Guitar Hero Newbie- Fingers and guitar?!

[Stubbsy05]

Picked up GH WT guitar bundle from morrissons cheap at £39 on tues.

Anyways what fingers do you use? I have got the hang of easy (3 colours) using my 3 fingers (1 for each colour) fine.

However on Normal with 4 colours I figured I could just use my little finger for the blue notes. Stuggling a bit though!

What do you guys use? ONe of my friends just uses 3 fingers and slides up and down accordingly.

(no puns intended in this post BTW lol)

Thanks

 

[JimboJambo86]

Picked up GH WT guitar bundle from morrissons cheap at £39 on tues.

Anyways what fingers do you use? I have got the hang of easy (3 colours) using my 3 fingers (1 for each colour) fine.

However on Normal with 4 colours I figured I could just use my little finger for the blue notes. Stuggling a bit though!

What do you guys use? ONe of my friends just uses 3 fingers and slides up and down accordingly.

(no puns intended in this post BTW lol)

Thanks

you will probably find on harder songs u have to use 4 fingers, especially when you move up to hard.
but it is good practise for 3 fingers as u need to be able to move them quickly.
i rely too much on keeping all four fingers on the first four buttons for medium, when i try hard i struggle as when i press the last button i get lost with where my fingers are!

 

[wizbongre]

You just need to give yourself some time to get some strength and control to your pinky! Seriously, after a short time you'll be using all four fingers no problem.

I use the sliding up and down method (oo-er) to play the hard songs but admit, sometimes it gets difficult remembering where your fingers are on the buttons!

 

[jason7579]

I'd use all 4 fingers and practice, practice, practice

You will hit many brick walls on your way to Guitar Godness and think you will never overcome them but the more you play the better you get.

When playing hard if I get stuck I go up to Expert and play the easier songs and then go back down to hard later. If you continue to fail take a break and go back to it later, it always helps me. Above all don't think its useless trying anymore and give up, once you get the hang of it, its a very rewarding game and probably the most fun I've had on the xbox

There are also plenty of GH / RB games out there so if you do get stuck (and have the funds) grab yourself GH2, 3, Aerosmith, RB or RB2 and have a lpay through those. They will bring back the fun factor with all fresh songs and give you that much extra practice.

Good Luck

 

[Spidey987]

I think you should use both techniques on medium, as it'll only help your progression. Using your pinky and moving up and down the fret board are musts on later difficulties.

 

[candi]

The best way for Medium and up is to move your hand down one fret button. On easy you probably had one finger on each of the 3 buttons: green, red and yellow. For medium and up put your fingers on red, yellow, blue and your pinky on orange. You then move your hand up to use green. Do this method from medium and your hand will be used to moving up and down by the time you start on hard then all you have to get used to on hard is using your pinky for the orange button. It will take some time for your finger to get used to pressing the orange button. I used this method as soon as I started medium and got used to it very quickly.

 

[lentini]

Easy: play using your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers. This will get your brain used to using your pinky and strengthen it up a bit.

Medium: once you've gone through Medium and got used to it, go back through using only your 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers (where you can). This'll get you used to moving you hand up and down the 'frets'. You can also do this with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers to strengthen your pinky even more.

 

[DarthQuack]

I'm currently playing mainly medium with a couple of the easier songs on hard and so using 4 fingers on red through to orange and moving hand up to play green.

My question though is when do you move your hand back down to the original red-orange postion, to play any other notes apart from green or just when you have to get the pinky back for an orange note?

Generally finding I can shift my hand for most sequences after playing a green note but some just seem impossible, especially where you have to get it back to green again as part of the sequence.

 

[lentini]

I'm currently playing mainly medium with a couple of the easier songs on hard and so using 4 fingers on red through to orange and moving hand up to play green.

My question though is when do you move your hand back down to the original red-orange postion, to play any other notes apart from green or just when you have to get the pinky back for an orange note?

Generally finding I can shift my hand for most sequences after playing a green note but some just seem impossible, especially where you have to get it back to green again as part of the sequence.

Try not to think about it too much, go with whatever feels natural. Sometimes I find myself using my 1st finger on the yellow button, I just go with it.

 

[DarthQuack]

Yes have found that sometimes but then find that I have lost where my fingers are and end up pressing the wrong button! Ah well, more practice but makes it difficult on medium as you have to force yourself to move your hand as you never need to play the orange button.

 

[chewyx]

just keep practicing and youll find a system that you feel comfortable with. I generaly have my first finger on red and slide it to green if i need to but it depends on the song.

