Guitar Hero II: what am I doing wrong?

Cafe Society
1

I just bought GH a few days ago, and I’ve managed to work through all of Easy, and all that’s left to finish Medium is that darned solo in Freebird.

Now, moving on to Hard I’m finding that even the easy songs in Battle of the Bands kick my ass. I can see a few obvious things that’ll vastly improve my performance with practice, namely figuring out how to move my hand onto the orange fret without getting disoriented and practicing hammer ons and pull offs… but going from Medium to Hard seems to be a much bigger leap than going from Easy to Medium was.

So I guess I’m wondering; other than slowing things down in Practice and rehearsing a few songs until I’ve gotten a good grasp of the new dynamics, is there anything I should be doing?

2

Ok, quick… count the number of fingers on your hand. You got six, right? No? Well, there’s your problem, right there!

Since your opposable thumb is used to hold the neck fret and there are 5 buttons on the Guitar Hero controller, it’s clearly designed for six-fingered players.

So, either grow another finger, or read this handy guide and get ready to learn slides and hopos:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/932565/49247

3

It mostly comes down to being able to remember what position your fret hand is in and being able to slide quickly between the two positions.

Try playing a song on medium with your hand in the lower position (pinky on orange) and slide up only when you need to play a green and then right back down. It’s good practice without having to worry about the crazy solo parts that hard sometimes throws at you.

4

Ooh, thanks a lot for both of your advice! That FAQ is pretty handy… I hadn’t thought of using the bass line to practice finding the orange tab.

5

You should learn two techniques for hitting the fifth button: Stretching your pinky to hit it, and shifting your hand. They’re both useful for different types of passages.

When shifting your hand, don’t shift with your fingers or wrist. Learn to lock your fingers and wrist into one position, then shift your entire forearm. That way, your fingers never get ‘lost’. You just snap your arm from one position to the other and back as necessary, in an almost mechanical movement.