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Almar's Guitar Hero Guide I've been meaning to get around to making a Guitar Hero guide for quite awhile now but I was never able to get a video camera or a way to record myself playing. Now, luckily I can! This guide will pertain mostly to the people who are playing on hard and struggling to play on expert, however there will be a section for the noobies too. What you can expect to see in this guide is tips and tricks for Guitar Hero as a whole and a specific guide to help you pass almost every single song on Guitar Hero. I will try to go into as much detail as possible and explain any part of any song that I find people will get stuck on. Currect Guitar Heros that I have covered: Guitar Hero: Metallica DISCLAIMER: I am not the best player at Guitar Hero, nor do I claim to be. However I am good, I 5* almost every song I play and there isn't a single song I cannot beat on Guitar Hero. My goal isn't to brag but instead help anyone who is looking to beat a song on expert for any reason. I hope you will find my guide helpful and even show your friends! Also, to clear the air now, I do own and play a real guitar, bass, drums and even sing. So for all of the comments of people saying "Play a real instrument! Get a life!" I do play a real instrument, but I will need to work on the whole getting a life thing. X-box Live Gamertag: Almar Winfield Table of Contents Introduction (1.1) Introduction (1.1) Guitar Hero is one of the most popular series of games created in quite awhile. It originally started by players just being able to play the guitar but quickly grew into people being able to play the Bass, Drums and even sing! Guitar Hero may not be the most realistic guitar-type experience you can get but it surely will help you play the instrument in time. Playing Guitar Hero will help you practice timing which is the most important part of playing an instrument, many people would tell you. On this page of my Guitar Hero guide I have a list of tips and tricks to make you a better player and help you beat that tricky song. Further on in the guide I'll make seperate mini-guides for each Guitar Hero song to help you get through any of the tricky parts. Also to prevent confusion, below is a list of words that you will see throughout this guide which you may not understand. So, I will explain them to you now to get it out of the way. Chord - Multiple notes that you must strum together. Strum - When you use the paddle on the right side of your controller to hit the notes. Tremlo - Moving the strum bar up and down quickly to hit multiple notes that are close together. Hammer On - When two notes are close together somtimes the second may be able to be "Hammered On" This means you can hit the color corresponding to the note and not strum to still get credit. Riff - A specific part of the song. It could be either a verse, chorus or even a few notes together. A riff is what people use to describe just plain ol' parts of a song. Also throughout this guide I will refer to each of the different notes throughout Guitar Hero, star power nodes, hammer ons and pull offs, and the slidey bar thing, what ever that part is officially called. To help you understand what each of the different notes look like below, if you're new to the game, I included a picture!
About Me (1.2) First things first, I own the website you're on right now and I am the one that writes the guides, edits and designs it. Now that you know about my website, on a more musical note, I've been playing Guitar, Bass and Drums for over three years and singing for nearly two. I have a few youtube vocal covers up which you're more than welcome to check out. You can find the links at the bottom of the About Me section. Also since I am still talking about myself... I also wrote a book which is titled 2012: The Zombie Apocalypse, if you enjoy reading at all or are interested in Zombies I recommend you buy it! If you own an X-box 360 and would like to add me to your friends list or ask for some advice shoot me a friend request, my Gamertag is Almar Winfield. Now for the most common question that I am usually asked... What bands do I listen to. My musical tastes are generally off the wall and quite unique. My favorite genre is probably melodic death metal or screamo but my favorite band of all time is Blink 182. Below I've made a list of all the bands I listen too, they are in no specific order just whatever time they shot into my head. Also for funs sake, I made all of the bands clickable, when you click it you will be taken to my favorite song from that band. Blink 182 There is more, I am sure but that is what comes to mind. Also, I've been playing Guitar Hero since Guitar Hero 3 came out. I originally started off bad, very bad, as did probably almost everyone. Unlike many people I won't be one to tell you to go into practice mode and "practice, practice, practice". The only way you will get better is by playing Guitar Hero and continually playing songs that are difficult for you and new to you. You'll eventually watch yourself getting better and better as time goes on. The main recommendation I can make to you about getting better is to play a song that is difficult for you that you enjoy and keep playing it. Senses Fail - Bite to Break Skin Vocal Cover Playing on Expert (1.3) Many different things will factor in when it comes to playing on Expert, a few of them are speed, endurance (for songs like Through the Fire and Flames), knowing the song, knowing the chart, knowing where the buttons are and most importantly, timing. For people who are already musicians, you may find it easier than most to play on expert since you have the basic skills of playing an Instrument under your belt. Timing will be one of the most difficult things for newbies that have never played an instrument