Help With Reading the Pro Guitar Charts?

[TheSkittlerist]

I'm finding it pretty difficult to read the charts for the Pro Guitar (Mostly chords) Are there any tips for better reading the chords? (I'm mostly talking about ones that span 5 or 6 strings, such as 0 2 1 0 1 0)

[machetemonkey]

Use the trainers. They should teach you specific chords, and have you practice them. Slow stuff down if you need to. The only way you'll get better at reading them is to become more familiar with them, and have them more ingrained in your memory.

Also, try practicing with chord-numbering on or off. Some people find it easier to be able to see the fret numbers for every string because they can read things more easily (chord numbering ON), and some people like the visual simplicity and lack of clutter of just looking at the chord shapes (chord numbering OFF). It depends on the person, so play around with it.

[Alternity]

I have 2 advices to give you

1- Begin with pro bass, so you can learn to move around the neck. Expert + No-fail is the way, even if you can't get one star at first, it'll come.

2- Don't learn the chords with the numbers, learn the chords with the name that follows the chart to the left (the letter+ numbers). Go in the trainer, remember that D is this, and that E is this. And everything will work like a charm. WAYYYY easier to read the chord's name than a bunch of number IMHO.

[TheSkittlerist]

Alternity, you're saying I should go straight to EXPERT bass? Meaning, from medium lead to expert right away?
Also, does pro bass only use 4 strings? I don't recall playing pro bass, and I can't check at the moment.

[Alternity]

Yes, only for the fact that to learn a song, you need to learn the song, on medium it's not the song at all. Even if you can't play it yet, you will still learn some parts each time you try. And it will also force you to practice your picking, and switching strings faster.

Sadly, even if the bassist do use more than a 4 string bass, HMX will still only chart 4 strings for bass.

[googleimage]

Going straight to expert is a BAD idea. I'd say you should play the highest difficulty level that consistently gets you more than 3.0 stars, and frequently 4 stars.

2 reasons: you'll get exposed to "skill development" patterns, but they'll be presented to you in isolation rather than having to deal with 10 or 15 such parts at a time; i.e. it paces your learning properly. And secondly: it's easier to track your progress and show that the improvements you're making are meaningful. Going from 1 star to 2 stars is meaningless: going from 3 stars to 4 or even 5 stars is significant.

Also: chord numbering is a MUST.

[Alternity]

It all depends on the people I guess. lol

[SheSaidSheSaid]

I play the lower difficulties on all but the stupidly easy songs (Imagine/Something in the Way/etc.) just because it's more fun. I know I'll never gold-star "Combat Baby" and I really couldn't give a crap about playing a real instrument outside the game (I play pro strictly for the gameplay challenge) so why not just have fun?

[Derrek42]

I also support the comment to go directly to expert. I was already familiar with most chords and have played guitar in the past. Trying to play on a lower difficulty had me confussed by the bastardized chord patterns. Once I learned a song on medium, I went to play on expert and had a tough time getting the chord right because my fingers were use to a different pattern from the easier difficulty. Once I realized that I could just read the chord name, I was able to finger the chord like normal and it became so much easier.....but, like I said, I already knew most chords. for a new player, this may not work well, but try it out

Get a chord chart and start learning the chords (C D E Em F G A Am is a great start). Pick up more chords from the songs you want to play (you see a new chord in a song, refer to the chord chart and then practice it).

Playing pro is a major step away from playing legacy guitar....you wont be able to just play any song the first couple of tries. You will have to practice the song and play it repeatedly before you can play it well.

I also turned off chord numbering and use the chord name and shape. too many numbers gets confussing....

Start with some easier songs and build up from there. (sort by difficulty and target songs in "warm up")

[Alternity]

Derrek has a good point, however, I never really played any stringed instrument in my life, and I still can 5 stars a couple of songs on expert pro bass, and this took me not even a week. I don't play much pro bass, but it wasn't that hard to figure it out, the first days was horrible due to the learning curve, and to the fact that I'm used to see a tab sideways, not the way RB shows them to me. (I don't play stringed instruments, but I use Guitar Pro 5 for my music needs on piano/keyboard)

Also, if I recall correctly, easy and medium doesn't use full chords, hard does though. If expert is REALLY, but I mean, REALLY too hard for you (cant get any star on any songs for example) You could get on hard, however, avoid easy and medium, the chords are just not it.