Beginner's Guide to Mastering GH1 HO/POs

[TheMagician]

Beginner's Guide to Mastering GH1 HO/POs

In this guide I try to explain how to do Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs on GH1 without losing your notestreak.

I also try to show some more advanced HO/PO techniques and give tips for different kind of HO/PO sections.

I might also try to add videos later, but I'm not sure 100% sure about that yet.

Intro

Why would I write a guide for GH1 HO/POs? Well why wouldn't I? People have deemed them impossible and nobody wants to learn them. I want to show people that they in fact are possible and not that hard once you get the hang of them, although it takes a lot of practice to master more advanced techniques (and to be able to use them effectively) and to be able to nail those harder sections.

I don't claim to be able to use GH1 HO/POs effectively enough to be able to use them all the time. I still prefer to alt-strum most of the time. Neither do I claim to be able to hit particular sections discussed in the guide or use the techniques effectively in this guide.

Busting the common misconception

Before I start, I want to clarify this. I've heard people saying, that GH2 HO/PO's work on GH1. Well, not exactly. You see, when you make a HO/PO (either one) fast enough, sometimes you do it the way you do it on GH1. Simple as that. (You'll know what I mean after you've read this guide).

Newly found discoveries

Lower note confusion

Apparently, this guide has some flaws so I am adding what we've found here.

You can hold down ANY lower note relative to the HOPO note, HOWEVER, it's very hard NOT to lose your notestreak so I think this guide still is very useful, despite what I've said. I still think that holding down the lower note relative to the HOPO note is more reliable.

GH2-style Pull-Offs

I know that I just said that GH2 HOPOS do NOT work. I've made some discoveries and found something rather interesting.

- GH2-style HO's do NOT work
- GH2-style PO's do NOT work, however, what I'm going to state next is not confirmed information and is only speculation.

They do work, SOMETIMES, I do not know HOW or WHY they work, which is why people need to do experimenting and reporting back, but I have found that if a Pull-Off is fast enough, you don't have to hold down any lower notes, such as fretting fast by using 3-2-1-1 fingering. I'm not sure if you can do the same thing on slower Pull-Offs if you fret them fast enough.

However, it's very unreliable as you would imagine.

Hammer-Ons

How do we use HO's on GH1? There is one rule you have to follow: You have to hold down the lower note relative to the note you're about to Hammer-On.

G is the lowest note, O is the highest note.

Practice:

Fat Lip, Hard



This is a great song to practice HO's on. I'll tell you why, the intro is filled with slow HOPO notes.

Technique #1



Strum the first note, keep it held down and when the note is within the timing window, press it and when the note is within the timing window, press it. So it should look like this when played:



Very simple and easy to do. If it doesn't work on the first time, just try again.

"But it doesn't work!!! I'm doing it correctly."

Ok, make sure you're playing it just as I explained and be sure not to Hammer-On the notes too early.

Technique #2



Same section, different method (a bit harder).

Strum the first note just like earlier and Hammer-On the just the way you did on previous technique, but this time when you press R, let go of G note, but make sure you let go of the G note AFTER you've Hammer-On'd the R note. Now, we're on R note, wait for the to be within the timing window and play it just like you did the R note, keep R held down, press Y and let go of the R note. It looks like this when played:



"But it doesn't work!!! I'm doing it correctly."

Make sure you don't let go of the lower note BEFORE you hit the higher HOPO note! It's easy mess up ;)

Pull-Offs

Pull-Offs, these bastards are hard to pull off, I won't lie.

Same rule applies to Pull-Offs, you have to hold lower note down before pulling off. That is one of the reasons that makes PO's so incredibly hard to master.

Practice:

Fat Lip, Hard



We'll be using Fat Lip, Hard again for practice, to get the hang of how exactly they work.

Technique #1

I would say this technique is easier to start with, but for more advanced sections you definitely should use Technique #2.



Now remember, we have to hold down the lower note so we have to press and at the same time (for this technique at least), so we strum and then what we do is wait for the HOPO to be within the timing window and just release . Quite simple, right? It looks like this when played:



Technique #2

Now you will learn the second technique, slightly harder, but if you can master this you'll be hitting those harder sections with ease.



This time the technique changes slightly, but not much. I can almost assure you that it will take at least 2 tries to get it down.

