- "Lead (Guitar)" redirects here. For the songs that support cooperative Lead guitar, see Rhythm. For guitar controllers, see Controllers and controller compatibility.
Guitar is the main playable instrument available in the Guitar Hero series for all Guitar Hero games, as the titles of the game suggest.
Overview[]
Before Guitar Hero World Tour, there were alternate guitar tracks in Cooperative play including Lead and Rhythm, where Rhythm replaced Bass, but Lead could still be using the main Guitar chart or its own Co-op Lead chart (see Rhythm to see a list of songs featuring these alternate Guitar charts). Rhythm and Bass were also playable in Practice mode.
Also, gamepads were supported in all available playable instruments before Guitar Hero World Tour, but gamepad support was dropped in Guitar Hero World Tour onward except on Vocals. In Guitar Hero World Tour onward (on console), a guitar controller is required to play Guitar or Bass. Computer keyboards are supported in the PC versions of the games.
Meanwhile in the Guitar Hero: On Tour series and Band Hero on Nintendo DS, a Guitar Grip is required to be inserted into Slot-2 of a Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite to play any Guitar or Bass tracks.
Lead guitar[]
- See also: Rhythm for songs supporting Lead and Rhythm playable tracks
The lead guitar is the primary guitar that plays guitar solos and backs up the rhythm guitarist, bassist, and other instruments.
Introduced in Guitar Hero II alongside Bass were Lead and Rhythm guitar tracks. Most songs would feature two instruments: Guitar and Bass. However, there are some songs focused on lead and rhythm guitars or multiple lead guitars that instead have playable Lead and Rhythm guitar tracks instead of Guitar and Bass. Lead would play similar to regular Guitar's note chart except some Lead charts would have some note placements exclusive to Lead not featured in the main Guitar track.
Games featuring Lead and Rhythm playable tracks are:
- Guitar Hero II
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- Guitar Hero: On Tour
- Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
- Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades
- Guitar Hero Arcade
- Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits
Star Power[]
Star Power is a core feature in the Guitar Hero series. It is gained by hitting all Star Power notes in a Star Power phrase (also known as a Star Power sequence). Star power can also be gained by using the whammy bar on star power sustains. Star Power can be activated by tilting the guitar up or by pressing the Star Power button.
When Star Power is activated, a bolt of lightning strikes the highway and the color of all notes (and lines on long notes) turn cyan until Star Power energy is completely depleted. While Star Power is activated, multiplier is doubled until the effect ends.
Incoming Star Power phrases are disabled in Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, the Guitar Hero: On Tour series, and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, and additional Star Power cannot be acquired while in Star Power in those games. However starting in Guitar Hero III Mobile and Guitar Hero World Tour, additional Star Power can be obtained while in Star Power to maintain an active Star Power session for a longer period of time.
Note types[]
- Main article: Note types
Here is a list of note types available on Guitar, Lead, Rhythm, and Bass playable track instruments. Bass has an additional note type mostly exclusive to it called open note, which was later included on Guitar for Guitar Hero Live.
Basic notes[]
Basic notes, also known as strum notes, are regular notes that must be strummed up or down with the strum bar while the corresponding fret button(s) are held. A single basic note (or any type of single note) is worth 50 points times the player's multiplier in most games.
The player can also hold fret buttons left (right in Lefty Flip) of a single basic note and play the held note. However, notes of held fret(s) will not register and will count as a mistake if the player is also holding fret button(s) to the right (left in Lefty Flip) of the note(s) when playing them.
Chords[]
- Main article: Chords
Chords are two or more notes played at the same time. For a chord to be played all corresponding fret buttons must be held. These can range from two to five notes played together. Chords occur more in hard and expert difficulties. As chords are two or more notes played together they are worth more than a single note. 2-note chords are worth 100 points × multiplier and 3-note chords are worth 150 points × multiplier. However, they're still counted as a single note on the note streak counter.
Long notes[]
- Main article: Long notes
Long notes, also known as sustains, sustained notes (Warriors of Rock and later mobile titles), and hold notes (Nintendo DS titles), are notes with a lengthy tail after the note. To play a sustain, play the note as normal but keep the fret(s) held down until the end of the tail passes the target line. As long as a long note is held, the player will continually accumulate points, which accumulates at a faster speed at higher multiplier. Releasing any held fret(s) related to the long note(s) won't penalize the player, but will cut track audio and the player won't receive additional points. Long notes can also be terminated by holding down a higher fret button or overstrumming. The whammy bar can be used to extract star power from sustains in a star sequence.
Sustains can also appear in the form of chords, HOPOs, open notes (only in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, as well as custom songs for Guitar Hero Live), and slider/tap notes.
In Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, if the player presses the whammy bar before strumming a sustain note, the whammy will not register until the whammy bar is at its rest position. This issue was fixed in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, allowing the player to hold a whammy bar before a long note.
Extended sustains[]
- Main article: Long notes § Extended sustains
Extended sustains were introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour. They are long notes with other notes mapped to the right (or left in Lefty Flip) of the long note. The notes which extended from the base note can be regular notes, chords, sustains, or slider notes. Sustains won't be dropped for holding the additional frets ahead of time or holding them after letting go of some of the frets. Though if a button is held that isn't in the extension then the note will be dropped.
The tutorial in Guitar Hero World Tour says that these notes only appear on Hard and Expert, however, this may have been an error on the developers' part, or it may have meant that these notes only appear to any significant degree on Hard and Expert, as these notes DO appear on Easy and Medium, albeit rarely. For example, "Pull Me Under" has an extended sustain on Easy for Bass, and "Hey Man, Nice Shot" has a few extended notes on Medium for the guitar (namely a green long note that extends past multiple red notes.)
