Jump from Medium to Hard in Guitar Hero

If you're finding medium difficulty too easy or boring, but you still can't do well on hard songs, here are some tips to make that leap.

Steps

  1. Change your hand position. Instead of having your index finger on green, slide it up to the red fret. It is much easier (at least for most people) to stretch from the red fret to the green fret with your index finger than stretching to orange with your pinky. This may take a while to get used to. Try the intro to Sweet Child O' Mine until you can do pretty well on it. If you want to practice on medium, use the hand position and reach to press the green button.
  2. Practice hammer-ons and pull-offs. I recommend Jessica and Less Talk More Rokk on expert for practice. If you are still on medium it will probably be too hard on expert so try it in practice mode on a slower speed. A good song for practicing hammer-ons and pull-offs on medium is Killing in the Name. While this is not necessary, it is highly recommended to succeed on hard and expert.
  3. Learn how to alternate-strum. Basically alt-strumming is strumming up and down, instead of only using down-strums. This is very useful when notes come fast at you (Misirlou). There are many ways to alt-strum, such as holding the strum bar like a pick and strumming up and down that way, with the palm of your hand, or your elbow (strange, but surprisingly effective).
  4. Get to know the song you're playing. Chances are, you haven't spent hours upon hours in practice mode on easy or medium practicing solo 7 in Hangar 18. Well, once you get to hard and expert, you'll have to. Find a certain spot in the song that will allow you to do better if you hit it. This doesn't necessarily mean the hardest part. Star Power phrases and parts leading into hard parts (to keep your ROCK meter in green) are good ones to practice.



Tips

  • Don't be afraid to experiment. If you've failed a song 8 times in a row, it won't do any good to keep doing what you've been doing, right?
  • USE PRACTICE MODE! It works.
  • In Guitar Hero 3, there are many songs that have over 1,000 notes and even 2,000 in hard, that medium have only a few songs over 1,000 notes. There is also now frequently seen 3-note chords.
  • If you really want an extra challenge, or an especially high score, look into creating a Star Power path. A star power path is basically a road map for star power. By using star power at the right time you can maximize your score.
  • If you can't do a part of a song, try saving all of your star power until that part. Only activate it at that part. Chances are, your star power would be full by then.
  • Stretch your fingers apart from each other, trust me it'll help you move to the orange key without moving your hand down.
  • scorehero.com - Register here if you think you are good. You can compare yourself to the best in the world. It also has a forum which is useful if you need help.

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