Strum and then the hard part, don't release it, press and when the note is within the timing window release . It looks like this when played:



It is a bit hard, but this technique combined with Hammer-On technique #2 results in good technique for those hard HOPO sectons!

Additional Practice

Higher Ground, Hard



It's right at the beginning, good slow 3 note Pull-Off section.

Technique #1:

Technique #2:

Now, you should have the necessary skills to be able to play Hammer-On and Pull-Off notes. Next, let's combine them!

HO/PO's combined

Now we're talking. In this part I'll try to show few harder sections and give tips for them.

Practice #1

Frankenstein, Hard



Did I just hear "I give up, I can't hit that"? Sure, it looks hard, feels hard, it IS hard, but that's why you practice it ;)

This part is right at the beginning of the song as well and isn't fast.

Techniques #1 combined

:GRYB:

Techniques #2 combined

Now I personally believe that this is the better way to practice it. Just imagine how hard it is to hit fast parts with Techniques #1.



Techniques #1 and #2 combined

You can also combine these techniques to make it just a tad easier:



Or you can try:



There are a lot of different combinations you can use, you just have to figure out the best way by yourself.

Tip #1

Please take this tip, it will make your (GH) life easier. When there are sections that resemble , strum the AND start the Hammer-Oning from next note by also strumming , so it looks like this:


11234
SSHHH

S = Strum, H = HO/PO

Tip #2

Frankenstein, Hard



A good practice, but I thought I'd share another tip. Treat each 4 notes as separate, what I mean is, play it like this:


SHHHSHHHSHHHSHHH

And you can also combine this with Tip #1.

Ultimate practice

Frankenstein, Hard, measures 65-76

Notechart: http://www.bradleyzoo.com/GuitarHero/gh-ps2/hard/frankenstein.blank.png

If you want to seriously master GH1 HO/POs (Hey, why not? Great way to impress people), this is your ultimate HO/PO practice. Actually, you shouldn't practice just this part, but the whole song, but the reason why this section is an excellent practicing section, is because it's slow (as is the whole song), you have time to think what you have to do. Just remember that the timing window is fairly small on GH1 so you have to hold down those frets long enough before releasing them and make sure not press frets too early.

Outro

I'm not a huge GH1 player, I don't know the charts very well, I don't know which parts are good practice, but that's where you can help me! If you happen to know / find good practicing sections just tell me and I'll add them to this guide.

You can also contribute by telling your own tips and techniques.

You can also ask for help on a particular section, however, I might not be able to give you a technique, but that's where other people can help once again. I think we should figure out better techniques together and I can then add those to this guide.

I really really really hope this was at least in some way helpful. All kind of feedback is appreciated, good and bad

(This guide might have some mistakes in freticons, let me know if there are).
_________________

[b]My acc. thread

[TheMagician]

Beginner's Guide to Mastering GH1 HO/POs

In this guide I try to explain how to do Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs on GH1 without losing your notestreak.

I also try to show some more advanced HO/PO techniques and give tips for different kind of HO/PO sections.

I might also try to add videos later, but I'm not sure 100% sure about that yet.

Intro

Why would I write a guide for GH1 HO/POs? Well why wouldn't I? People have deemed them impossible and nobody wants to learn them. I want to show people that they in fact are possible and not that hard once you get the hang of them, although it takes a lot of practice to master more advanced techniques (and to be able to use them effectively) and to be able to nail those harder sections.

I don't claim to be able to use GH1 HO/POs effectively enough to be able to use them all the time. I still prefer to alt-strum most of the time. Neither do I claim to be able to hit particular sections discussed in the guide or use the techniques effectively in this guide.

Busting the common misconception

Before I start, I want to clarify this. I've heard people saying, that GH2 HO/PO's work on GH1. Well, not exactly. You see, when you make a HO/PO (either one) fast enough, sometimes you do it the way you do it on GH1. Simple as that. (You'll know what I mean after you've read this guide).

Newly found discoveries

Lower note confusion

Apparently, this guide has some flaws so I am adding what we've found here.

You can hold down ANY lower note relative to the HOPO note, HOWEVER, it's very hard NOT to lose your notestreak so I think this guide still is very useful, despite what I've said. I still think that holding down the lower note relative to the HOPO note is more reliable.

GH2-style Pull-Offs

I know that I just said that GH2 HOPOS do NOT work. I've made some discoveries and found something rather interesting.