before to pick up. A quick explanation of timing is simple. It is really nothing more than the ability to hit the note at the same time it is played at in the actual song. If you play an instrument and you're familiar with measures and even some music theory that will help a ton when it comes to playing Guitar Hero. Actually, over all knowledge of the song helps too. For example, say you've heard Metallica - Fade to Black 400 or more times. You will be familiar with the notes, how fast they come at you and when the song goes from slow to fast or when it transitions between verses. Speed and Endurance are both important too. Being able to move as fast as the notes are on the screen and your arm not getting tired with how fast you will be strumming is very important. My arm used to get tired after playing for awhile but it no longer does, however, the arthritis in my left hand kills me after playing only a few songs for the night. If you're fully comfortable with yourself and already have timing, stamina and speed then you will have one thing left... Learning the chart/controller. Below is a small, crude, picture of the order the colors are in on the Guitar Hero controller.
Depending on what difficult you play on will determine how many colors are available to you, but since this is a guide for playing on expert you should already know all the colors will be available to you. Learning and memorizing the order of these colors will help you very much in the long run. If you're color blind then your best bet is to memorize their placement on the screen and their placement on the controller. As time goes on you'll start to memorize the colors and notes of every song. As for playing on expert there are two more things to keep in mind. One is, do what is easy and two is don't freak out. Both of these I will get into shortly, but first I am going to answer another common question. Three Fingers, or Four? This is a heavily debated topic when it comes to Guitar Hero and Guitar too. Should you use three or four fingers? In my personal opinion you won't see a difference between three or four fingers. I personally use three and I am better than friends that use four. My pinky is NOT coordinated at all and I actually have a bigger reach with my ring finger than I do using my pinky. The way to over come the whole only using three fingers for a 4-note streak is to slide. If the color pattern goes Green, Red, Yellow, Blue then I will hit Green, hammer on Red, hammer on Yellow and then slide my ring finger to blue. This is my unique style and I don't expect it to work for everyone, but this is what I do. Don't Freak Out (1.4) This is one of the most important things you will need to teach yourself when it comes to Guitar Hero. Don't freak out. It is easy to panic when a lot of notes come your way and you're not expecting it. If you freak out you will mess up and hit the wrong notes at the wrong time which will hurt you MUCH more than just plain missing all of the notes. Sitting their and spamming your strum bar while hitting four different colors is never a good strategy when it comes to beating a solo. If you know a tough part is coming up, get ready and place your core finger (pointer) at the first note of the line. Whether it be orange, green, blue, yellow whatever. If your pointer finger is on the first color you have to hit then it will be easy to use your index finger for any hammer ons immediately after. At first you will become overwhelmed quite easily while playing, especially when a solo comes your way. But you'll notice later that the calmer you are and the less you freak out the better you will do. Another thing worth noting under the "Don't freak out" section is, for everyone there will be a complicated riff or something that is just retardedly hard to do for you. It may be the most simplistic thing known to man, but for some reason it is hard for you. For example, one of my favorite songs of all time from my favorite band of all time, "Blink 182 - Dammit" on Guitar Hero World Tour, I just can't 5*. I will always miss a note on the main riff of the song because for some odd reason it is difficult to me. But yet, I can play all of Through the Fire and Flames and finish it with 4 stars. Focus on What Is Easy (1.5) If you're new to expert difficulty and having trouble with certain parts of certain songs, but can still play half way decent on Expert then this section applies to you. Say the song is throwing 3 notes at you, green, red and yellow. Hitting all three is too hard for you and will mess you up inevitably leading to you failing the song. The best thing for you to do is just focus on hitting green and red. Missing one note won't cause you to fail the song and will barely bring down your rock meter. The same applies to other difficult riffs. If something is too hard for you then try ignoring one of the notes. I had to exercise this strategy a few years ago when playing Rock Band. The song was Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds You. For some reason the solo was very difficult for me at the time and I had to completely ignore a few notes in order to pass it. This strategy is more commonly used on "Metallica - Fight Fire with Fire" than any other song for Expert. Summary: - Skip a note if you have to - Everyone sucks at a certain riff Star Power Need-To-Knows (1.6) Star Power will be your best friend when it comes to Guitar Hero. Not only will it multiply your points but it will also multiply the amount of "rock" that goes to your rock meter, aka fail meter. star power can be collected by hitting every note in the sequence of "starred" notes as well as using the Whammy Bar on held star power notes. Throughout the song you will notice certain parts have notes that look much different than any other notes, these notes are Star Power notes.
