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this1neguy
Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 5444 Location: Flint, MI
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:00 pm Post subject: The Trooper: Solos Guide |
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The Trooper is the hardest of the XBox 360-exclusive songs in Guitar Hero II. Its fast chord changes coupled with gallops (with which many people have trouble) and a blindingly fast solo make for one of the harder songs in GHII, though it is "only" in the seventh tier. (To be honest, I'm rather surprised no one has written a guide for this, which is where I come in.) The first part of the solo - 1A - is difficult, but it's only a warmup compared to the ridiculous speed of the second solo's trills. This guide will attempt to show a multitude of ways to hit these solos. One tip: Do not get frustrated. It took the author half an hour to FC the trills, so you should be prepared to spend some time with trial and error. Devise your own methods, work on the ones provided here, whatever it takes.
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Fingering Key:
Numbering:
1 = Index
2 = Middle
3 = Ring
4 = Pinky
Underlined Numbers = Anchored finger
Red Numbers = Tapping finger
X = This note should be strummed
d = Downstrum
u = Upstrum
h = Hammer-on
p = Pull-off
Hand Position:
First Position: 1 on G, 2 on R, 3 on Y, 4 covers B and O (will use 24 for chords ending in YO, however)
Second Position: 1 covers G and R, 2 on Y, 3 on B, 4 on O
Second Position, Green Anchored: 1 on G, 2 covers R and Y, 3 on B, 4 on O
Third/Fourth Position: Index finger on yellow/blue, respectively. If a lower note appears, index will slide to it, then slide back. Generally used only for fast zig-zags and trills higher on the fretboard.
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Solo 1A
Part 1
(see measures 95-98 of this chart)
The first part of Solo 1A is considerably easier than the second: It makes use of only three fingers and has a very obvious pattern.
It looks like that. (I've left out the beginning part so as to conserve space, as it's mainly long notes.) There are a number of ways to play this. Since there are hammer-ons and pull-offs in the first part, it's your decision: You can either use the hammer-ons completely; use just the orange hammerons, or, if you feel like it, strum straight through. The second part is fairly easy. There are two hand positions from which to play it, it's not all that fast, and you should FC it every time already if you're considering going for the full-song FC. Personally, I play it in a hybrid of second and third position and use all of the hammerons. But that's just me; so, without further ado, I present options.
Option 1: Straight Second Position
422422422422422423423423423423423 32131
This method is only suggested for those with exceptionally strong pinky fingers. Given the speed of the triplets, it's rather hard to play this using 234 fingering. However, it involves the least sliding, and by all means use it if you are able.
Option 2: Straight Third Position
311311311311311312312312312312312 21121
This option is probably the easiest for most players. It does not force any sliding; it uses the strongest three fingers. There is only one issue, which is easily solved: the ending red notes may be a tiny issue for those whose fingers are dead set on some manner of playing, but outside of that straight third is easiest.
Option 3: Hybrid Second and Third Position
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This is an odd method, somewhat; it is really not an improvement on Straight Third position given that is necessitates a slide in the middle of the solo. I use this for reasons unknown, I guess I'm really opposed to sliding when I don't have to.
Second Part
(see measures 99-101 of this chart)
The second part of Solo 1A is much harder than the first, but if you can get down the fingering it becomes rather simple. It's not insanely fast, but it is fairly fast; the speed is roughly analogous to Arterial Black's solo A.
Looks intimidating? I think it's supposed to. However, one immediately notices a repeating pattern:
This is repeated 8 times, for the mathematically-minded. Although this section is very difficult to anchor, it becomes much easier to play once one realizes that all they have to do is figure out a fingering for that one section and repeat it up until the held chords. There are four likely methods to this section; I'll repeat that pattern twice for each example. From there, it's just repetition.
Method 1: One-handed
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This is a very straightforward way of playing the section. It requires moderately fast hands, but is simple in its construction. The only thing that would give a problem here (aside from speed) is confusion: The notes go all over the place until you realize where they are, and from that point onward it becomes very easy. Somehow, I managed to hit this using this method on sightread ¯\(°_o)/¯
Method 2: Tapping Just Orange
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This is a mite more complicated, as it requires an elbow-strum (in all likelihood) and a tapping finger. However, it makes the section very easy to play, and allows you to anchor red if you so desire. Speed is no longer an issue with this method, and it's easy tapping for all but the most raw beginning tapper.
