Techniques to playing well

Step 6: Techniques to playing well

1. Sweaty hands. This is for guitar only. Not for drums at all. Play a couple easier songs before you get into the harder songs so your hands work up a sweat. Especially for Hard and Expert, where you have that fifth orange note to hit, it helps to kind of have sweat on your hands as a lubricant to make them slide easier on the neck.

2. Focus on the track, not on your score! I've seen several people fail out of songs because they were wondering how good they were doing. My philosophy: If you aren't getting boo'd off the stage, you're doing just fine. You can see how well you did once you finish the song, but unless you know the track by heart and can play the song without looking, then don't try and see if you have those 5 stars yet.

3. For drums: Wear loose clothing. Just a T-Shirt, shorts or light pants, and no shoes or socks. This helps tremendously when playing drums because, trust me on this, playing drums at all is a workout within itself. Seriously, I have muscles because of drumming! Don't wear shoes or socks because your feet can either break the drum pedal if you hit it too hard while wearing shoes, or your feet will slip if wearing socks.

4. Again, for drums, don't wail on the pads. This isn't an actual drum kit, so don't treat it like it is. Especially on the GH drumset, where you have two elevated cymbals, those can break easily if you wail on them too much. Just light taps will do, and harder if you're working up more points, or if you have several notes in a row, but please, be kind to your drumset.

5. Vocals: SING YOUR HEART OUT! Trust me, for guys, the ladies will dig you for it if you're singing your heart out to them. And, it's even more impressive if you're playing "Frontman" with it as well, preferably guitar, but whatever you want (I do Bass and Guitar, so whatever you wanna do. Drums are hard, trust me).

6. Don't focus on other peoples tracks. Especially in versus or band mode, it gets distracting when you're watching the drum track and thinking "OOoohh..." and you're failing your track. It gets annoying to the other players, and you look really stupid. Trust me.

7. KNOW YOUR INSTRUMENT. Just spend time playing around with the instruments, even if you aren't playing anything. Get to know your instrument, become the instrument. You need to be able to know where what is so you don't have to look, and possibly fail out of a song. For Bass/Lead guitar especially, figure out where the fret buttons are so you know where to put your hands. There's an elevated line on the Yellow Fret Button, so you know where to put your hands by feeling that. In the stationary hand position, your ring finger should be on the yellow fret button (From Easy-Hard. With Hard and Expert, your middle finger can be on there as well, so you can hit the orange button with your pinky.

8. This isn't necessarily for playing well, but to look darn funny while playing. If you're doing full band mode, ROCK OUT! You are a rock star, so act like it! It looks hilarious in a party, and other people will wanna join in! Plus, chicks are gonna dig you. And the guys will be drooling if you're a girl rockin' out on the drums or bass guitar. Headbang, do a Hendrix thing, do the drums like Lars Ulrich, and you'll be guitar heros in no time! (Please don't hurt yourself or anybody while doing this. I am not liable nor responsible for anything you do to people while rockin' out)

Now that you know how to play, go out there and ROCK THE WORLD!!!