The fact that I went undefeated at the First (and so far only) MAMBA Kings Guitar Hero invitational notwithstanding, I never got through much of the Hard mode on Guitar Hero 1. Guitar Hero 2 was even worse because I had waited for the 360 version and had a slightly different guitar to contend with. Then I had to send the 360 back for repair and blah, blah, blah. But recently I read some advice which changes everything about playing Guitar Hero. Maybe everyknew knew this but me, but if that's true I'll ask why the hell you didn't tell me!
You shouldn't normally hold the guitar so your finger is on the green button. Your forefinger should rest on the red button, and then your remaining fingers can cover yellow, blue, and orange. The means your middle finger rest on the yellow button, not your ring finger. (The yellow button also has the raised pip, so it's easy to find without looking.) On easy mode this is very counter-intuitive, since it only uses green, red, and yellow. But you get used to holding the guitar this way and used to reaching (with your forefinger) for green. Then you don't have to reach with your pinky for orange when you get there, and you're not using your pinky for those damnable red/blue chords.
Now, sometimes you have to shift your grip up for some complex run of green & red notes, but you should always attempt to recenter on yellow when possible.
I just tried this for the first time, and played through several songs on Easy. It took two or three songs to get where I wasn't abysmal, and it still is costing me points on Easy, but it feels better. A weird side-effect is that it cured my last remaining controller issue. I was still having trouble activating Star Power on the 360. Not that the guitar itself didn't work or anything, but my grip would slip a little bit as I swung the neck upward and I'd often miss a note. Now, the different grip seems much more solid as I activate Star Power and I can do it comfortably in the middle of a complex (well complex for Easy mode) passage. Sweet!
I'm also going to work on strumming upward as well as downward while I'm slogging through easy mode songs. Once I get back to Medium I think it will see quite a payoff!
technorati tags:GuitarHero, Xbox360
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