Method 3: Tapping Only Blue
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I have no idea why anyone would use this method; it's much easier to tap the oranges. However, if for some reason you want to do this, be my guest.
Method 4: Tapping Blue AND Orange
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This makes use of one tapping finger for both blue and yellow notes, although you could alternate index and middle fingers. This is both the easiest and hardest way of playing this: It requires the least use of fretting hand, but requires some fairly difficult tapping. Use this with caution; only if you absolutely need to tap everything.
Method 5: zsjostrom35 and smokyprogg's Method
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Uses more index finger, which is stronger and thus should make this a bit easier. More sliding involved however.
Solo 1B
Solo 1B is a killer. It has three difficult parts: the first is a slow trill, the second is an OMGWTF trill, the third is an odd string of hammerons and strums.. Let's get started!
First Part
(see m107 of this chart)
The first part is simple, although there are a number of ways to play it. It's slow, easy to one hand; although if you so desire, you can tap it and show off to your friends!
Method 1: One hand, No Sliding
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This way is the simplest. It's basic, obvious; but since the section is so slow, there's no reason to play it any other way if you are able to trill at all with your pinky.
Method 2: zsjostrom35's Less-Sliding Idea
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Method 3: One hand, sliding
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This method is for those who have slow ring and pinky fingers; it works for those, although the slide from fourth position back down to first is rather difficult in some cases.
Method 4: Tapping
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I guess if you really felt like tapping, this would be the way to go.
Second Part
(see m111-112 of this chart)
The second part of solo 1b is composed of ridiculously fast trills. There are very, very few people who can one hand them (Lo7 comes to mind); I'm not going to provide multiple methods for that reason. However, this IS the hardest section of the solo. There's no quick'n'easy way to hit this solo; it takes time and practice.
Method
(bear in mind that this is faster than freticons can really show)
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This is the only method I've been able to come up with to reliably hit these trills. The first thing to remember is where your elbow strums will be (if you can't elbow strum, you'll have to learn). The first is on the first ; the second is on the first of the second trill; the third is on the FOURTH trill (remember: there is no elbow strum on the third trill!); the fourth is at the beginning of the zigzag.
There is, as I've said, no easy way to learn this. Even tapping, the elbow strums are hard enough to place, also, the zigzag is VERY fast and will likely mess up a few FC attempts. The best advice I can give is to practice, practice, practice! Eventually you will get the timing down and be FC'ing it every time. Start on slowest if you want, just to get the fingering down; make sure you can FC it reliably on each speed before moving up. If nothing works, take some time off and go back to it later. there's no schedule for FC'ing things.
Method 2: TheThirdDay's Method
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TheThirdDay wrote: | Also, I've included another method for the evil trills that utilizes sliding and alt-tapping. Personally, I do pretty much what you wrote out, but this is definitely a possibility. |
Method 3: One Hand
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Posted because PiemanLK and smokyprogg think it's possible. I guess it's plausible for those with INSANE fingers, but 99% of the population is probably not wrong about 100%.
Method 4: Alt-Tapping (Chubbly457's Method)
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Third Part
(see m114-115 of this chart)
But wait! You're not out of the woods yet! Though this section has none of the sheer ferocity of the previous one, it's reminiscent of GH: Aerosmith's Train Kept A' Rollin, which has an OMGWTFCLUSTERFUCK section after a trill-based solo. (Interesting, that). This section must be treated with care, for it's easily chokeable for anyone letting their guard down at all after the fast solo.
It looks like this.
