I got Rock Band after Christmas, and I’m actually pretty good at it. I’m never really good at video games, but for some reason I’m alright at this (the guitar anyway. Haven’t tried the drums yet)
I’m so far only playing the songs on Medium difficulty. But I recently discovered you can strum up to play the notes as well, which made me feel like an idiot. But I’m so used to just strumming down, and I get significantly uncoordinated when I’ve tried to strum up as well as down, although I see how it is easier for the rapidly changing notes.
Does anyone else here that plays this game have this problem? I’m figuring as I go up in level-difficulty the note changes are going to get more complicated and I should get used to the “up and down” because it would be easier. But I’m making so many mistakes when I do that it’s discouraging. Any thoughts?
^ Dude, I’m an avid gamer, and I’m totally in the same boat as you. Trying to strum both up and down is like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time.
Does anyone have any tips? Should one only strum up on the fast portions, or alternate the whole way though?
Don’t look at me, it’s the same with Guitar Hero. I took some bass lessons years ago so when GH came out I played it like a bass. I can only strum down, and sometimes I use my thumb. I have no idea how to strum up, and even on the fast parts can’t.
Look, people play the game because it’s fun not to learn an instrument!
What? That wasn’t the question?
Oh. Never mind. Keep it on file when that one inevitably comes up.
(Oh, and with Guitar Hero I tried strumming but found it less efficient than treating the switch as just another button and pushing it down and releasing with my thumb.)
Later on on harder difficulties there’s no way to beat the songs unless you strum up and down.
One way to train yourself to do this is to lightly pinch the strum bar between your thumb and index finger and think of it as a switch that you flip for every note you are trying to play, holding it in the up or down position between notes. Then the strummer basically becomes a drum that you are hitting in time with the dots on screen. This is how I do it most of the time, but I typically play with a pick on songs that don’t have really fast strums because it feels more natural. Songs like Misirlou, One, That Who song on rock band, pretty much all high tier songs on expert and even some on hard can’t be beaten using only down strokes.
Really on the Guitar Hero controller (and I know the Rock Band one is slightly different with the switch performance so I’m being specific here) completing the strumming motion and the moving back took more time than adding slight pressure to the switch held in tension and then letting that pressure back. I can do ten to fifteen presses a second like that (far faster than the game goes or I can effectively synch, of course; that would just be me going crazy on the strum bar).
While I also disagree that you must “strum up and down” to beat the game, the key, as in all things, is practice.
The technique is specifically called “alt strumming” on the GH and RB forums - do what you are doing now, make the effort to up/down the notes - it will then become second nature by the time you ‘really’ need it.
‘Pinching’ the bar as you would a pick (thumb and forefinger) and being light with the touch seems to work for me - when i actually use it. Here lately I’ve found using just the very side of my thumb to feather it up and down gets me what I want.
Hope some of that helps - the key truly is practice - if you start out doing the alt strumming, and stick with it, it will become second nature.
Does this give you more appreciation for actual guitar players who can do this rapidly moving back and forth between 6 different strings with both hands while playing pretty much anywhere on the fretboard…or not?
I beat GHI on expert without the up and down technique, so it can be done. However, for “Bark at the Moon” (final song), I tried it both ways many times before succeeding. I can do the up/down technique OK, but for some reason I’m more prone to get off beat when I do that. One can hardly afford that on a really difficult song.
Like anything, I’m guessing it just takes practice. So far with Rock Band, I’ve stuck with the down-only approach when I’ve played the guitar. For me, though, Rock Band has been all about the drum and vocals.
It does for me. So much so in fact that I’m seriously considering learning to play. I think if I wasn’t torn between piano and guitar, I’d have gotten started already.
I play expert in all the GH games and I only need up-and-down strumming for the REALLY fast parts. Knights of Cydonia in GH3 for example would be impossible without going up and down.
My advice to you though is to try to learn now how to strum up and down. I didn’t try to learn until I was on the last tier of expert and it took me a ton of practice to unlearn my bad habits.
Hey, just came back to this thread to say thanks for the advice! I’ve been strumming up and down and it’s really made my game better. I tried going back the “old way” just to fuck around, and I really sucked! I can’t imagine playing any other way now.