You can tell the difference between them and the other notes because they will be in the shape of a star and they will rotate on your screen. There are two different ways people will use star ower, one is to save their ass from failing. The second is people who save it for the part of the song with the most notes or biggest chords for maximum points. There are a few different reasons you should save star power in the game... 1. You don't know the song at all and don't know if it ever will throw a difficult solo in your face 2. You know the song and know a part that generally screws you up, which you are saving star power for 3. You're really freaking good and use star power on the solo that you 100% for maximum points When it comes to maximizing your points with star power the only thing better than a fuck ton of notes is 3 note chords. 3 note chords will give you the most points per hit. For example, two songs that come to mind for you to save star power on are Lamb of God - Laid to Rest (Guitar Hero Smash Hits) for the 3 chords right after the break down and The Devil Wears Prada - Dez Moines (Guitar Hero World Tour Downloadable Content). The Devil Wears Prada song is good to bring up mainly for the fact that it has a very fast tremlo part as well as a 3 note chord part. You will still want to pop the star power on the chords even though the tremlo part has literally 10x more notes. Hammer Ons Pull Offs and The Slide (1.7) As described earlier in the guide a Hammer On are when there are two or more notes close enough together that you don't have to strum the second one. You will most commonly find Hammer Ons during solos and on the harder songs. Pull offs work the same way as Hammer Ons do, you do not have to strum them either. There can also be multiple Hammer Ons in a row, not just one or two but sometimes even twenty. The same rules apply as before though, you only will have to strum the initial note UNLESS... You miss one of the Hammer Ons. If you miss a Hammer On then you will be required to strum again in order to continue Hammering-On so to speak.
The slidey parts of songs is another really unique part. You can tell it is a "slidey" part because the notes will all be a dark purple. During a slidey part you will be able to Hammer-On all of the notes regardless of if you miss one or not. There are some songs which it still may be easier to strum during the "slidey" parts though, like the Satch Boogie song at the end of Guitar Hero World Tour. Hyperspeed (1.8) Hyperspeed is one of the few Guitar Hero cheats. Although it is highly debateable about it being a cheat. Many people use Hyperspeed and many people cry about people using Hyperspeed. I, for one, use Hyperspeed 3. The reason I use Hyperspeed is because without it the notes come at me too slow. I like the notes flying at me extremely fast, it keeps it entertaining for me. Am I worse without Hyperspeed 3 on? Yes. I am very accustomed to the speed of Hyperspeed 3 and without it my attention span doesn't keep up with the game being slow and I usually start missing notes. Whether or not you want to use Hyperspeed is up to you. I recommend using Hyperspeed 3 when you're playing alone and Hyperspeed 1 while you're playing with others. They equal out to be about the same speed. If you're interested in Hyperspeed than you will need to put in one of the specific cheat sequences to unlock it. What the sequence is for the cheat will depend on your system and your game. You will be able to find these cheat codes on Gamefaqs or other related sights. |