Like Lentini said try not to think about it too much and it will just come naturally. I often find that my first finger is on yellow or even blue but after lots of practice i know where i am and have no problem moving back to green without breaking combo (providing im using the RB strat. I still struggle with the les paul as i cant get used to the raised fret buttons)

Another tip for newbies would be to get the hang of alt strumming (strumming up and down) as soon as possible. You will find the leap from medium to hard much more manageable if you can alt strum. It will also make alot of the harder songs on medium easier to play. There are alot of songs on hard you probably wont pass if you cant alt strum.

To start with you'll struggle with it but keep practicing and it wont take long before it just comes as second nature.

 

[StevieBuck]

I got this game (World Tour) a few weeks ago, and it was the first time I'd ever really played it. I started off on easy, but shortly after moved onto medium for a greater challenge. It took me a while to get used to playing the blue fret with my little finger, but now I have no problems with it.

After completing the game on easy/medium, I've started to play through the game again as bass guitar but this time on hard - I think the jump from medium to hard is far greater than it was going from easy to medium. My main problem is figuring out which buttons my fingers are on without looking, as of course on medium I had the same finger on each button all the time.

One thing I have found useful is the raised part on the middle/yellow fret (kinda like the raised dot on the '5' on a phone keypad so you can dial without actually seeing the numbers), so once you get used to it you can use that to tell if you're on the correct frets without looking.


On a side note - can you use the guitar with any of the Guitar Hero games (I see some games are available separately)?

 

[chewyx]

On a side note - can you use the guitar with any of the Guitar Hero games (I see some games are available separately)?

yes. the guitar works on both other guitar hero titles and both rock band titles too and all are available as a stand alone game.

If your unsure which one to go for, GH2 is pretty good but most of the songs are covers, GH3 is good with a great setlist (IMHO) but is insanely difficult.

Rock band is awesome go buy it immediately. Get RB2 and then rent RB1 and you can import alll (but 4) songs into RB2 for less than £5.

 

[Gordon B]

GH3 songs are all covers as well no?

On the subject of fingers, heres a cautionary tail for you. As a goalkeeper my fingers tend to take quite a bit of abuse and my left pinky has been broken at least twice and this last time its healed slightly crooked. This makes guitaring even more difficult. Add that to he fact I cannot convince my brain to play red and blue chords (my ring finger flatly refuses to lift) and you can see why I'm happiest playing drums

I've toyed with the possibilty of switching to lefty to see if I can't retrain my brain that way....

 

[lentini]

GH3 songs are all covers as well no?

no, about half them are masters

 

[Gordon B]

no, about half them are masters

Didn't know that. Thanks

 

[clarinet5000]

THe best way to get used to moving is to give it time. After about 9 months I can beat all of the Dragonforce DLC. I still can't beat the intro to Through the fire and Flames and The Devil Went Down to Georgia.

 

[virtual22]

It took me ages to get the hang of moving from position 1 for me, where index to pinky are green to blue, to playing in position 2 which is red to orange. It was a light bulb moment, was trying for months then literally one day it just came and I could do it. Now I tend to use position 2 more than 1 as I find a lot more songs on hard are red to blue chains so it means I'm not using my pinky so much.

 

[Rorifett]

no, about half them are masters

Yeah, if the song is 'as made famous by...' then it's a cover version, if it says 'as performed by...' then it's the actual band, it may not say 'performed' for the real band songs, might be a slightly different word but the covers all say 'famous'.

On topic again though I find that I tend to start with my 4 fingers on red(index finger) to the orange(pinky) and just move my index finger down for the greens. I generally try and play only on expert though cos I hate hearing notes and not having to play them during the other difficulty levels. Sadly I'm not an expert at the game though lol too many fails for a Fett

 

[adamukkent]

The best way for Medium and up is to move your hand down one fret button. On easy you probably had one finger on each of the 3 buttons: green, red and yellow. For medium and up put your fingers on red, yellow, blue and your pinky on orange. You then move your hand up to use green. Do this method from medium and your hand will be used to moving up and down by the time you start on hard then all you have to get used to on hard is using your pinky for the orange button. It will take some time for your finger to get used to pressing the orange button. I used this method as soon as I started medium and got used to it very quickly.

I agree this is how i learnt

The step up from medium to hard is very difficult and can take some time. Try to get into the habit of placing your four fingers on red upwards then using your finger (next to your phone) extending across to the green.

Other bit of advice is PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE