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Rock This Town expert guide

 
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googleimage  





Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 1229

PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:32 am    Post subject: Rock This Town expert guide Reply with quote

Song Stats
Base score: 77 731
4-star cutoff: 155 462
5-star cutoff: 217 647

Table Of Contents - section by section
Intro
Verse 1
Guitar Hook
Verse 2
Chorus
Solo 1
Solo 2

Ahhh, Rock This Town. In my opinion, one of the most brilliant song selections in any GH game thus far. It's far from an obvious selection to be included in a guitar game, but it packs a nice and varied challenge - challenging rhythms, challenging hammer-ons, challenging chord-changes. Most importantly, this note chart is simply a blast to play. However, it can provide a healthy dose of frustration at first. This is widely considered to be among the more difficult songs to 5* in Guitar Hero II, and can be a serious roadblock for players just starting off on expert. However, as you familiarize yourself with the chart, you'll realize that there's no one section that can't be played, and you'll gain a great sense of reward from piecing the song together.

INTRO

A long stretch of chords. Because the notes are triplets (i.e. 3 per half-beat), these are likely to throw your strumming off. If you're a perpetual alt-strummer like me, you're probably going to need to adjust your strumming pattern. This is my suggestion:

-- --
D--U D U D--U D U D

Alternate purely through this section, and continue through the coupled chords:

- -
Since the first note is on a half beat, I suggest up-strumming the first chord and down-strumming the second within each pair. Get used to this strumming pattern - you'll be using it a lot.

VERSE 1

Here, you're introduced to one of the two infamous riffs: the - - - - - - - riff. The first thing you should notice is that the notes merely zigzag from green to yellow, and back down. However, what makes this challenging is that they are not straight 8th notes - there's some syncopation in the notes, yet probably not as much as you think. Due to this syncopation, every red note is strummed, but the greens and yellows are hammer-ons. You should utilize the HO's (as you should throughout the entire song), but be consistent in strumming the couplets - use either all down-strums or all up-strums (whichever is within your comfort zone). I personally down-strum these, even though they're off-beat. If you get tied up, replace the lyrics with "rock your hand, rock it back and forth". Not too complicated.


The fingering should be obvious, but here it is (HOs italicized):
- - - - - - -
1 - 2/3- 2/1 - 2/3 - 2/1 - 2/3 - 2/1 - 2/3

These will likely tie you up at first, but with practice, this should become one of the easier sections in the song.

This riff is then followed by a relatively simple sequence of hammer-ons and chords. Success at this part is simply a matter of gaining familiarity with the song, but might be deceptive on sight-read.

GTR HOOK 1
- - - - - - - -

This one took me considerably longer to master than the verse riff, but the strategy is essentially the same: the notes are all coupled, with the first note strummed and the second note hammered-on. Be consistent with your strumming, and utilize the hammer-ons. The temptation to strum every note is far greater here - unless you're struggling to pass the song because of this section, avoid this temptation. You're asking to break combo that way, and you will sacrifice a bevy (or for my metric-system-using friends, 1000 millibevies) of star power throughout the song. I personally UP-strum all the strummed notes, but as always, use what is within your comfort zone.

The trick to this riff is in recognizing how rhythmically repetitive it is. Your strums are off beat, but the hammer-ons are on beat. But the pattern throughout is either strum/step-up or strum/step-down throughout the riff.

Once this is done, you'll transition into the verse riff with a double-strummed pair of greens. Be prepared for it, and utilize the up-down strum pattern. Such 2-strummed-note chunks show up a good 30-40 times within the song. It's this section that makes me thankful I up-strum the guitar hook but down-strum the verse.

VERSE 2

This section introduces a deceptive little sequence: the - - - - - - - - . You'll want to become comfortable with this section, as it repeats through the song and is always a SP phrase. As with seemingly all quick couplets, I recommend up-strumming the and down-strumming the . Likewise for the sequence. Co-ordinating your fretting hand is slightly disorienting, but not as challenging as it seems at first. It'll come with a small amount of practice.

The latter part of the verse is the first of many stretches of triplet chords. After a stretch essentially identical to verse 1, you'll be thrown one of these gems:
- - - - - . If you're looking for your 5*, it is essential that you're comfortable with strumming stretches like these. For this particular one, you have hopefully activated star power. I recommend hoarding SP until the 4th phrase and activating a second or so after that phrase. If you missed an SP phrase, you can hold off for a measure or two, but you want the chord sequence under double-points, and you don't want to overlap the SP phrase that finishes verse 2.

In terms of actually hitting this phrase, note the pattern of notes: one note, couplet, 5 notes/couplet couplet 5 notes. Remember, EVERY couplet should be strummed up then down. I also recommend starting the 5-note bunch on an up-strum as well, but that's just my comfort zone. Use what works for you. Just make sure that if you start on an up-strum, that you finish on an up-strum as well. It helps to emphasize every third strum in your mind, and on those 5-note stretches, note that the 2nd note is on beat, and put a little oomph on that final 5th note. It's very easy to over-strum, so anything that keeps you from doing so is helpful. Also note that this section is sneakily fast - you might have to strum a smidge faster than expected.

In short (on beat strums bolded):
- - - - -
D - UD - U DU D U - UD - UD - U DU D U

CHORUS
The chorus repeats throughout the song, and is hopefully a nest-egg for points if you are carrying many of the tips from previous sections over. It starts with the verse riff, which lasts quite long. It then follows up with another quick chord sequence of - - - , which is a star power phrase.

