Hard (known as Advanced in Guitar Hero Live) is the second hardest difficulty in the Guitar Hero series after Expert (except on Drums where Hard is third hardest after Expert and Expert+). While it uses all five fret buttons (used all six buttons in Guitar Hero Live since Regular difficulty), its note patterns are not as difficult as Expert, and most songs are easy to Full Combo for an experienced Expert player. Hammer-ons and Pull-offs are not as common in Hard (and there are fewer streaks that last for several hundred notes.
Compared to Medium and Expert[]
One of the most noticeable additions is the use of the orange fret button. There are more notes and chords than Medium difficulty, but less notes and easier chords than on Expert difficulty that utilizes every audible note. While the learning curve between Medium and Hard was less steep in Guitar Hero, the curve was steepened much more in Guitar Hero II. There are also more chords on Hard, and split chords (GB notes and RO notes) begin to appear. There are also rare three note chords on this difficulty, but generally only at last note, with the exception of "Cherub Rock" and "The Number of the Beast." While Guitar Hero III have numeral instances of 3-note chords, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith only have two songs that a 3-note chord on Hard difficulty.
An excellent example of that Hard is much harder than Medium is the song "Cliffs of Dover" on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Most Hard and Expert players can Full Combo it on Medium since there are very few 16th notes. On Hard and Expert, there are many more 16th notes and triplets. One example of this is "The Number of the Beast" from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Most Hard players can get 5 stars on Medium difficulty and fail on Hard. Another rare chord is the GO chord.
Also, with Neversoft's improved Hammer-ons and Pull-offs system, if there are several 12th notes or less distanced in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock that would have automatically been a HOPO note in Guitar Hero II's game engine, they can be made as strum notes instead in Guitar Hero III and newer, but in rare cases not to make Hard difficulty too difficult.
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Trivia[]
- The Hard difficulty name does not appear in the Guitar Hero Mobile series. The Guitar Hero Mobile series—minus the Backstage Pass titles that have a 0-star to 5-star difficulty rating system—has three difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, and Expert, with all three difficulties utilizing all three
GRYlanes. However, Expert difficulty does not utilize every audible note in the songs of the Guitar Hero Mobile games, making it more like Hard difficulty than Expert difficulty.