Before Guitar Hero Live, it is impossible to do extended sustained notes in reverse where you would hold the higher note and play lower notes as gameplay would always play the highest held fret but in Guitar Hero Live, "reversed extended sustains" became possible and will ignore playing upper notes while holding the frets and playing the lower notes during the sustain.
Hammer-ons and Pull-offs[]
- Main article: Hammer-ons and Pull-offs
Hammer-ons and Pull-offs (HOPOs for short) are types of notes used mainly for advanced players hence they are not as common as they are on Hard and Expert difficulties. The concept of HOPOs is to strum one note and play other notes by simply pressing the necessary buttons therefore hammering on or pulling off. HOPOs appear as regular notes except they glow brightly white on top (or glow cyan in Guitar Hero Live). To start a HOPO sequence the first basic note before the HOPOs must be hit. The energy from this note will be passed on to the others. Hammer-ons will begin from a lower note to a higher note and pull-offs will begin on a higher note to a lower note. Pull-offs are the same, but in reverse.
Here's how they work: Pressing a fret button is just like pressing all 6 strings on the neck of a guitar. As such, the fret button won't make a noise until the guitarist strums, causing the strings to vibrate. When multiple frets are pressed, the strings only vibrate at the fret closest to the body of the guitar, also known as, the highest note. As a result, the guitarist won't need to worry with the notes closer to the headstock of the guitar. Only the highest note will be played in these instances, a method called "High Note Override." For example, if a green sustain is played, and the red fret button is pressed, the sustain will be dropped. High Note Override does not apply when playing a chord. For example, if a red and yellow chord is about to be played, and the red and yellow fret buttons are pressed, but the green fret button is also pressed, the chord will not be played.
In the first Guitar Hero game, hammer-ons and pull-offs had a strict rule of holding down the previous fret in order to register a hammer-on or have a fret of an upcoming pull-off note held down before pulling-off the first fret to register a pull-off but this rule was removed since Guitar Hero II.
As of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, the size of the hitbox to hammer-on or pull-off was increased, making it easier to play these notes by simply tapping them while in a combo.
HOPO chords[]
In Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits, Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, and Guitar Hero Live, HOPO sequences can now be implemented in chords. These can also be harder to hit rapidly unlike with single note HOPOs.
In Guitar Hero Live, HOPO notes have a cyan glow around the notes. They are played as normal from left to right [hammer-ons] and right to left [pull-offs], regardless of their row, but can also be "pulled-off" vertically up or down. For example, when playing a HOPO note from a high W2
note to a low glowing B2
, that would be treated as a "pull-off" so W2
must be released. Likewise, to go from a low B1
note to a high glowing W1
, you would "pull-off" the B1
fret to the W1
fret without keeping B1
held. Rows do not matter, so if you were to play from a low B3
note to a high glowing W1
, you would "pull-off" the B3
fret to the W1
fret.
Slider notes[]
- Main article: Slider notes
Also introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour were slider notes, known as tap notes in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Slider notes appear as transparent gems with a purple rope (darker in some games after) connecting them and would often appear on pick slides, other percussive slides, and taps. Until Guitar Hero 5, slider notes would be connected with a purple/dark rope that would be used as guide when using the slider bar of a Guitar Hero World Tour or Guitar Hero 5 Wireless Guitar Controller. Slider/tap notes don't require strumming to be played but it's optional. These can be played by using the Fret buttons or using the slider bar.
They are usually placed in the keyboard sections of a song, pick slides of a guitar, and tappings in a guitar solo or jam.
This type of note is not featured in Guitar Hero Live but Clone Hero that supports Guitar Hero Live's gameplay mechanics would feature this note type with a purple glow.
Playing methods/techniques[]
Alternate strumming[]
Alternate strumming is a technique which utilizes strumming both up and down. This makes faster strings of notes more easy to hit.
Tapping[]
Tapping is an advanced used to play difficult sections more easily. Tapping makes use of the High Note Override method where while holding multiple buttons only the highest note counts unless playing a chord. Tapping is used on sections comprised mostly of HOPOs or Slider Notes. Tapping is used by the anchoring (holding) the lower note down and pressing the higher fret button(s). Tapping can be done with one hand or both hands. Tapping with both hands should be used only where there are more notes per second that would be too difficult to be done with one hand.
Squeezing[]
Squeezing is another advanced technique. Squeezing is used to "squeeze" additional points in a Star Power use. This technique takes advantage of the size of the timing window. Squeezing is done by playing a note late and using Star Power before the note is played and playing a note at the end of the use early. In doing this two additional notes are gained in the Star Power use: one in the beginning and on in the end. Squeezing is difficult to master due to the fraction of time to be used in it.
Elbow strumming[]
Elbow strumming, as the name implies, is the strumming of a note with the elbow. Elbow strumming is used when the player is about to use tapping and already has both hands on the fret buttons, and can help ease the difficulty of hard transitions, such as the transition from the ending triplets of 'Twin Solo' to 'Here We Stand' sections of "Through the Fire and Flames" from Guitar Hero III: Legend of Rock, as well as in other hard sections like the orange wall strums in the same game's chart of "One".
Terminology[]
Overstrumming[]
Overstrumming is the occurrence of strumming more than what is needed, and it breaks the combo whenever it happens. Overstrumming can occur most often in extended strings of notes.