Guitar Hero II (2) Beginner to Experienced Guide for Better Playing

Guitar Hero is a rhythm-based game for the PlayStation 2 and the XBox 360 where you have to play a "guitar" in time with many well known tracks.  This guide is for the XBOX 360 version, but it can be applied to all versions of the game.  Playing requires nothing more than a sense of the music's beat, a small degree of patience, a love of at least a few of the songs present, and most importantly - ludicrously dexterous fingers (a skill which can be acquired).

Despite the Gibson X-Plorer being a much simplified version of a full guitar, playing can still be near impossible - especially at higher difficulty levels.

Do you want to become a Guitar Hero? We will approach play from a beginner level and give tips to all you new shredders out there.

First off, get to know your guitar - whilst not being nearly as complicated nor as big as an actual electric guitar, your mini Gibson has sufficient features to make it a real challenge to play. First and foremost is the strum bar, the white two-directional switch in the center of the guitar. You push or pull this up or down in order to play a note. The note which you play is determined by pressing combinations of the five fret buttons on the guitar's neck. They are colored for quicker identification. Near the strum bar is a whammy bar, a small stick which you can move in order to modulate the sound produced by an extended note. Finally, the typical XBox 360 Start and Back buttons have been placed next to the Guide button and D-Pad.

If you're right handed, use your left hand to hold the guitar's neck with your three or four fingers placed over each of the fret buttons; keep your right hand on or near the strum bar. Left handers will just do the opposite, though you will also have to accommodate the whammy bar.  Here is "Major Nelson" demonstrating how to hold his Gibson.

If you play sitting down, then you can rest the guitar in your lap; but if you want to play standing up, you will need to use the strap provided - though heed the game's warning: "Don't wear your guitar above your belt - you're not in the Beatles!".

Take a while to get used to holding the guitar comfortably, something that you may find yourself doing lots!  If you want, personalise your guitar using the stickers provided with the game. 

Career is where the bulk of the game's fun lies - playing up to 55 songs across four difficulty levels allow you to accumulate cash, kudos and fame; the completion of each set of songs increasing your status, allowing you to play at a new venue and unlock a new set of five songs. Your earnings allow you to "purchase" unlockables such as new guitars, songs and characters.

Time to Play

The best way to get used to playing is by having a crack at a song; and the simplest song is "Surrender" on easy mode. When the song starts, a board will then appear in the lower middle of the screen, along with two structures in the lower corners. These are:

The main bit, and the key to your success, is the scrolling fret board in the middle of the screen. On this, notes are positioned with colours corresponding to the colours of the fret buttons on your guitar; their position on screen also reflects their position on the neck (i.e. the green key will always scroll down on the far left of the board - or right if lefty-flip is on). At the bottom of the screen are a number of unsaturated colored circles; pressing one of the fret buttons lights up the corresponding circle.

On the lower left is your score, and "score multiplier". You receive a certain number of points for each note you hit, but stringing together 10 successive notes will increase your score multiplier so that you get twice as many points per note. This increases up to a 4x bonus. If you miss a note, the multiplier is reset to 0.

The lower right has a meter which shows the crowd's opinion of you. A needle will swing to the green when you're playing well and the crowd love you, and swing into the red when you're playing poorly. If it goes too far into the red you will get booed off of the stage and have to restart the song. Above the meter is a bar which is your "star power" indicator - this is explained later.

On easy mode only the green, red and yellow buttons are used; so ignore the other two.

Color notes will begin to scroll down from the top of the scrolling fret board. When you see the first note, green, hold down the green fret button. When the note reaches the bottom of the screen level to the greyed out circles, strum using the strum bar. For each successive note, strum again. Other notes are played in exactly the same way: you press the red or yellow buttons and strum when the note reaches the bottom of the screen - using the music's beat and melody will help you gauge when to play. Distilled to it's most basic level - that's all there is to this game, strumming in time to the note whilst using the fret buttons to play the appropriate note. If you play too late or too early, you'll "miss" the note, hear a ghastly noise, and lose some popularity.

This will be extended by playing chords:  here you have to press two of the fret buttons instead of one. Again the buttons you press correspond with those denoted on screen.

Long notes are notes where the note is sustained after it has been played. They are denoted by a colored line trailing a note down the screen; and are played by holding down the appropriate fret button until the line has passed. After playing its initial note, you do not need to strum again. Instead, you can use your strumming hand to operate the whammy bar and distort the sustain.

That's it! Play the notes that are requested on screen. Don't be put off if you fail on your first few attempts, because it takes a while to get used to playing competently. Working through songs progressively, regardless of how badly you feel that you are doing, and how low the scores you scrape through with are, will make you better - even though you don't realise it. As soon as you feel confident that you can string a few notes together, hop onto career mode and play through some songs. They won't be any harder here.

Here are some hints that will help you on your way to becoming a Guitar Hero!

• Failing a song or missing a note (or even a dozen) is not the end of the world; and you'll be less likely to hit successive notes if you are too tense, bringing down your approval on a song.
  
  
• If you find a particular passage hard, try playing it in a different position. Can't get past a song for a while? Go back and try to improve your score on some of the easier ones, improving your technique and giving you the skill needed to beat it.
  
  
• Prepare for notes by holding down the button coming before it gets to the strum area.
  
  
• If you hold down a button to the left (or for a lefty, right) of the one you need to strum while also holding down the required button, strumming will not make you fail the note, this only doesn't work with chords. This is a key component to your success on playing solo's later on in the game.
  
  
• On Easy mode for sake of ease, just keep your index, middle and ring finger on the green, red and yellow buttons respectively.
  
  
• On Medium mode, learn to use your pinky to hit the blue fret button and you won't have to move your hand at all.
  
  
• On Hard mode, you can learn to shift your whole hand up and down, but as you get better it starts to get easier when you actually slide your hand up and down on the "fretboard" kind of like you were actually playing the guitar. Your pinky will just cramp up too much on Hard and Expert.
  
  
• Watch the notes closely. Almost every song has a pattern to it.
  
  
• If you're about to move from medium to hard, play a few medium songs on hyper speed mode to get used to the change in speed.
  
  
• Hyper speed mode is a life-saver. On some of the hardest songs, hyper speed is the only way to win. This is B/C Hyper speed mode spaces the notes more, even if they're moving faster.
  
  
• If you already play the guitar (electric/acoustic, doesn't matter) try using a pick on the strumming bar it really helps.
  
  
• As loading screens are kind of boring and useless you can try to strum up and down while pressing each colored fret from green to orange then back to green with your other hand. This will make you improve in moving your hand up and down in hard and expert modes. When you can go fast, try to strum each fret two or three times.

Something to keep in mind when playing these songs, if you know the pace and the timing of the notes, and listening to them when you are not playing will help.  Thanks to "K-Dog" for his insight in this matter.