question(s) about moving up in difficulty

[tim1970]

For Guitar I have finished the medium solo tour. Obviously the difference in Hard is going to be the extra fret. Also faster. What is the difference between hard and expert? Just faster?

Also, I am seeing a few HO/PO's on medium. I know they become more common on hard/expert, but are they required to be played without strumming on either hard or expert?


Thanks

Tim

[PlanetHill]

They seem to have done a great job transitioning. I found it very easy to go from Tier 9 Medium to Tier 1 Hard. I just transitioned from Hard to Expert and it was the same thing. By the time you can do the hard songs well, you can do the easy songs at the next higher level.

You do have the extra fret on hard and more HO/PO's, but they break you in easy. Whats funny is after playing Hard for awhile...Medium seems soooooo sloooooow.

[BK Black_Knight6]

Agree that once you can nearly get through all of hard, medium is absurdly easy - even the hardest ones.

I can't finish two on Hard for the life of me, one of which is Flirtin' with disaster...I can't do the f$%king solo to save my life.

Tips?

[Grimlouis]

like the guy who posted before me said, the transition between tier9 medium and tier1 hard is very easy. You will get used to the extra node pretty fast and it doesnt appear as much in the early tier songs.
I recommend you get to at least the last tier of songs on hard before thinking about expert. The first tier in expert is pretty easy but it gets way harder past tier3...

[Grimlouis]

Agree that once you can nearly get through all of hard, medium is absurdly easy - even the hardest ones.

I can't finish two on Hard for the life of me, one of which is Flirtin' with disaster...I can't do the f$%king solo to save my life.

Tips?

lol thats the only song i cant play on hard ( and shockwave, its such a pain in the ass...) So i know how you feel hehe... the godamn solo is way too complicated for my brain and way too hard for my skills.

[trg007]

I'm on tier 7 of Hard and the HOs/POs are killing me. I can't even begin to think about Flirtin' With Disaster or GG&HT...

[Fanible101]

Balance your play when you're going through the songs. Just one tidbit that made going through them all easier. When you get to a song on your current difficulty that you're stuck on, go back to the previous songs on the same difficulty and five star the ones you haven't yet - or ditto on the previous difficulty you completed if you haven't five starred all of those yet either.

The same can be done on Expert, where even if you've five starred most, if you get stuck on some of the later songs, go back and start trying to gold star all the ones you already five starred.

It's weird, but as you practice more and more, even on songs you've already completed, and the more you try on even harder songs, you'll go back to songs you remember having severe difficulty with, but you'll just naturally be able to flip through them far more easily. It's a weird, but great sensation.

[BK Black_Knight6]

Going back is a good idea...I should do that instead of spending countless hours practicing that stupid song.

FWIW, there's only the two on hard I can't do (Flirtin' and whatever the last one is...is it GGaHT?), but I easily got through the first 15 on expert (okay, usually with 3 stars).

[elfenlied]

i am stuck on 3 on hard flirting, train and green. on exp i am on teer 4 and haveing trubble with the last 3 songs

[fecaled]

the transistion is pretty good from medium to hard, and the way the tiers are it will definitely help. just practice and work on the songs. thats the best thing you can do, jsut keep practicing. the H/O and P/O's can be fun to work with, and they're somewhat difficult when you get to the tier 8/9's and stuff like GGAHT and Flirting with disaster. either way just practice and it'll get there

[jrinck]

Whats funny is after playing Hard for awhile...Medium seems soooooo sloooooow.

Same as Expert to Hard. Has this happened to anyone else...

You are online and playing Expert on every song. Then the leader decides to do "...And Justice For All", and you sheepishly drop to Hard to ensure you'll pass it. Then the song starts and you miss the first five notes because the fret-running has slowed down so much. "Geez, they must think I'm an idiot!" :D But then you still end up with 95%, so it all ends well. :)

[TheGodFather73]

The orange button and moving your hand along the neck will probably be hard for you for a while, but don't lose faith! I did the same as you, beat the medium tour and went to hard. Going from medium to expert would probably be a little much if you had to work to get through medium. If you only failed one or two songs the whole way through and 5-starred just about everything the first time, then you probably have the manual dexterity to work from expert. If you are average and still have some songs that give you issues on medium, go to hard. This is what I did, and I'm MUCH better than I used to be and medium is now a complete bore. Two more songs and the hard tour is done, and I never thought I'd get this far when I hit a simple song like "Mississippi Queen" on hard.

