What do I do once I'm an expert at expert?

**hfcobra** · Joined: 27 Feb 2013 Posts: 19

Alright so early this year I took it upon myself to get back into guitar hero and be better than I was when I left the game years ago. I have since completed that goal and five starred every song I own. Now I'm not sure what to do.

I basically just played all the DragonForce songs I had over and over until my hands built up some serious endurance and speed. Then most of the other songs came to be 5 stars without too much trouble.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get even better? What did you guys do to go from good to nearly perfect? I hate practice mode because I don't find it fun so I feel that maybe I'm not cut out to be any better than I am now but that is depressing to me so I hope you guys have some answers!

Lastly, as with any thread on this subject I am going to talk about Danny. How did he get so good? What does he do to practice? To me he still seems unnaturally good at the game and I'm sure many of you on here would seem like that to me as well.

**hfcobra** · Joined: 27 Feb 2013 Posts: 19

Also I forgot to mention that while I feel that I am much faster and I can play quickly for a much longer period of time without my fingers burning, I still don't feel like I have great accuracy. How do I work on that? The notes come flying down and I hit many of them and I feel like I'm keeping up but I'm just missing a couple by a little bit and it breaks my combo. I figure it must be accuracy since it isn't lack of speed.

**Cabanon** · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 6464 Location: Quebec, Canada

there's no real trick other than playing more and more. Play a song you had trouble five starring until you have no trouble five-starring or you're to an FC. then move on to a next level difficulty song and repeat. being expert at expert, im my book, means a Guitar X FSFC, so you might have a long way to go to get there or im just completly unaware of your fake plastic guitar skills.
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**ArmourTheLlama** · Joined: 19 Nov 2008 Posts: 501 Location: Surrey, England

To FC hard songs, you need practice mode.
To improve accuracy on complex sections, you need practice mode.

Learn to love it! The only way to achieve things you're proud of is by being patient, it isn't ideal but it's true. I can 5* every song in the series on expert without too much difficulty but i still feel like I've got so much more to do. You just need to come to terms with the fact that, now you're much better at the game, satisfaction is harder to come by so you'll have to work harder and be more patient to achieve things.

Also, as for Danny, ignore that. His secret is that he's an alien,with extra-terrestrial dextrous blessings, and us normal people just aren't aliens. :P
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**hfcobra** · Joined: 27 Feb 2013 Posts: 19

**alexhaz64** · Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 4480 Location: Long Beach, CA

The more you play, the better you get, simple as that. You get more comfortable performing certain motions (like tapping), you recognize patterns easier, and you can generally figure out why you're missing and what you can do to fix it. It all comes with time. There isn't one simple trick that will make you FC Soothsayer, it's a combination of many skills and techniques gained over time. I can't help but feel you're skipping ahead JUST a bit when you're thinking of tackling stuff like Dragonforce and Buckethead. Seriously, work on FCing some easier stuff first, maybe go for 50 or 60 FCs in GH3 first? Sure there are a fair number of people who are insane at this game, but most of them had to work for that skill, and play a LOT. Just don't give up, use practice mode, and don't be afraid to ask how for help if you're struggling with certain songs or sections in particular. I guarantee you wouldn't be the first to need help

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2:59 alexhaz64: I'm like 6th place on that song
2:59 alexhaz64: pretty neat
2:59 alexhaz64: :p
2:59 JohnnyGrey: No Alex, I don't care how good your score is
2:59 JohnnyGrey: DAMMIT
2:59 alexhaz64: XD
alexhaz64 flexes
2:59 psxfreak101: too slow on the trigger there, boyo
2:59 alexhaz64: that seems to be the case all night
2:59 JohnnyGrey: I've been too slow a few times tonight
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2:59 psxfreak101: XD
2:59 alexhaz64: LMAO
2:59 alexhaz64: OMG
psxfreak101 actua-loling

**ArmourTheLlama** · Joined: 19 Nov 2008 Posts: 501 Location: Surrey, England

I think many people started out tapping (I certainly did) with TTFAF's intro. Can you tap this yet? If not it's a great place to start. Regarding the trouble moving your right hand from strum bar to frets quickly, try strumming with your elbow so you don't need to move your hand up, or, if that's not an option because of fast strumming or some weird moral principle some people seem to have, then you have to practice using one hand for the first few notes of the sequence until your right hand can get up to tap. And SLOW THINGS DOWN because (almost) no-one can tap at 13+nps straight away!

