With the recent release of Guitar Hero 2 for Xbox 360, there’s no doubt that plenty of you will be buying this game for a second time. More songs - including tons of downloadable content, updated HD graphics and a cool new guitar are reason enough to buy this game again, but a lot of people will also likely be purchasing a Guitar Hero game for the first time, and it’s you guys that this video is for.

I’ve been playing guitar for most of my life, so I’ve had a couple of friends ask me to teach them to be better GH players. It seems to me that the easiest way to teach this is with a combination of real life and in game lessons, and so we begin with:

The Notes

As you can see, the notes on the neck of the Guitar Hero guitar are broken down a lot more simply than on a real guitar. You’ve simply got five color coded buttons near the top of the neck. These buttons are the most important thing to master when playing this game, and also likely the most difficult. In order to make a note play, the first step is to press the corresponding button. If this is your first time playing Guitar Hero, start out on the easy mode and you’ll only be required to use three of these five buttons. The medium difficulty will step it up once again to use four buttons, and only the Hard or Expert modes will require you to shred across all five buttons.

You’ve got to make sure that the button is depressed at the right time, but you can press and hold it preemptively if you’re ready for an upcoming lick. However, just like on a real guitar, simply pressing a note won’t get you anywhere without…

The Strum Bar

The Strum Bar on the guitar hero guitar is the replacement for the stings. Instead of six strings, you’ve just got one toggle like switch that will act as a trigger for the notes. Here, let me show you exactly what I mean…

Simply pressing a note on the neck of a guitar won’t do you any good, until you add a strum to it. When playing Guitar Hero, the strum bar can be pushed either down or up – whatever feels best for you. The majority of beginners should simply use their thumb to strike the bar downward, but stay tuned for a more advanced technique.

It’s worth noting that if you hit the strum bar on accident, you’ll lose points and any combo modifier you’ve got going. Feel free to slam the thing as hard as you want while you rock out, but be aware that an errant motion can easily cause a frustrating loss of points.

Now, while we’re on the subject of the strum bar is a great time to talk about rhythm. It’s absolutely crucial in this game that you’re able to strike a note at just the right time, and that’s going to require at least a rudimentary understanding of how the rhythm of playing guitar works. Every song has a unique time signature, which essentially determines how fast or slow it’s played. Most of the songs in Guitar Hero are based on a 4/4 time signature, which means that there are four beats in each measure.

The vast majority of notes you’ll play in this game fall under this classification, so get to know them well. Something that can be immensely helpful here is to find the time signature to songs you hear throughout the day. Tap your foot to find the beat of a song then see if you can figure out when each measure starts, and eventually you’ll be far more prepared for some shredding. Some notes, however, are held longer than others, and that’s where we meet the Whammy Bar.