So you've just picked up a copy of Guitar Hero for the first time. You've booted the game up, gotten your guitar all nice and ready and psyched yourself up to become an instant rock god. You figure, hey, it's my first time. I'll start out easy. So you pick Slow Ride on the easiest difficulty and watch as that first note descends.

And before you know it, you fail. Which is quite an accomplishment, since I think you can leave Slow Ride to play by itself on easy and still get through the song without hitting any buttons. What happened?

A lack of practice, that's all. Guitar Hero, regardless of which title you own, isn't easy. You're going to need a lot of practice before you get used to hitting the really high-speed notes on the higher difficulties, especially when they're flying at you en masse. There are a few things you can do, however, to expedite your experience and get to your goal just a little bit faster.

- First, unless you're absolutely hopeless, I'd recommend starting on medium. Maybe go easy on your first song to get the feel, but graduate to medium quickly. You don't want to get too used to a snail's pace and only three fret buttons to work with. You'll need to painfully stretch your fingers eventually, so you may as well get used to it from the get-go.

- Practice a song until you're really, really good at it. Take one song you really like and just play it over and over until you can play it with your eyes closed. In doing so you'll develop skills that will allow you to get through other songs relatively easy, or at least with greater ease than if you went in half-cocked.

- Once you know a song really, really well, move up a difficulty level on it. You'll already be used to the rhythm and you can then get used to tossing in the extra buttons. Moving to all five buttons at once is probably the hardest thing for beginners to get used to on Guitar Hero.

- Use up and down strumming from the start. Don't just depress the strum button with your thumb over and over. It's really easy on lower difficulty levels, but it's just not fast enough for hard and expert. Grip the button between your thumb and pointer finger and flick your wrist up and down with the rhythm. (This is, not so coincidentally, how you play a real guitar with a pick.)

- Practice hammer ons and pull offs. Both refer to hitting a single note and then tapping a series of buttons following that note in rapid succession. The game explains it better than I can in the tutorial, but the point deserves stressing: you need to be able to use hammer ons and pull offs for late songs in the game. If you can't then you'll never get through hard or expert alive.

- Make extensive use of the practice mode. Pick especially difficult parts in songs and repeat them over and over until you can get through them. Some solos are absolutely brutal and virtually impossible without a lot of practice.

- Play at least once a day. Even if it's only for ten or fifteen minutes. It's amazing how quickly your hands forget what to do if you take extended breaks.

Becoming a plastic guitar god isn't out of anyone's reach, though it will take a lot of time and effort to achieve. Practice, never-ending practice, is the surest road to getting to the level of skill you desire.

Learn more about this author, Matt Bird.
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