Method
dhhdhhhd dhdh h h h
31334244 2332 1 2 1
This section is difficult due to its random strums. You'll be playing this in second position; I've included strum notation for where to place the strums, all of which will be downstrums. Even experts such as smokyprogg have noted that this section is actually more chokable than the previous insanity section. If you're good with basic technique but not with clusterfucks, then this will likely take more work than the trills. Either way, be prepared for lost full-solo FCs due to this section. They'll happen; I've had five FCs (in one day) of the trills but along with 3 chokes of this section. Once you get it down, you'll have it forever; that's the saving grace. One thing to notice is the way the notes are laid out: a triangle, a triangle, and then a short, slow trill. If you can't hit those, might I suggest practicing on the end of Through The Fire and Flames, Bridge 1, on hard; it consists of four consecutive triangles. (Triangles, if you haven't noticed, is my preferred term for those types of sections: zigzags missing the middle note is rather cumbersome to type). Anyway, like I said, practice up on this section. Believe me, it'll be worth the time.
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The end of the guide!
Whew! If you've reached this point, it means I've done my job: Kept you interested enough to keep on reading, and offered some potentially useful information. I haven't deliberately inserted much humor, I know, but aside from that...
Thanks go to:
- eddyf, for his amazing freticon editor, which saved loads of
time.
- tma/debr, for their respective chart sites.
- zsjostrom35, for his eternally useful Guide to Writing Guides, for finding a ridiculously dumb typo, and for two additional methods.
- Pandora online radio, which at this moment is playing Sum 41's "Fat Lip", for being so useful during the writing of this guide.
- TheThirdDay, for his method for Solo 1B part two and another section to add.
- I guess to PiemanLK and smokyprogg for convincing me to add a one-handed method for 1b; also smokyprogg for his second 1a part 2 method.
_________________
Last edited by this1neguy on Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:31 pm; edited 12 times in total |
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TheThirdDay
Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 4357 Location: Toms River, NJ
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this1neguy
Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 5444 Location: Flint, MI
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 11:54 pm Post subject: |
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One handing parts of those trills? O_o
Thanks for the feedback; I'll add your method and write up that weird-o part when I feel like writing more.
For the record, this only took me like 20 minutes to write. _________________
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TheThirdDay
Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 4357 Location: Toms River, NJ
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PiemanLK
Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 4710 Location: /export/home
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TheThirdDay
Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 4357 Location: Toms River, NJ
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smokyprogg
Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 2418
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:21 am Post subject: |
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If you are using anything other than this, you are making this far more complicated than it really is.
I can't fathom why you would tap 1b either. It is not as fast as it looks and doesn't last long enough to make tapping worth it (maybe I'm just good at trills though).
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Keep 1 anchored at all times. Hit Y 3 times with 2, slide up and strum then hit B 4 times with 2. Slide down, hit Y 3 times; slide up, hit B 4 times. _________________
Last edited by smokyprogg on Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:29 am; edited 2 times in total |
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this1neguy
Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 5444 Location: Flint, MI
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:27 am Post subject: |
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smokyprogg wrote: | I can't fathom why you would tap 1b. It is not obscenely fast and doesn't last long enough to make tapping worth it. |
That's why you're smokyprogg and I'm not. Nor is the average player. Not all that many people can one-hand stuff in Raining Blood, which is why I posted the method as I did.
I will add PiemanLK's posted one-hand method...but I don't endorse it given the speed of this section. Speed counts, not length: just look at the end of Bridge 1...hell, for an insane example, the red snake is what, a second long? And yet at 26.6NPS almost everyone has to tap it. _________________
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smokyprogg
Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 2418
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:41 am Post subject: |
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this1neguy wrote: | smokyprogg wrote: | I can't fathom why you would tap 1b. It is not obscenely fast and doesn't last long enough to make tapping worth it. |
That's why you're smokyprogg and I'm not. Nor is the average player. Not all that many people can one-hand stuff in Raining Blood, which is why I posted the method as I did.
I will add PiemanLK's posted one-hand method...but I don't endorse it given the speed of this section. Speed counts, not length: just look at the end of Bridge 1...hell, for an insane example, the red snake is what, a second long? And yet at 26.6NPS almost everyone has to tap it. |
Reading over my post I sound like a condescending ass. Sorry.
The thing is though for these trills, you are going to be anchoring a note with the left hand and hitting the top note with the same finger multiple times. I CANNOT elbow strum, so I cut out the middle man and just trill away with the left middle. You move it at the same speed that you would need to to tap it with the right hand without having to worry about strumming and coming back up in the middle of the sequence.