- GH2-style HO's do NOT work
- GH2-style PO's do NOT work, however, what I'm going to state next is not confirmed information and is only speculation.

They do work, SOMETIMES, I do not know HOW or WHY they work, which is why people need to do experimenting and reporting back, but I have found that if a Pull-Off is fast enough, you don't have to hold down any lower notes, such as fretting fast by using 3-2-1-1 fingering. I'm not sure if you can do the same thing on slower Pull-Offs if you fret them fast enough.

However, it's very unreliable as you would imagine.

Hammer-Ons

How do we use HO's on GH1? There is one rule you have to follow: You have to hold down the lower note relative to the note you're about to Hammer-On.

G is the lowest note, O is the highest note.

Practice:

Fat Lip, Hard



This is a great song to practice HO's on. I'll tell you why, the intro is filled with slow HOPO notes.

Technique #1



Strum the first note, keep it held down and when the note is within the timing window, press it and when the note is within the timing window, press it. So it should look like this when played:



Very simple and easy to do. If it doesn't work on the first time, just try again.

"But it doesn't work!!! I'm doing it correctly."

Ok, make sure you're playing it just as I explained and be sure not to Hammer-On the notes too early.

Technique #2



Same section, different method (a bit harder).

Strum the first note just like earlier and Hammer-On the just the way you did on previous technique, but this time when you press R, let go of G note, but make sure you let go of the G note AFTER you've Hammer-On'd the R note. Now, we're on R note, wait for the to be within the timing window and play it just like you did the R note, keep R held down, press Y and let go of the R note. It looks like this when played:



"But it doesn't work!!! I'm doing it correctly."

Make sure you don't let go of the lower note BEFORE you hit the higher HOPO note! It's easy mess up ;)

Pull-Offs

Pull-Offs, these bastards are hard to pull off, I won't lie.

Same rule applies to Pull-Offs, you have to hold lower note down before pulling off. That is one of the reasons that makes PO's so incredibly hard to master.

Practice:

Fat Lip, Hard



We'll be using Fat Lip, Hard again for practice, to get the hang of how exactly they work.

Technique #1

I would say this technique is easier to start with, but for more advanced sections you definitely should use Technique #2.



Now remember, we have to hold down the lower note so we have to press and at the same time (for this technique at least), so we strum and then what we do is wait for the HOPO to be within the timing window and just release . Quite simple, right? It looks like this when played:



Technique #2

Now you will learn the second technique, slightly harder, but if you can master this you'll be hitting those harder sections with ease.



This time the technique changes slightly, but not much. I can almost assure you that it will take at least 2 tries to get it down.

Strum and then the hard part, don't release it, press and when the note is within the timing window release . It looks like this when played:



It is a bit hard, but this technique combined with Hammer-On technique #2 results in good technique for those hard HOPO sectons!

Additional Practice

Higher Ground, Hard



It's right at the beginning, good slow 3 note Pull-Off section.

Technique #1:

Technique #2:

Now, you should have the necessary skills to be able to play Hammer-On and Pull-Off notes. Next, let's combine them!

HO/PO's combined

Now we're talking. In this part I'll try to show few harder sections and give tips for them.

Practice #1

Frankenstein, Hard



Did I just hear "I give up, I can't hit that"? Sure, it looks hard, feels hard, it IS hard, but that's why you practice it ;)

This part is right at the beginning of the song as well and isn't fast.

Techniques #1 combined

:GRYB:

Techniques #2 combined

Now I personally believe that this is the better way to practice it. Just imagine how hard it is to hit fast parts with Techniques #1.



Techniques #1 and #2 combined

You can also combine these techniques to make it just a tad easier:



Or you can try:



There are a lot of different combinations you can use, you just have to figure out the best way by yourself.

Tip #1

Please take this tip, it will make your (GH) life easier. When there are sections that resemble , strum the AND start the Hammer-Oning from next note by also strumming , so it looks like this:


11234
SSHHH

S = Strum, H = HO/PO

Tip #2

Frankenstein, Hard



A good practice, but I thought I'd share another tip. Treat each 4 notes as separate, what I mean is, play it like this:


SHHHSHHHSHHHSHHH

And you can also combine this with Tip #1.

