Guitar Hero II Strumming Question

[ChipsAhoya]

I recently completed Hard in career mode but only got more than 3 stars on 5-10 songs or so. Since I have no musical training whatsoever, I have simply been strumming down using only my thumb every time I need to play a note. Is learning to strum up and down with the thumb and forefinger absolutely necessary or should I just be working on improving my hammer ons and pull offs?

Thanks,
ChipsAhoya

[dontmesswithme]

You will have a pretty hard time beating Misirlou on Expert without strumming up and down.

[asdf11]

I strum down only as well but I know that I will need to begin strumming up as well very shortly. I have 5 starred about 60-70% of the songs on Hard (waiting until all are 5starred before going to Expert) and already I can see that I need to strum up and down for a string of notes close together, otherwise I miss like half.

Not only that but for certain songs where theres a strings of notes/chords and it is continuous, your hand will get really tired really quick if you're only strumming down.

[Edge34]

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You will have a pretty hard time beating Misirlou on Expert without strumming up and down.

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This is really sad, but even when I strum up and down, I still can't effing beat that song. Meh.

[asdf11]

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You will have a pretty hard time beating Misirlou on Expert without strumming up and down.

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This is really sad, but even when I strum up and down, I still can't effing beat that song. Meh.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGKMOs5jtzQ
Good Luck.

[brad3]

Practice strumming up and down on easier songs. Once you get the feeling of it, all songs become easier. I alt strum all the time and it feels natural to me now. And yes, it is absolutely necessary to alt strum.

[Number27]

Definitely use alternate strumming. Practice on some of the rhythm songs like Monkey Wrench and Strutter on medium and hard.

You won't be able to beat Expert if you can't 5 star every song on hard so you might as well go ahead and do that before trying. You might be able to get through the first two set lists using only down strumming; but you'll never pass Psychobilly Freakout, Hangar 18, Misirlou, Freebird etc without alternate strumming.

[kyro]

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You won't be able to beat Expert if you can't 5 star every song on hard so you might as well go ahead and do that before trying.

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yeah, i definitely disagree with this. I still can't get 5 stars on Six and it took me several tries to get 5 stars on Psychobilly on Hard, long after I had beaten every song on Expert (except jordan)

[SmileyEH]

wtf people actually wait to get 5 stars on everything at hard before playing expert? jesus, i played hard for like 2 days then switched to expert. the songs are so much more fun to play.

[gusmahler]

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wtf people actually wait to get 5 stars on everything at hard before playing expert? jesus, i played hard for like 2 days then switched to expert. the songs are so much more fun to play.

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Different strokes for different folks.

After trying hard, I realized it was much more fun than medium, so I stopped playing medium. Then I joined the Score Hero medium league and realized there was a lot of Medium that I was missing. I.e., yes, Hard is fun, but perfecting Medium is also fun.

The same is probably true of the difference between hard and expert.