Guitar Hero 3 : Help, I suck.

[Scoundrel Swanswater]

I bought Guitar Hero 3 last Friday and have been playing it all weekend.
I was able to finish it on Easy, except for the Slayer song.
That song is a lot harder then the rest of the songs.

Now I am trying to get the hang of playing on Normal, but boy, that is quite a steep learning curve.
How long did it take for you to master Normal?
Do you play any instruments in real life?
Does anybody have any tips on how to master Guitar Hero 3?
I am trying to get the hang of hammer on/the other thingie but find it very difficult to know when I need to apply it exactly.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Koldanar]

Practice mode. Practice mode. Practice mode.

I got my girlfriend hooked on Guitar Hero back in November, and at that point she was barely finishing the first few easy songs. She worked at it, learning the songs, and practicing them. Now she's just stuck at Lou in medium, having also 5 starred a good portion of the medium songs.

About hammer ons - Simply put when you see the sparkling note, either press that button (and don't strum) as it crosses the bottom, or let off your current note while holding down the sparkling one as it crosses the bottom.

[DeadlyAccurate]

This article (http://www.gamealmighty.com/story-individual/story/Rock_Band_How_to_Improve_Your_Guitar_Skills/1/) helped me get up to Hard.

[duality72]

Make sure you've calibrated the video lag.

[Scoundrel Swanswater]

About hammer ons - Simply put when you see the sparkling note, either press that button (and don't strum) as it crosses the bottom, or let off your current note while holding down the sparkling one as it crosses the bottom.
Aha, that is some great info.

[Scoundrel Swanswater]

Make sure you've calibrated the video lag.
I didn't really notice any lag, but that is probably because I haven't seen any real fast parts yet.
I just started playing on normal yesterday.

[A Priori Tea]

Try Rock Band. ;) Seriously, it's considerably (by which I mean a metric ton) easier, and the transition from one level to another (going from three colors to four, and four to five) is much smoother. No struggling with twice as many notes *plus* another button to worry about in the very first song. (Your GHIII guitar will work with Rock Band, too, by the way, so no need to buy peripherals unless you want to play drums or sing.)

If you're just loving the overall feel of GHIII more, then Practice, Practice, Practice! When you slow the song down to get the feel for how the rhythms and progressions work, it gets much easier.

Good luck - I'm sure you'll be a Fisher Price Guitar Virtuoso in no time! :D

[Scoundrel Swanswater]

Try Rock Band. ;)
I'd love too, but when that one will be released in Europe is still not very clear.
They are saying May, but since I am living in the Netherlands it will probably be Christmas.
I had to look for 2 weeks to finally find a copy of Guitar Hero 3 down here.

I also heard rumors that they might skip the GH3 guitar support in RockBand before releasing it in Europe, because of a conflict between Harmonix and ActiVision.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/12/13/activision-denies-ps3-rock-band-support-for-guitar-hero-iii-controller
Although in the comments below the article I can see that on the Xbox360 (which I am using) the GH3 guitar will work in RockBand, just not the other way around.
We will see...