4. Guitar/Bass achievements
If you are playing on Medium or harder, building up little finger stamina is vital to being able to play consistently well on this instrument. This does not have to be done actually playing the game and you can improve it by tapping on anything and everything. Have you ever tapped your fingers on the table going from your forefinger down to your pinky or the opposite way around? Most probably. Doing this and also doing it the opposite way to which you naturally do will help get you accustomed to fretting in-game. The blue note comes in on Medium and you need to make sure you use your pinky for that blue note straight off the bat rather than trying to move your hand down to it because when the orange note comes in on Hard and Expert you will find yourself totally lost.
So, first off, get used to using your little finger on every single blue note you see. Once you are hitting these consistently moving up to the orange note and keeping that pinky usage consistent gets a lot harder and you will probably end up trying to stretch the finger down to orange when in fact you must move your whole hand down the frets so your forefinger is set on the red fret as its starting position. Moreover, you need to start getting used to starting with your forefinger on the red every time you play on Expert as it is much easier to move your forefinger up to green rather than the pinky down to orange.
The huge difficulty with solos is the slight speed increase and the amount of notes you have to play in a short space of time. You will also find the solo difficulty increases most between Hard and Expert.
The stamina technique I mentioned for getting used to having to use your pinky will come in handy again for solos as if your fingers are used to moving up and down a scale quickly will mean that you can quickly react to fret changes in solos. You may also find that keeping the lowest fret anchored can help a great deal during solos as you will not have to think about that moving a finger for that note within the sequence and give you some brief breathing time to set up for the next flurry of notes.
There are so many songs out there where being able to alt strum consistently can make a huge difference to your score and rating. Getting used to this early on in your playing of the instrument will make it much easier for when you move up difficulties later on in your "career". Now, most people will only use alternate strumming when forced to such as when there is a section of the same notes over and over at a high notes per second rate. By using down and then up strums even for the slowest notes out there will get you used to the action more than anything and gradual speed increases doing this will then see this become a natural event.
If you do find that you can naturally only alternate strumming when it is at a little bit of a faster pace and when you do not have to change frets then this one is going to take some time. Even if you have to drop all the way down to Easy to alternate your strumming every single note then it is worth doing. I do know that some people cannot get used to this style of playing at all and will try to downstrum everything but this will prove a huge disadvantage for the fast strumming sections of songs where it changes frets throughout. If you do find yourself to be one of these people then all I can say is to simply practice alternate strumming without even playing the game and just using your guitar gradually building up and slowing pace. This will increase your stamina and also make you better at changing your pace more consistently. I also find that when there is a fret change when alternate strumming that going to a downstrum for this first note of the fret change will help keep your rhythm.
TOO LONG, I DID NOT READ!: Train yourself to utilize all your fingers and use techniques which will decrease the amount of effort and stamina you need to put in like alternate strumming and anchoring.
Guitar
5 Star on Easy Guitar (or 3 Star on a higher difficulty) any 25 Rock Band 3 songs.
Easy Song Progress - 5* Easy Guitar
You have to simply play 25 different Rock Band 3 on disc songs on guitar. Your score at the end must be three stars or five stars if it is Easy.
Get 100% accuracy on Expert Guitar.
Epic Guitar Goals - Flawless Expert Guitar (Icon Is Different) DLC
You need to hit 100% of the notes on any song while playing on Expert. You do not have to hold all of the sustains, and you are allowed to over-strum. If you select the goal, the counter shows how much percentage of notes you have hit. It will stay green as long as you continue to hit all of the notes, it will turn white if you miss one.
Recommended Songs: "I Love Rock 'N Roll", "The Hardest Button to Button"
Get 85% on all Guitar Solos in Rock Band 3 on Hard or Expert.
Guitar Solo Goals - Guitar Solo Master
This goal contains a list of songs with at least one guitar solo. You need to play each song (at least on Hard difficulty) and play through the guitar solo in each song. You need to hit 85% of the notes in one of the solos in the song to have it 'ticked'. The solo bonus indicator gives an indication to how much notes you hit in the solo, it needs to be 85% or higher to count.
Kill 53,596 Hammer-ons and Pull-offs.
Epic Guitar Goals - Hopo-cidal Maniac DLC
You need to hit a grand huge gigantic total of 53,596 (fifty three thousand, five hundred and ninety six) HOPOs. Each HOPO you hit counts as 1, however if you play the HOPO by strumming, that note won’t count. If you select the goal, the counter will issue a running total of the amount of HOPOs you have hit. Good songs to use are "Something Bigger, Something Brighter", "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", "Crosstown Traffic", and "Free Bird"; however you can use any song you like.
You get much more HOPOs by playing on Expert in comparison to the other difficulties, but that doesn't make it impossible.
Bass
Bass is identical to guitar. However, you will notice that you need to play fewer chords and you get a higher multiplier. Because of this, maintaining a streak is much more imperative for high scores.
Get a streak of 500 notes on Bass.
General Bass Goals - Bass Streak 500 DLC
You need to get a streak of 500 notes without over-strumming or missing. Chords only count as one note. If you pick the goal, you can see track your progress during the song you play via a goal counter. If it's white your current streak is under 500, if it's green your best streak is over 500 and will get you the achievement at the end. Difficulty, song and score does not matter, however picking a song that is short and easy may not have 500 notes to begin with.
Recommended songs: "Just Like Heaven", "Smoke On the Water"
Hit 100% of the notes, only strumming up, on Hard Bass.
Authentic Bass Goals - 100% Hard Upstrums DLC
You need to hit 100% of the notes on a song on Bass, at least on Hard difficulty. The twist is that that you can only strum the strum bar towards you. So strumming the bar down (away) will cancel out this achievement unlocking. If you want this achievement but don't want to strum up, I suggest you find a way to make the opposite flip work for you.
Recommended songs: "Just Like Heaven", "Imagine"
5 Starred on Easy Bass (or 3 Starred on a higher difficulty) 25 Rock Band 3 songs.
Easy Song Progress - 5* Easy Bass
You have to simply play 25 different Rock Band 3 on disc songs on bass. Your score at the end must be three stars or five stars if it is Easy.
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