Ultimate practice

Frankenstein, Hard, measures 65-76

Notechart: http://www.bradleyzoo.com/GuitarHero/gh-ps2/hard/frankenstein.blank.png

If you want to seriously master GH1 HO/POs (Hey, why not? Great way to impress people), this is your ultimate HO/PO practice. Actually, you shouldn't practice just this part, but the whole song, but the reason why this section is an excellent practicing section, is because it's slow (as is the whole song), you have time to think what you have to do. Just remember that the timing window is fairly small on GH1 so you have to hold down those frets long enough before releasing them and make sure not press frets too early.

Outro

I'm not a huge GH1 player, I don't know the charts very well, I don't know which parts are good practice, but that's where you can help me! If you happen to know / find good practicing sections just tell me and I'll add them to this guide.

You can also contribute by telling your own tips and techniques.

You can also ask for help on a particular section, however, I might not be able to give you a technique, but that's where other people can help once again. I think we should figure out better techniques together and I can then add those to this guide.

I really really really hope this was at least in some way helpful. All kind of feedback is appreciated, good and bad

(This guide might have some mistakes in freticons, let me know if there are).
_________________

[b]My acc. thread

[Tagrineth]

Actually, for hammer ons there's another thing you can do -



You can do this:



try it on the first three notes of Texas Flood
_________________

My goals:
Put an X in this box: [why is this so hard]

stuff i''ve done, it''s been updated now which is weird

[Tagrineth]

Actually, for hammer ons there's another thing you can do -



You can do this:



try it on the first three notes of Texas Flood
_________________

My goals:
Put an X in this box: [why is this so hard]

stuff i''ve done, it''s been updated now which is weird

[TheMagician]

[TheMagician]

[morty]

very good guide, indeed, i'm sure it'll help some players out there. nicely done
_________________

__ __ ____ Ready 2 Rokk?

S6(Rock's the 80s) OB League CHAMPION!
S7(Legends of Rock) OB League 3rd place!
S9(All GH Games Hard) 2nd place!

[morty]

very good guide, indeed, i'm sure it'll help some players out there. nicely done
_________________

__ __ ____ Ready 2 Rokk?

S6(Rock's the 80s) OB League CHAMPION!
S7(Legends of Rock) OB League 3rd place!
S9(All GH Games Hard) 2nd place!

[Tagrineth]

[Tagrineth]

[TheMagician]

[TheMagician]

[Tagrineth]

[Tagrineth]

[teliot]

I swear I've seen a post and a video demonstrating how a part like this;



could be played something like this;



Yes, going backwards. That might not have been the whole story, I can't remember. Any comment on that?

[teliot]

I swear I've seen a post and a video demonstrating how a part like this;



could be played something like this;



Yes, going backwards. That might not have been the whole story, I can't remember. Any comment on that?

[TheThirdDay]

[TheThirdDay]

[TheMagician]

[TheMagician]

[ShinobiAC]

I saw this guide and was inspired to take out GH1 again. Failed on the HOPOs utterly. I can't train my fingers to hold lower frets. However, this new holding the G fret discovery might be worth looking into...

Also for the fast pull-offs I think what might be happening is that it's so fast your finger is hitting the lower fret button slightly before or at the exact moment that you are pulling off the upper fret. I say at the exact moment because I imagine the GH1 engine simply checks if the pull off fret is being held at the moment that you release the other fret. So technically you can pull off and instantaneously hit the next note and not have to hold it in, but the timing would be ridiculous since we're talking about a computer. Thus it only happens on ridiculously fast pull-off sequences. That's my hypothesis at least.

If you take a video and slow it down you might be able to see just when exactly the frets are being pressed in successful pull-offs, and compare it to the times where it doesn't work. I know I can get 60 fps on my digital camera. If you can get that high, it might be enough.
_________________

[ShinobiAC]

I saw this guide and was inspired to take out GH1 again. Failed on the HOPOs utterly. I can't train my fingers to hold lower frets. However, this new holding the G fret discovery might be worth looking into...

Also for the fast pull-offs I think what might be happening is that it's so fast your finger is hitting the lower fret button slightly before or at the exact moment that you are pulling off the upper fret. I say at the exact moment because I imagine the GH1 engine simply checks if the pull off fret is being held at the moment that you release the other fret. So technically you can pull off and instantaneously hit the next note and not have to hold it in, but the timing would be ridiculous since we're talking about a computer. Thus it only happens on ridiculously fast pull-off sequences. That's my hypothesis at least.

