovered a technique that may help people with this problem.

Instead of doing RB chords with middle+pinky fingers, try using your index finger to press Red. This naturally moves your other fingers away from the frets, and it's easy to move the index finger back to Green without losing your place.

I don't always do this - I am learning to do RB with the customary fingers, but give it a try - I'd love to hear how this works for others.

[Agrajag]

On certain songs it works just great. Especially if it's a RB section and then GY section. On others, not so good.

What I think the game lacks, especially for us challenged players (older?) is more progressive tutorials. Everything about this game goes like a Porsche from 0-60 in 4 seconds with no room in between to take a breath.

I would really welcome some serious hammer-on tutorials, etc.

I also am disappointed that, in order to experience all the songs you MUST play at higher levels. That makes little sense to me. To get a song that I might end up playing on Easy I have to play on Hard???

I want to simulate being a rock star, not be a rock star. hehehe I should be able to experience EVERYTHING the game offers at ANY skill level. Higher level should just mean higher score. Otherwise I can't see continuing to invest in the series if, as a person who can't commit a second life to this endeavor, I'm only going to get a fraction of the enjoyment out of it.

Right now the family is stuck. We're out of venues but not everyone can make the next jump. So now our choice is to stop playing or practice endlessly. Neither option is appealing.

[HeadHunter67]

I just started playing a couple months ago and never thought I'd even be able to do Medium - but it comes naturally with a little practice. Even a couple hours a night ought to have you playing at Medium in a few weeks.

I just finished the Medium guitar tour, and the only songs I had trouble with were Vasoline (because of the hammer-ons) and Enter Sandman (because it's all over the place). I was not ashamed to call in a ringer and have my girlfriend's 21-year old son get me past those. ;)

But you needn't go any farther than Medium to experience everything the game has to offer. All 58 songs can be unlocked on Medium and (as far as I can tell) the full World Tour experience is available - including the Hall of Fame and Endless Setlist.

That said, I feel your pain and agree with your concerns. Our band found ourselves in the same place. I used to sing while my girlfriend played Bass, our friend (who plays best of all of us) was the lead guitarist and his wife on Drums. all of us played Easy, he played Medium. Then I discovered that my girlfriend can sing on Medium (or Hard if she knows the song well) and so I switched to Bass. After beating the Easy guitar tour, I embarked upon the Medium tour and beat it - so I'm confident that I can pass most songs on Medium Bass.

This meant only our drummer was stuck on Easy - and yesterday we encouraged her to try Medium. It's the most difficult role and I don't envy her. She's sometimes concerned that she might be the "weak link" and the reason we fail a song - but we make sure to reserve some Overdrive to save her and we've made it through most songs. Sometimes we do well, sometimes we just squeak by (we failed a song at 98% last night. :eek: ) but we're improving as a band. She's a stay-at-home mother so she has a little more time to practice, I'm sure she will improve quickly.

Now that we're all on Medium, we are past that block and are gaining fans again. We got our own jet last night and that opens a lot more venues - which means more stars, more fans and more venues still.

Hang in there and keep at it, and I'm sure you will be rockin' the world in no time. :cool:

[Misha67]

My personal view (everybody's mileage may vary and I've already seen a few tips here other than what I've been doing that I want to check out now):

I can't imagine progressing very far without getting my obstinate pinky beaten into submission. It's bad enough to be one finger short on Medium, but two fingers short on Hard/Expert? Anyway, I had the pinky/ring "linking" issue myself too way back in the GH days (stupid pinky, evil, evil BAD pinky!), so the way I solved it was to go through the Easy career again, this time using only middle/ring/pinky and using the index finger for absolutely nothing. Sure, it's tedious as all Hell to play through Easy again when you're itching to advance, I didn't particularly enjoy that myself, but it sure got my pinky beat into shape so I could use it just like the other three.

But the "shifting" method mentioned here where you're just ignoring the offending digit and shifting up and down instead sounds intriguing too. If I'd done that instead, my shifting technique wouldn't suck today the way it does. But then I'd still be stuck with a useless pinky. I suppose a bit of both would be a good idea and, above all, practice, practice, practice.

I used to choke on the G/Y then R/B chords as well and I was convinced that I'd *never* get them down, yet now, after Bob only knows how many hours of practicing it, I can't even imagine why I ever thought it was hard.

It'll click eventually, I promise. But if you're anything like me, trying to keep your patience (or lack of same) under control will be the real chore :D

[AnonymousMonkey]

Get a technique you like, and practice it. Practice it a lot. For medium, you never need to move your fingers. Green is always index, Red is always middle, Yellow is always ring, and Blue is always pinky.


I think this is bad advice. You're going to have to learn to move your hand around to play on hard or expert eventually, so start learning to do that while on medium.

[Agrajag]

One thing I'd like clarification on. I'm on Medium now (the rest of the band isn't though the singer JUST moved up and we handled the first few songs) and doing fine with some trouble spots. I've taken to just skipping some notes if they're killing the rest of the song and that gets us me through.

Anyway, I read somewhere that there's just no way to open everything without moving up. If it's possible to get it all on Medium then I'm sold. That's certainly within reach. I just thought there's no way to get the fans necessary on Medium.

[HeadHunter67]

Well, there is definitely a fan cap, but I know it's possible to do Hall of Fame and Endless Setlist on Medium. Certain cities might be unavailable at that fan cap but all songs are available in Medium play.

The best information on World Tours can be found in this Rock Band Tour FAQ (http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/938870/51393).

[LedZep06]

This game really gives you a feeling of accomplishment and progression. Just this weekend, I started going back through my medium tour guitar and those ones that I did 3 stars (even one 2 star) on I went back and got many 5 stars on. Usually doubled to tripled my old score too. I can now 100% a song on medium sometimes too. I'm working on hard too; some of the songs are difficult but it does take practice. One friend suggested to me to go through the guitar tutorial (the "freaking hard" one) and play on hard until I get good enough to move up to expert. Practice mode helps too, you can slow down and practice your hand moves.