I just find it more efficient this way. Whatever works works for the individual though. _________________
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this1neguy
Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 5444 Location: Flint, MI
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:45 am Post subject: |
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Apology accepted, from all us non-gods.
I am actually good at elbow strumming...which is why I do it like this. If I had fingers fast enough, I wouldn't bother, but I've tried one-handing it, and I just cannot do it.
ALSO
To anyone reading this, the part after the solo (dumb hammerons/strums) will be added tomorrow night assuming I don't have anything else to do. I don't feel like doing that tonight, even though it's fairly short. _________________
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zsjostrom35
Joined: 17 Feb 2008 Posts: 2130 Location: Columbus, Ohio
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:50 am Post subject: Re: The Trooper: Solos Guide |
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This looks great! The Trooper's pretty far out of my league right now, but I will certainly come back to this guide if I ever get consistent enough at the rest of the song that I can start worrying about the solo .
Couple of suggestions:
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First, an endorsement of this method Smokyprogg listed from a mere mortal. This part is exactly the same as the second hard part of Stricken's second solo if you didn't notice (Stricken is actually a little faster), and a lot of people use that method effectively there.
For the first part of Solo 1B, you could consider adding this method that doesn't require quite as much sliding. It's kind of a happy medium between the first two methods you've got there:
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Quick typo correction:
this1neguy wrote: | Method 4: Tapping Blue AND Yellow |
I think you mean tapping blue and orange.
And thanks for the compliment in the Thanks section _________________
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TheThirdDay
Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 4357 Location: Toms River, NJ
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this1neguy
Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 5444 Location: Flint, MI
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 2:07 am Post subject: Re: The Trooper: Solos Guide |
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zsjostrom35 wrote: | This looks great! The Trooper's pretty far out of my league right now, but I will certainly come back to this guide if I ever get consistent enough at the rest of the song that I can start worrying about the solo .
Couple of suggestions:
113121113121
First, an endorsement of this method Smokyprogg listed from a mere mortal. This part is exactly the same as the second hard part of Stricken's second solo if you didn't notice (Stricken is actually a little faster), and a lot of people use that method effectively there.
For the first part of Solo 1B, you could consider adding this method that doesn't require quite as much sliding. It's kind of a happy medium between the first two methods you've got there:
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32323232112121214
Quick typo correction:
this1neguy wrote: | Method 4: Tapping Blue AND Yellow |
I think you mean tapping blue and orange.
And thanks for the compliment in the Thanks section |
Thanks for the additions, they have been placed into the OP. Also, no worries about the shout-out thing, your guides have helped me out a bunch with this. And mad thanks for the compliment too! That means a lot coming from such an accomplished writer of guides
T3D, I think that is kind of interesting, I hadn't even realized that this was the same as Stricken until now. I can FC the first part of Stricken...but not the second part, and I can FC this on a much more difficult engine.
How strange...I guess it's the lack of a difficult transition.
I'm signing off for the night, updates to the actual guide will come tomorrow night, replies to any additional comments should come tomorrow morning before my first hour starts (around 7ish EST). _________________
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zsjostrom35
Joined: 17 Feb 2008 Posts: 2130 Location: Columbus, Ohio
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 2:43 am Post subject: Re: The Trooper: Solos Guide |
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this1neguy wrote: | Method 5: zsjostrom35's Method
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Actually, if you look back a few posts, Smokyprogg originally suggested that one. I was just pointing out that it can work for people not nearly as good as him .
Off-topic:
this1neguy wrote: | Pandora online radio, which at this moment is playing Sum 41's "Fat Lip", for being so useful during the writing of this guide. |
Pandora FTW! I've found so much great music there... _________________
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this1neguy
Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 5444 Location: Flint, MI
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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Bump for addition of third part of Solo 1b. I think the guide overall looks good, anyone who has comments/additional methods/proofreading capability is welcome to point things out to their heart's content. I'm a pretty bad grammar freak, so I think I've managed to do a good job with diction, syntax, and punctuation . _________________
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