Retro Game Walkthroughs for Guitar Hero (PlayStation 2)
Submitted By: Asdasta
Guitar Hero
by Reefer
=========
Contents:
=========
1 – Controlling the Guitar
2 – Guitar Technique
2.1 – Hammer-Ons/Pull-Offs
2.2 – Slide
2.3 – Reach
2.4 – Shift
2.5 – The “Pinky” Finger
2.6 – Skip
3 – Tips
3.1 – Easy Mode
3.2 – Medium Mode
3.3 – Hard Mode
3.4 – Expert Mode
4 - Epilogue
1 – Controlling the Guitar
==========================
- Start Button = Pauses and unpauses the game.
- Select Button = Activates “Star Power”, enabling you to gain more points at crucial moments of the song.
- Green Fret Button = Hits the green note, and also confirms in the menu.
- Red Fret Button = Hits the red note, and also cancels in the menu.
- Yellow Fret Button = Hits yellow note
- Blue Fret Button = Hits blue note
- Orange Fret Button = Hits orange note
- Strum Bar = With the corresponding frets held down, press the strum bar up or down to register the desired note. Strumming up or down can also navigate the menus.
- Whammy Bar = Push the bar in towards the guitar on longer held notes to raise the bridge and alter the sound of the notes. It can also be used in conjunction with star power notes to gain star power.
- Tilt Sensor = Tilt the guitar upwards whilst playing to activate star power mode, allowing your points to increase drastically.
2 – Guitar Technique
====================
Note: most of these techniques are covered in tutorials, just not to this depth or context. I’ve thrown in a few things I discovered myself. I’ll try to keep the guitar terminology to a minimum and as simple as possible:
2.1 - Hammer On/Pull Off
========================
Notes not bearing a black circle around them can be used here. Be sure to always strum notes bearing the black circle fully, though. The idea of a hammer and pull is if you need to alternate between two notes – e.g. Green and Red, you can keep hold of Green, and just alternate your free finger on the Red note by holding it, and then releasing it. This will save you valuable finger work, as you’ll have no need to press the Green fret, as it’ll already be held down, and all that’s required is to release the Red.
2.2 – Slide
===========
A very simple technique that serves the mere purpose of getting to the next fret quicker. Rather than releasing your hand from the neck, just slide up or down the neck.
2.3 – Reach
===========
When a chord might only shift one note up, instead of adjusting your hand position, just reach your finger over to the next note. This avoids confusion and makes playing for beginners somewhat easier.
2.4 – Shift
===========
When your skills build up, and it shouldn’t take too long, shifting is a vital asset in both Guitar Hero and “real” guitar playing in terms of chord transitions. At first, it may be difficult to both watch the television you’re playing it on and keep an eye on the fretboard, but after some decent practice, it should come to you fairly naturally. The key is remembering where your fingers are at all times, so you don’t accidentally overstep and play a chord that’s a note high on each fret.
2.5 - The “Pinky” Finger
========================
Similar to reach, but it applies to your “pinky” or smallest finger. If shifting isn’t appropriate in that particular instance, the pinky can be a Godsend. Just reach it over to what will usually be the Blue fret, giving you the vital reach you require to pull the chord off successfully.
2.6 – Skip
==========
If you know you’re going to miss a note, just skip it. It’s likely that if you mess one note up, you’ll lose your flow and not regain it. My advice is to skip that note and just continue, and it’s then still possible to end up with a good score.
3 – Tips
========
3.1 – Easy Mode
===============
This mode shouldn’t cause you masses of trouble, as only the three buttons to the left are used – the other two are introduced on later difficulties. If you’re still struggling, then take your time on the tutorials until you feel confident enough to return to Easy Mode.
As a prelude to your skill in the later stages, if you’re struggling with Easy Mode, you’re going to find Hard and Expert insanely difficult. Practice makes perfect, as they say.
Keep hold of the green button almost constantly. You should seldom, or very rarely, need to release your finger from the green fret, and this will help with speed of playing, particularly when playing a long scale or set of notes.