The note-number sequence this time is 3-6-6. Mooooore triplets! These start on beat though, so start each one with an emphasized downstrum, and emphasize every third strum. If this makes you ready for SP, a place to activate is immediately upon the next quick-chord section in the chorus (after the pause). This is a streak of 12 notes in triplet form. As long as you keep track of the beats, you'll be fine (the first note is on beat). After this streak, the chorus will close with a deceptive string of couplets that mix in single notes, hammer-ons, and 2-note chords. Keep with the up-down strategy and you'll be able to navigate through this with ease.


SOLO 1

This solo will tie your fingers in a knot at first, but as with the rest of the song, will lose its pain-inflicting abilities with practice. The first portion of the solo has some rhythmically familiar strum-HO couplets, but be careful, as it suddenly switches to strictly-strummed notes (watch for the black rims in the middle). The next part will catch most players to start: the - - . The easy way to hit the 5-note stream is to slide your index finger from to , and back to . This frees up 2 strong fingers to finish the streak. Later on, there's a stream that I think is even trickier: the - . The sudden hop of the notes can cause troubles even with experience, but if you're cognizant of the missing blue at the beginning, you can pull it off. You can break it down into 3 or 4 relatively simple 'hunks', including 2 consecutive stretches. Don't be intimidated - this is more hittable than you might think.


GUITAR SOLO 2

After a stretch of familiar material, you will come across a solo that is, by turns, a reservoir for teh megapointz, and a clusterfuck of very quick ascending 3-note scales/triplet-chord combos. Depending on which sections you combo most regularly, you're definitely going to want to activate star power within this solo somewhere. As somebody who regularly holds combo until after the last ascending triad, I tend to activate either at the stretch or not far after. The chord-stretches, as usual, are triplets. But the newest challenge is in the repeating (then ), but don't get caught off-guard by the following chord. I'm not gonna lie - this section is tough, and I have only ever FCed it once. But there is one technique that I stumbled upon that made this actually semi-possible.

On the scales, anchor your index finger on the lowest note. With that finger anchored, play the scale as . This might take a couple tries to get down, but it's infinitely better than just flailing through and hoping you make the occasional tuneful sound. It won't take long before you expect to hit these. Since green is anchored, you only need worry about your middle and ring fingers: if you can manage middle-ring-lift-middle-ring-lift in that order, you're in great shape.

Until that last scale, and they throw in that COCKSUCKING green note afterwards, that is. The fill between the scales and yet another 12-chord stretch looks like the simplest part of the solo, but at my current stage, it's a bigger combo-breaker than the tough stuff. The good news is, the end of the solo is much easier than the end of solo 1, and the rest of the song is either piss-easy or stuff you've already seen. Just be careful of the beginning of the guitar hook, and catch that SP phrase. You'll need it if you want one last activation.

Hope you enjoyed reading googleimage guide numero uno. Hopefully, these tips helped out, and gave you a better feel for the crazy but catchy rhythms that are peppered throughout. Once you're comfortable with the song, I suspect it will be one that you will want to play over and over again.
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Last edited by googleimage on Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:47 pm; edited 4 times in total
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devinring  





Joined: 11 May 2008
Posts: 432
Location: Lower Sackville, NS

PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I love this song. But is it really considered one of the hardest songs to 5* on GH2?

Anyway, great guide. I think it's a song that's helped me a lot with "different" strumming/HOPO sequences and is well worth to get good at.
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jesse0986  





Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 3518
Location: near the 'E' in 'UNITED'

PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Woo hoo, great read and guide, google. One that's long overdue too, I think. This is absolutely one tricky sumbitch. Agreed about that fucking in Solo 2 too, I've comboed through every part of the song at least once except that little jump there.

One thing I might suggest pointing out is that the first two of those chord fills that are SP (the stuff) come in the verses, and they both immediately follow a sequence like this:

Since most folks are gonna play the whole verse riff from GRYB, jumping down to hit that fill can be extremely difficult, since it comes at you pretty fast and the sequence itself is pretty tricky. One thing that's helped me a ton is actually sliding up to hit that final yellow note with 2 instead of 3, and then hitting the last R with 1; that way I'm already set up on RYBO for the fill. (As you can imagine, since I'm an advocate of YBO-position playing, I play that fill from that position; but in any case, sliding up to get that final little sequence note in the verse riff will help you properly set up for that chord fill, whether you choose to play it from RYBO or YBO).

So instead of doing this:


21 23 2 22 22
00 00 0 03 43

You're doing this:

21 22 1 22 22
00 00 0 03 43

(Or this if you like playing it from YBO like I do):

21 22 1 11 11
00 00 0 02 32

Keep up the good work, google. Look forward to reading more guides from you in the future.
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ShadowDude27  





Joined: 19 Feb 2008
Posts: 1245
Location: In space with David Bowie

PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I personally had more problems with this than Psychobilly Freakout, and yes, we've needed this for a long time, I thought it was very in-depth, and and will help out many people looking to 5-star this song.
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BNghfreak12  





Joined: 17 May 2008
Posts: 583

PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great guide. This is a tricky song. Definitely harder than 6th Tier. This song was a pain in the ass to 5 and 6 star.

I hate the

I always lose combo there.
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Shiznat  





Joined: 06 Oct 2007
Posts: 310
Location: Vermont

PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 4:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great guide. It will definitely help me out, although there is one thing that I disagree with you about. I don't use the HO/POs at all during the Guitar hook. I alt-strum every note in that sequence and I almost never break combo there.
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