OXM's Guide to Fake Guitar

Hey, wanna-be! You still stuck on Medium? You've seen YouTube videos of people shredding in Rock Band and Guitar Hero and thought, "Wow...I could never do that." Wrong! You can break through to Hard and quickly move on to Expert in your fake six-string shredding once you know a few next-level tricks and techniques. It doesn't even matter what game you play -- it's all about how you play it. So grab your axe and start cuttin'! We're gonna make you a star...

The Lesson Plan

In all these lessons, you should practice the suggested songs on Hard, if not Expert. We’ve tried to point out the tracks that offer the most helpful amount of repetition — in most cases, you’ll find the technique in question in the main riff or in a recurring segment of the song. Other times, the tempo or relative difficulty of the song make it the best way to drill a specific technique. And while some of the downloadable songs for Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III, and Rock Band offer fantastic examples, we didn’t use any DLC for these lessons. Everything you need to dominate is right there on the game disc.

Grip and Finger Placement

The first thing to come to grips with is…your grip. For one, keep it light: you might clench up just from anxiety, but try to keep your fingers and wrist loose. You don’t need to press too hard.

Most gamers naturally place their index finger on the green (first) button, as in Figure A, and that works on Medium — four buttons, four fingers. But the only way you’re going to feel comfortable with pressing the orange button is to move your default starting position. More often than not, you want your index finger over the red (second) button, and your pinky hovering over the dangerous orange button — like Figure B. This is a good mental way to center yourself on the guitar because you’ll be able to feel the middle button’s ridge or nubs (depending on which guitar controller you prefer) with your middle finger. When you get a riff that “anchors” itself around the green button, just shift back. It’s also easier to stretch back to reach the green button with your index finger (as seen in Figure C) than it is to stretch ahead to reach the orange button with your pinky — the main riff in “I Think I’m Paranoid” in Rock Band is a good time to try it.

Songs that use a lot of shifting power chords (two-button chords with a button in-between, like green-yellow) are prime benefactors of this technique. Of all the advice we can offer, this is probably the single biggest change to adopt — and by far the most important.

Guitar Hero II: "Surrender"
Guitar Hero III: "My Name is Jonas"; "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
Rock Band: "Here It Goes Again"; "Gimme Shelter"

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