3.2 – Medium Mode
=================
The pinky finger is the key here. You can make subsequent modes worlds easier for yourself if you get used to making use of the pinky finger as much as possible. Using the pinky, as will be instinctive to “real” guitar players, it’s possible to play through medium mode without shifting your hand position.
It is also in medium mode where you’ll need to learn to master hammer-ons and pull-off (see section 2.1).
Cowboys From Hell is a nice medium to ease you in here. It’s not as hard as, say, Bark At The Moon, but easier than Crossroads, at least in my experience.
3.3 – Hard Mode
===============
And here’s where that much lauded “pinky training” will pay off. If you’ve been utilising it to a good degree, this will make Hard Mode substantially easier. The Orange button is now introduced, and you’re essentially pushed into changing your hand positions on the guitar neck, but hopefully with your skill built up in the two previous modes, it won’t serve as any more of a problem than it needs to be.
It might just be because I’m a big fan of Queens of the Stone Age, but I find No One Knows to be a nice one to ease you in here. Whilst it has some fairly complicated note patterns, the verse is fairly straightforward for this level of playing.
3.4 – Expert Mode
=================
This is the final, and most difficult of the stages. Don’t be surprised if you’re a miserable failure – this mode really is for the elite players, although hopefully with your honed skills from the three previous difficulty settings, you’ll be able to at least scrape through each song with a decent enough rating. More notes are added, some notes are changed to chords, the Orange button is utilised more, and chord progressions are altered.
Whilst you should be used to chord progression by now, it’s still no mean feat to master in Expert mode. Getting lost in chord changes is the biggest problem that I discovered when playing through Guitar Hero the first time, so I’d recommend starting on a fairly simplistic song such as Smoke On The Water first.
4 - Epilogue
============
Thanks for reading, and I hope this helped you in some capacity. The guide clearly isn't the longest there is, but then the game doesn't exactly have a million different nuances to it. Nevertheless, the game has immense replay value, and I hope you enjoy the game even more with these tips.
Thanks,
Reefer.
by Reefer
=========
Contents:
=========
1 – Controlling the Guitar
2 – Guitar Technique
2.1 – Hammer-Ons/Pull-Offs
2.2 – Slide
2.3 – Reach
2.4 – Shift
2.5 – The “Pinky” Finger
2.6 – Skip
3 – Tips
3.1 – Easy Mode
3.2 – Medium Mode
3.3 – Hard Mode
3.4 – Expert Mode
4 - Epilogue
1 – Controlling the Guitar
==========================
- Start Button = Pauses and unpauses the game.
- Select Button = Activates “Star Power”, enabling you to gain more points at crucial moments of the song.
- Green Fret Button = Hits the green note, and also confirms in the menu.
- Red Fret Button = Hits the red note, and also cancels in the menu.
- Yellow Fret Button = Hits yellow note
- Blue Fret Button = Hits blue note
- Orange Fret Button = Hits orange note
- Strum Bar = With the corresponding frets held down, press the strum bar up or down to register the desired note. Strumming up or down can also navigate the menus.
- Whammy Bar = Push the bar in towards the guitar on longer held notes to raise the bridge and alter the sound of the notes. It can also be used in conjunction with star power notes to gain star power.
- Tilt Sensor = Tilt the guitar upwards whilst playing to activate star power mode, allowing your points to increase drastically.
2 – Guitar Technique
====================
Note: most of these techniques are covered in tutorials, just not to this depth or context. I’ve thrown in a few things I discovered myself. I’ll try to keep the guitar terminology to a minimum and as simple as possible:
2.1 - Hammer On/Pull Off
========================
Notes not bearing a black circle around them can be used here. Be sure to always strum notes bearing the black circle fully, though. The idea of a hammer and pull is if you need to alternate between two notes – e.g. Green and Red, you can keep hold of Green, and just alternate your free finger on the Red note by holding it, and then releasing it. This will save you valuable finger work, as you’ll have no need to press the Green fret, as it’ll already be held down, and all that’s required is to release the Red.
