I think medium is good practice for your pinky. Just keep working at it. I wouldn't move to second position until hard. Even then there aren't too many orange notes on hard. Second position is required, IMO, on expert.

So I busted out GH3 this weekend and got to play for about an hour. It's so depressing to be unable to best any of your high scores... or even to come all that close. I did manage to 4* The Way It Ends. 5 is probably out of the question, but who knows. I also am getting a lot better at Mauvis Garcon. If you want to win almost every online faceoff battle ever, just get good at that song. I beat a guy 270k to 60k on it this weekend, and I had a bad run

I'd never beat any of my own scores with just an hour of play. It's really methodical the way I approached each song - I'd just play the hell out of one song until I could regulalry gold star it, then learn the optimal star path.

It brings me back to when I was a kid and practiced the piano for a recital. As soon as I'd make a mistake I'd have to start the song over.

I'm in awe of those players who scored 14 million. Just insane.

The Way it Ends is ridiculous. That song takes some serious staying power with the alt strumming - I can't make it past the first verse without my forearm locking up on me.

Someone tried to pull a Mauvis Garcon on me the other day and I got a very nice "F* you" from him when he got a beat down on his own song. I learned to play that song with only downstrums.

Damn, downstrums must be tough. I alt strum just about everything... which is why I suck compared to you I guess.

Is anybody else not getting their song scores uploaded to guitarhero.com at all anymore? I haven't had a song updated probably since the middle of December, no matter what time of day I play. The only way to get my groupies to move upwards is to beat someone down online.

Once my wife starts working nights again I'll try this, but I get so antsy repeating the same song. If I'm not close to my current high score I usually give up and move on. In a little over an hour I played 8 different songs, although some of them 2-3x.

Do you spend a ton of time in the practice mode? I don't spend much time there and when I do it doesn't seem to help a whole lot... unless I can't figure out the notes for some reason.

I practice sections that I have problems with FC'ing, like the solos. If I can't FC a section on full speed I'll keep dropping down a speed until I can FC it and if I can FC it 3 times in a row I bring the speed back up a notch. Once I can FC a section 3x in a row in full speed then I make a run at it in career mode.

In terms of how much time I spend, it all depends on the song. The Stricken solo took me 2 hours to FC, but before I even attacked the solo I made damn sure I got the ending mastered. Cult of Personality though I've been working on for like 2 weeks now, so that's about 8 hours of just trying to register the notes to muscle memory.

Are you kidding? On the first tier maybe, however there are whole songs such as Cherub Rock that spend the entire song on the Orange button. I will give you that there are not many cases on hard where you go from green to orange and vice versa in succession. Orange button introduction is unbalanced on Hard, however if you just stick with it it comes to you. I have now 5* all songs on hard except the last 2 tiers. They kick my rear.

Learning is what Guitar Hero I and II are for (They also burn you out when you get to GH3, but that's another story ).

I have to agree. I know I've said it before but being someone who started out on easy and have worked my way through hard and some expert(depending on the game), Harmonix does a far better job teaching you how to move your hand. The tiers make sense and they ease you into the blue/orange buttons before moving onto chords in later tiers. Neversoft just destroyed the purpose of tiers. They throw everything at you in tier 1.

That being said, if you want to learn blue/orange or how to move your hand, play GHII or Rock Band and then go back to GHIII.

If anyone is looking to jump into Rock Band for the 360, Amazon's Deal of the Day is Rock Band (game only) for $34.99. The GHII and GHIII guitars work for RB. Drum Kits aren't required, but are available separately if you want.

Ordered!

Picked up the GH III bundle for cheap last week. Was wanting to get RB but couldn't decide whether to pick everything up separately or in the bundle (since I much prefer the Les Paul controller over the Strat). This was just too good to pass up, though. I'll probably pick up the drums separately somewhere down the line, and don't care about the mic too much, so this was a much better deal for me than the bundle.

Thanks for the tip!

Wish I could order that in Canada at that price :/

Yep. Hell of a deal. My brother has been keeping an eye on prices on half.com for the game only to use with his Les Paul. Needless to say I called him at 8am to tell him about the deal. The DOTD is cheaper than the used copies. Too good to pass up.

It's a no-brainer if you already have the guitar(s).

hey Rabbit, did you ever FC Cliffs of Dover? I know you were working on it it.

Nah, I haven't tried since I had a -1 run a few weeks ago. Since there's not much more room to improve on my high score for that song I moved on. I'll probably go back to it once I FC Cult of Personality. I'm real close on that one. I just need more free time somewhere. My wife needs to go on a road trip with the kids or something.

I started playing this on Hard on Monday and got all the way to the tier w/ the Slipknot song and Knights of Cydonia. I 3* Knights on the 3rd try, and one of the other ones, not the 3's and 7s song and I am dying pretty damn quick on those two songs. They are bugging the hell out of me and I'm not enjoying it... haha. Even the tier before I got 4*s on 3 of the songs.

3's and 7's is one of those songs that when it clicks you'll blow right through it (it's actually one of my favorite songs to play now). That damn Slipknot song; however, I've managed to get through exactly twice.

I was stuck on Slipknot for the longest time. Frustratingly hard.

Love that slipknot song, probably one of my favourite songs to play.

I was stuck on The Metal for the longest time on Expert. Put this game back in to try out Dream On (I havent played in a while); played a couple songs on hard and then utterly destroyed The Metal. Now to work my way through the last 2 tiers unless I break the guitar off in the TV during Raining Blood or One or something.

Is it possible to unlock Devil Went Down to Georgia for quickplay? Or is it a battle only song?

It's a free download you can get (along with the other 2 battles) on the marketplace if you have Live.

Gotta lock this one for length guys. Feel free to start another revision.