Help With Reading the Pro Guitar Charts?

[Hitoshura]

I'm with the "play pro bass on expert (no-fail) first" crowd. Full chords on pro guitar are really intimidating at first, and for pro bass you don't have to worry about this (the worst you'll get are maybe power chords and octaves), so you can focus on developing left hand awareness and getting comfortable with moving around the neck.

The other thing I must stress is that you will NOT be able to just jump into a song and start playing the way you may be able to with legacy guitar or drums. There's just too much information coming at you to be able to do so. I've been playing pro since RB3 launched, and sightreading pro guitar is still really hard. Instead, I recommend that when you want to play a new song, first (1) go through the trainer for that song, and optionally (2) play each section in practice. Most songs have repeating patterns, and the trainer will familiarize you with these, taking a huge burden off the sightreading when you actually play the song. Playing through in practice (maybe slowed down to 70%) helps to learn the structure of the song, and to repeat shorter sections multiple times in order to lock them into your short-term memory.

If you really hit a wall, then by all means, lower the difficulty. Some songs may just be much more difficult for you than similarly tiered songs because they require certain techniques that you haven't really developed yet. The more you play, the better you'll get. As you become more familiar with the instrument, you'll find that what seemed impossible before suddenly starts to make sense, and is playable. Little by little, you'll see improvement in your playing. Just be patient and persistent, and you'll get there.

One last thing: you might try playing both with a pick and with your fingers when doing pro bass. Some songs, especially some of the hardest pro bass songs like Llama and Antibodies, I believe are only really playable with your fingers, whereas many or most of the pro guitar songs really benefit from playing with a pick. For pro bass, I find that a default position of thumb on the lower two strings (E and A), index on the D string, and middle finger on the G string works pretty well.

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A few of Hitoshura's points hit the nail on the head - namely the fact that on protar, taking advantage of the trainers is super-important. I know a number of top players who will spend a lot of time in the song trainer before ever attempting a real run, and it would be just as helpful for new expert players; the trainers also give finger positions to guide you.

Pro bass is extremely helpful in training your fret hand to move across the board, but limiting in that it won't help in identifying chords and developing dexterity to nail those chords. At some point you'll have to actually play protar to improve at protar, but getting versed at pro bass can remove at least a few of the common barriers.

[SheSaidSheSaid]

I'm with the "play pro bass on expert (no-fail) first" crowd.

I would just get so demoralized by getting like 6 percent on nearly every song.

[Hitoshura]

I would just get so demoralized by getting like 6 percent on nearly every song.

Well, as I said, if you jump right in and try to play songs without practicing first, of course you're going to do horribly. That's my whole point: to do well at pro, especially on high-tiered songs on expert, you pretty much have to use the trainers and practice mode. It's not as pick-up-and-play as the legacy instruments, but is IMO more rewarding once you're able to do it.

If you're still really having trouble, even with the trainers, then sure, take it down a difficulty or two and start there. There's no sense in needlessly frustrating yourself, but just keep in mind that, by its very nature, pro will take more work and you will probably improve more slowly than you're used to with the legacy instruments.

[Backbeat60-62]

I found using chord shapes to be helpful. Having all the numbers on can get confusing, for me the numbers work best with individual notes. If you're limited with time, turn on chord shapes and play the song a few times, each time trying finger positions until the right combination hits. For chord shapes that are hard to figure out, turn on numbered chords briefly to see what the proper fingering is. If you have more time, the trainers can be even more useful. It took a few months for me to be able to sight read on pro, but like has been said, it's been really rewarding to finally be able to do it.

[ZoiloCruz]

Well all have to saw if you ever want to play Pro guitar treat it as it's a real guitar not like some video game, it takes time and practice. What I suggests is learn all the chords (even the pissing off barre chords -_-) and just practice the shape (like everyday.) Also chose songs that will help you get better on the guitar, like Nirvana songs, The White Stripes and Yoshima Battle the Pink Robots Pt.1 (good for knowing your chords). Also it would hurt learning songs off youtube vids, I've got by watching them and I'm getting the scale concept Just do all the simplest things you can, but also don't afraid to challenge yourself. Hope you found this useful and good luck playing real guitar