2.2 – Slide
===========
A very simple technique that serves the mere purpose of getting to the next fret quicker. Rather than releasing your hand from the neck, just slide up or down the neck.
2.3 – Reach
===========
When a chord might only shift one note up, instead of adjusting your hand position, just reach your finger over to the next note. This avoids confusion and makes playing for beginners somewhat easier.
2.4 – Shift
===========
When your skills build up, and it shouldn’t take too long, shifting is a vital asset in both Guitar Hero and “real” guitar playing in terms of chord transitions. At first, it may be difficult to both watch the television you’re playing it on and keep an eye on the fretboard, but after some decent practice, it should come to you fairly naturally. The key is remembering where your fingers are at all times, so you don’t accidentally overstep and play a chord that’s a note high on each fret.
2.5 - The “Pinky” Finger
========================
Similar to reach, but it applies to your “pinky” or smallest finger. If shifting isn’t appropriate in that particular instance, the pinky can be a Godsend. Just reach it over to what will usually be the Blue fret, giving you the vital reach you require to pull the chord off successfully.
2.6 – Skip
==========
If you know you’re going to miss a note, just skip it. It’s likely that if you mess one note up, you’ll lose your flow and not regain it. My advice is to skip that note and just continue, and it’s then still possible to end up with a good score.
3 – Tips
========
3.1 – Easy Mode
===============
This mode shouldn’t cause you masses of trouble, as only the three buttons to the left are used – the other two are introduced on later difficulties. If you’re still struggling, then take your time on the tutorials until you feel confident enough to return to Easy Mode.
As a prelude to your skill in the later stages, if you’re struggling with Easy Mode, you’re going to find Hard and Expert insanely difficult. Practice makes perfect, as they say.
Keep hold of the green button almost constantly. You should seldom, or very rarely, need to release your finger from the green fret, and this will help with speed of playing, particularly when playing a long scale or set of notes.
3.2 – Medium Mode
=================
The pinky finger is the key here. You can make subsequent modes worlds easier for yourself if you get used to making use of the pinky finger as much as possible. Using the pinky, as will be instinctive to “real” guitar players, it’s possible to play through medium mode without shifting your hand position.
It is also in medium mode where you’ll need to learn to master hammer-ons and pull-off (see section 2.1).
Cowboys From Hell is a nice medium to ease you in here. It’s not as hard as, say, Bark At The Moon, but easier than Crossroads, at least in my experience.
3.3 – Hard Mode
===============
And here’s where that much lauded “pinky training” will pay off. If you’ve been utilising it to a good degree, this will make Hard Mode substantially easier. The Orange button is now introduced, and you’re essentially pushed into changing your hand positions on the guitar neck, but hopefully with your skill built up in the two previous modes, it won’t serve as any more of a problem than it needs to be.
It might just be because I’m a big fan of Queens of the Stone Age, but I find No One Knows to be a nice one to ease you in here. Whilst it has some fairly complicated note patterns, the verse is fairly straightforward for this level of playing.
3.4 – Expert Mode
=================
This is the final, and most difficult of the stages. Don’t be surprised if you’re a miserable failure – this mode really is for the elite players, although hopefully with your honed skills from the three previous difficulty settings, you’ll be able to at least scrape through each song with a decent enough rating. More notes are added, some notes are changed to chords, the Orange button is utilised more, and chord progressions are altered.
Whilst you should be used to chord progression by now, it’s still no mean feat to master in Expert mode. Getting lost in chord changes is the biggest problem that I discovered when playing through Guitar Hero the first time, so I’d recommend starting on a fairly simplistic song such as Smoke On The Water first.
4 - Epilogue
============
Thanks for reading, and I hope this helped you in some capacity. The guide clearly isn't the longest there is, but then the game doesn't exactly have a million different nuances to it. Nevertheless, the game has immense replay value, and I hope you enjoy the game even more with these tips.
Thanks,
Reefer.