If you take a video and slow it down you might be able to see just when exactly the frets are being pressed in successful pull-offs, and compare it to the times where it doesn't work. I know I can get 60 fps on my digital camera. If you can get that high, it might be enough.
_________________

[ThunderPower]

I've actually played suspended sustains like the B-O____ in Get Ready 2 Rokk GH2 style. You need to be very stiff and very deliberate. For pull-offs, it's a hit-or-miss. In Frankenstein, I usually play the descending B-Y-R-G or O-B-Y-R patterns with pull-offs. I haven't been able to get the trill in Frankenstein though.

[ThunderPower]

I've actually played suspended sustains like the B-O____ in Get Ready 2 Rokk GH2 style. You need to be very stiff and very deliberate. For pull-offs, it's a hit-or-miss. In Frankenstein, I usually play the descending B-Y-R-G or O-B-Y-R patterns with pull-offs. I haven't been able to get the trill in Frankenstein though.

[FlimFlam]

ShinobiAC is correct about BYRG pulloffs. You cannot ACTUALLY play them GH 2 style. You can move your fingers the same, but unless you hit the next fret before you release, it won't work. Try it on any slow pulloff.

I've still yet to find any instances outside of the trills in TF and FiU where HOPOs are beneficial.
_________________

\m/

[FlimFlam]

ShinobiAC is correct about BYRG pulloffs. You cannot ACTUALLY play them GH 2 style. You can move your fingers the same, but unless you hit the next fret before you release, it won't work. Try it on any slow pulloff.

I've still yet to find any instances outside of the trills in TF and FiU where HOPOs are beneficial.
_________________

\m/

[TheMagician]

Thanks ShinobiAC for explanation, I thought it would probably have something to do with that.

[TheMagician]

Thanks ShinobiAC for explanation, I thought it would probably have something to do with that.

[Matt276]

I'm pretty sure your 'discoveries' aren't actually true. The reason you can sometimes get away with playing stuff like BYRG without holding down lower notes is because you get lucky sometimes and accidentally play them correctly. What I mean is if the scale is fast enough, you'll usually end up pressing the next fret before you let go of the previous one. The same is true for stuff like GRYB. You can hit the quick GRYB fills in Cowboys From Hell a lot of the time if you try to HOPO them without holding down lower notes (I used to do this)

I think the holding down G discovery falls under the same category. Holding down G makes you more likely to accidentally play HOPO sections correctly, but it doesn't guarantee anything. I'm not absolutely sure about this, but you could find out for sure by playing a slow HOPO section holding down G, but deliberately letting go of each individual note. For example, if there's a slow GRY part somewhere, then hold down green, hammer-on the red correctly, then immediately let go of the red fret but continue to hold green. Then when the yellow comes, try to hammer-on to the yellow. I don't think it will work.

The guide looks really good so far, keep up the good work! Hopefully this will end the countless arguments over whether GH1 HOPO's "work."
_________________

200 Combined GH1/GH2/GH80's/GH3 Expert FC's! - 3/6/09
RB2 Expert Guitar FC'd! - 11/21/08
Goal: Stop wasting all my time playing GH/RB. (Done!)

[Matt276]

I'm pretty sure your 'discoveries' aren't actually true. The reason you can sometimes get away with playing stuff like BYRG without holding down lower notes is because you get lucky sometimes and accidentally play them correctly. What I mean is if the scale is fast enough, you'll usually end up pressing the next fret before you let go of the previous one. The same is true for stuff like GRYB. You can hit the quick GRYB fills in Cowboys From Hell a lot of the time if you try to HOPO them without holding down lower notes (I used to do this)

I think the holding down G discovery falls under the same category. Holding down G makes you more likely to accidentally play HOPO sections correctly, but it doesn't guarantee anything. I'm not absolutely sure about this, but you could find out for sure by playing a slow HOPO section holding down G, but deliberately letting go of each individual note. For example, if there's a slow GRY part somewhere, then hold down green, hammer-on the red correctly, then immediately let go of the red fret but continue to hold green. Then when the yellow comes, try to hammer-on to the yellow. I don't think it will work.

The guide looks really good so far, keep up the good work! Hopefully this will end the countless arguments over whether GH1 HOPO's "work."
_________________

200 Combined GH1/GH2/GH80's/GH3 Expert FC's! - 3/6/09
RB2 Expert Guitar FC'd! - 11/21/08
Goal: Stop wasting all my time playing GH/RB. (Done!)