I've often wondered too about if there's some special technique the top players have that I'm missing out on, but the truth is different things work for different people, and with regard to the hardest sections in the series, most people just don't have the physical capacity (finger speed, dexterity, endurance etc.) to do it yet. Try different things, never rule out a method, until you find something that works for you. Like in Kung Fu Panda, the secret ingredient is that there is no secret ingredient :P Sorry that it's probably totally not the answer you want to hear :P
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**hfcobra** · Joined: 27 Feb 2013 Posts: 19

**ihatebarracuda** · Joined: 29 Jun 2008 Posts: 470 Location: Yakima, WA

<essay>

My advice:

1) I say this to maintain your interest in the game and inspire you to do more, not to crap on your current achievements, but 5-starring everything on expert isn't even the halfway point to being an "expert at expert." There's no doubt that the full series 5 star is a major milestone, so congratulations on that. But going for FCs is where the game really starts. Everything before that is just a warmup that establishes a baseline of skill.

Going for FCs is, hands down, the best way to get better at the game. It builds consistency and forces you to learn how to hit "that one part" that you always miss. You start to recognize the finite number of patterns in the game, and begin to see the patterns as phrases rather than individual notes.

The best way to do this is to find the FC difficulty breakdown for your favorite game, start at the bottom and work your way up. When you get stuck, do the same thing on a different game and come back to it later. If you get stuck across all games, take a long break. When you come back, you'll find that it won't take much time to bust through your previous plateau.

2) At this point, don't worry about advanced techniques like tapping, vibrate strumming, etc. First of all, you won't be able to do them consistently if you haven't achieved the accuracy to FC songs yet. Second, you'll have a much easier time learning the harder things once you're better at the easier things.

Instead, focus on FCing songs from easiest to hardest. Worry about advanced techniques once you've FCed all the songs that don't require them.

3) Regarding Danny, I'll repeat what ArmourTheLlama said -- don't worry about him. Like all things in life, some people just have a genetic knack for certain things. Not to be a debbie downer, but realistically, it just isn't possible for most people to achieve that level of skill no matter how much they practice. This is true for Guitar Hero, real guitar, sports, chess, and pretty much any other thing that people compete at. The top people in any field are usually natural prodigies.

The good news is that even though we normies can't outright beat them, with a lot of dedication and determination we can usually get pretty damn close. And, personally, I feel we can be prouder of our achievements. Who cares if some 6 year old can sit down at a piano and perfectly play the most difficult Beethoven Sonata? They didn't have to work at it. But if you or I slave away for years and years and just barely manage to eek it out, that's a triumph we can be proud of. It's the same with Guitar Hero.
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**ArmourTheLlama** · Joined: 19 Nov 2008 Posts: 501 Location: Surrey, England

ihatebarracuda nailed it; also, regarding motivation and maintaining interest, I'd recommend starting an accomplishments thread. Getting praise and feedback and motivation from others makes it twice as enjoyable

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**hfcobra** · Joined: 27 Feb 2013 Posts: 19

Thanks! Now that I have the PC version and can record videos, maybe I will start an achievements thread! That sounds like an awesome idea. Plus, everyone likes to show off. Even if they are showing people better than they are lol.

Is there a thread here for how to record videos for all of this? Right now I have to use my X-plorer for PC but once my wireless 360 adapter comes in the mail I will no longer have to.