Hard Difficulty

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The Hard difficulty lies between the Medium and Expert difficulties. Unlike Medium, it utilizes all five fret buttons on guitar and bass (Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, and Orange), which requires the player to shift their hand up or down the neck of the guitar to hit the Green or Orange button.

Characteristics of Hard

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Guitar

• This setting has most of the notes that are played on the guitar charted in the song. Some passages are charted differently from Expert, but have the same amount of notes, while certain sections omit some notes.
• Fast Alt-strumming⇒ on Hard is present, but often is slower than Expert's chart at that point. Good examples of this are the intro of Song_GH3_TheDevilWentDownToGeorgia The Devil Went Down to Georgia∞, Song_GH3_ThroughTheFireAndFlames Through the Fire and Flames∞, and Song_GH3_TheWayItEnds The Way it Ends∞. There are, however, some major exceptions to this rule, Song_GH2_Trogdor Trogdor∞ being one of those.
• Trills work the same way as strumming. Trills on Hard are either slower, a group of strummed notes at half the speed of the Expert trill, or are just charted as a sustain. Some good examples: Through the Fire and Flames, Song_GH80s_BecauseItsMidnite Because, It's Midnite∞, and Song_GH3_Impulse Impulse∞. Just like with fast strumming, there are some exceptions. In songs like Song_GH2_Freya Freya∞ and Song_GH2_JohnTheFisherman John the Fisherman∞, fast Hammer-ons Hammer-ons∞ or trills are charted as fast strumming at the same speed, which some players find to be more difficult than Expert charts.
• Hard is known for its "groups of three" when it comes to hammer-ons. You'll see many solos (in both Harmonix⇒ and Neversoft charts) with a strummed note, two hammer-ons, a space, and then the same pattern repeats. Song_GH3_TheNumberOfTheBeast The Number of the Beast∞, Song_GH2_PushPushLadyLightning Push Push (Lady Lightning)∞, and Song_GH2_FreeBird Free Bird∞ all follow this pattern at certain points.
• Most three-note chords from Expert are downgraded to a two-note chord in Hard, such as in Song_GH2_Jessica Jessica∞ and Song_GH3_MauvaisGarcon Mauvais Garcon∞. The same downgrade can happen to two-note chords in songs like Song_GH3_BeforeIForget Before I Forget∞ and Song_RB_WakeUpDead Wake Up Dead∞.
• Compared to Expert, Hard songs require less shifting of the player's hand position, as the difficulty tends to keep notes within groups of four longer than Expert.

Drums

• Hard drums begin to introduce sections where the bass note lies between notes. (for example, R-O-RY) Many players beginning on Hard find this to be difficult, especially when longer versions, such as the rather common RY-O-Y-O-RY appear. A song notorious for this is Song_RB_BloodDoll_Drums_Hard Blood Doll∞.
• "Rolls" (fast groups of notes close together) are often charted to be made simpler than they would be on Expert. Rolls are either charted at half speed, or are simplified, such as the roll sections in Song_RB_HighwayStar_Drums_Hard Highway Star∞. Songs with moderately fast rolls, such as Song_RB_InBloom_Drums_Hard In Bloom∞, are charted at the same speed as the Expert chart.
• Hard drum charts often have quite a lot less bass pedal than the Expert chart would. Generally this would make songs easier, as less foot stamina would be required, but in certain cases, some players find it harder. A good example would be the chart for Song_RB_Maps_Drums_Hard Maps∞, which has half of the bass pedal as Expert charted. Players find this difficult because it requires a decent amount of limb independence to hit correctly, whereas the Expert chart's bass pedal is in line with the notes played on the pads.
• In complicated sections, like fast rolls, or visually confusing sections, no or little bass pedal is charted so the player can focus completely on the pad hits.

Vocals

• Hard requires the vocalist to sing almost perfectly on pitch but if they are a little flat or sharp they will still get full credit for the phrase

Competition

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The Hard difficulty, despite it not being the highest difficulty in the game, is still a very competitive difficulty. Many players well into their Expert careers looking to compete with more variety sometimes drop down to Hard. Songs on this setting are still quite difficult, even for seasoned Expert players, to Full Combo or even earn Five Stars⇒ on. Very few players have Full Combo'd an entire game on Hard, as well.

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Category: CategoryGameModes