P.S. - It gets a lot more fun at hard also, once you get used to fretting your whole hand and you aren't so scared of the orange button. :D

[tim1970]

Thanks for the advice.

In Hard or Expert are you required to do the HO/PO's? OR can you just play them as normal? Or maybe they are not required, but the notes are coming so fast, I better learn to play them correctly or I will never finish the song?

Also, what is the difference between hard/expert? Just faster? More Notes? Both?


Thanks again

Tim

[Spandrel]

The best piece of advice to give is to stop hemming and hawing over whether or not to make the jump, and just do it, and stick with it as your learning to use the Orange fret button. Luckily, the jump from Medium to Hard in Rock Band is far easier than it is in Guitar Hero. The difficulty in Hard is that you can't just camp your hand out on the GRYB buttons. You are constantly moving and having to re-map your fingers.

Probably, the easiest songs to start with are those with lots of repeating notes or chords, because usually you play the same notes/chords over and over again before shifting. Those songs have fewer fast note sequence and more repetition. Just get used to sliding your hand down to hit those sections with Orange notes. It will be tough at first, but if you stick with it, your brain will slowly come around. The younger you are, the easier it is to make the jump.

[SlivedCupWinner]

Thanks for the advice.

In Hard or Expert are you required to do the HO/PO's? OR can you just play them as normal? Or maybe they are not required, but the notes are coming so fast, I better learn to play them correctly or I will never finish the song?

Also, what is the difference between hard/expert? Just faster? More Notes? Both?


Thanks again

Tim


You can strum HOPO's normally, but it's better to learn the technique for two reasons.
First, if you don't time it just right, you'll Hammer it and the note plays which will make your strum an overstrum.
The other reason is that it really is much easier to use the HOPO because you'll only have to learn the timing with one hand. I know that sounds a little ridiculous, but instead of chasing the notes with both hands, you'll just do it with one.

Having said that, there are some songsn that the HOPO strings are so long or the timing is funny and I have learned to strum the ones I routinely don't time well. China Cat Sunflower is one in particular that I do that with.

One of the differences between Hard and Expert is that where Expert has cascades, Hard will just have 1 note played quickly. The notorious second solo in GG&HT is like that.

Expert does go faster. If you've ever seen threads that people talk about playing in a band with someone on another skill leve, the game slows down the chart to the lower difficulty's speed. For a lot of people it's pretty distracting.

[PlanetHill]

It gets a lot more fun at hard also, once you get used to fretting your whole hand and you aren't so scared of the orange button. :D

Agreed. In the beginning I had a hard time "re-mapping" my fingers every time I had to choke up on the frets. The weird thing is that one day, I realized I wasn't having to think about it any more and was just doing it instinctively.

Something pops in your brain and your suddenly repositioning your hand automatically and hitting the correct notes. It's a great feeling!

[toMsons1987]

transition for Medium to Hard is very easy. Even Medium to Expert for some tiers, in my opinion. But the transition from Hard to Expert is pretty easy, though when you get down on the list (tier 7-8-9).. Those will be a b**ch, my advise to you is play Creep on Expert. The fast part is a great tool to get better, there are a few aspacts with RB. Timing/Rythm is one, if you can get like 95% on it..I get 98% most of the time, though I get a good multiplier going which is rather difficult. Than you are pretty solid, plus the songs easy as crap (like you wont fail, it's slow even if you miss a lot) -- But difficult to hold a multiplier. For combo/finger placement practice, I suggest playing 'Don't Fear The Reaper' and another good one is 'The Hand That Feeds'.

Remember, takes 1000 times of doing a single note to be able to do it. There are no short cuts, so just have fun. If you have any question just hit me up, I remember when I was in your position. On medium and Hard my songs are 3 stars, like 80% of them - 21% 4 stars - 4% 5 stars. But on Expert, I got at least four star on everything. I have 12 4 stared songs left, and about 8 of those I don't play because I hate them with a passion. Everything else is 5 stared (46), and 20 of those are gold stared.

One thing you will notice is, some people suck at HO/PO's and some are jsut good at them, others can't do cord switches and some can do it well. There will be something you just can't do, everyone has this problem. That's were one needs to find a short cut to the part to be able to pass it. My weak point is repeatitive cords, like in Bang a Gong (Get It On).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZGHtMn1QFog (MAKES ME MAD - HELLA BORING YOU KNOW)