In music, a note are a single tone of distinct pitch made by a musical instrument or voice. In a musical composition, it is a written sign representing the pitch and duration of a musical note.
In rhythm video games including the Guitar Hero series, a note is an icon (appearance known as "gem" in Guitar Hero) appearing on screen that the player interacts as it travels to a playable hit zone across a highway.
When a player successfully plays a note in a Guitar Hero video game, the user accumulates score points (usually 50 base score points at a x1 multiplier), the needle of their Rock Meter gauge slowly travels toward the green safe zone, and the number in the note streak counter (known as "hitStreak" in Guitar Hero III Mobile's achievement descriptions) increases by 1.
Hitting 10 notes or chords in a row without missing increases the user's multiplier (up to 4x in most games in solo gameplay). Most games show a milestone when a player would hit 50 notes, 100 notes, 200 notes, etc. in a note streak, and in Guitar Hero Live, a note every 50 notes/chords while in a note streak will have gold trims, indicating these milestones.
When the player unsuccessfully plays a note or misses a note, no points are accumulated for the missed note, the note streak resets to 0, and the needle of their Rock Meter gauge travels toward the red danger zone at a greater distance (usually on higher difficulties). In Guitar Hero Live, if the player makes a mistake before a 50th consecutive note streak, the upcoming note streak milestone note/chord loses its gold trim.
Types of notes[]
There are different types of notes that appeared throughout the Guitar Hero video game series with new main series titles introducing more types of notes with different ways to play them.
The following note types appear on Guitar, Bass, Lead, and Rhythm playable instrumental tracks.
Basic note[]
7 strum notes and 1 HOPO note (first red note) on screen in Guitar Hero.
Also known as "strum note", this is the most basic type of note in the Guitar Hero series, which is featured on every Guitar Hero video game. To play a strum note on a guitar controller, as a note is approaching the targeted fret icon down the highway (also known as fretboard), hold down the corresponding fret color (frets can be held before notes appear), and press the strum bar of the guitar controller up or down to play the note.
If played successfully, the note will disappear on the target, burnt in flames, which will grant the player 50 score points times the number of the player's multiplier and their note streak increases by 1. Every 10 note successfully hit will increase the player's multiplier by x1 (up to x4 without Star Power), but making mistakes or missing notes will reset the note streak to 0. At the maximum x8 multiplier with Star Power active, the player would accumulate 400 score points per note.
A chord is a row of notes (2 or more notes) appearing down the fretboard together. To play a chord on a guitar controller, the player must hold the same colored frets without holding any other frets and strum them as they come across the target. Holding down any other frets while attempting to play chord will prevent the chord from being registered, with exceptions involving extended sustains.
A HOPO note, short for hammer-ons and pull-offs, is a special type of note that can be played without strumming while the player is in a combo. To play a HOPO note through the hammer-ons and pull-off technique, as long as the player has a note streak of 1, when a HOPO note touches the target at the bottom of the screen, the player can tap the fret of the corresponding HOPO note touches its target.
The first Guitar Hero game, however, had a strict rule that in order to hammer-on a note from left to right (right to left in Lefty Flip), the first note before the HOPO note(s) must be held. This rule made it difficult to play HOPOs during fast-paced guitar solos so this rule was discarded in Guitar Hero II and onward.
In all games, HOPO notes can also be strummed while it's in the target and will be triggered as a strum instead of a tap. In some cases, it's usually preferable to strum HOPO notes in Harmonix's Guitar Hero video games (Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, but the first game especially).
As HOPO notes were not meant to appear on the same lane as the previous note unless if it is a change in chord (from chord to single note, single note to chord, or chord to a different chord), few songs in the Guitar Hero: On Tour series feature single HOPO notes that appear after another single note of the same lane. These consecutive HOPO notes can either be re-tapped while in a combo or the player can keep the fret button held held through it if it's still in HOPO tapping range after the previous note.
Some songs in the On Tour series featuring HOPO notes after another note of the same lane include "Pride and Joy" and "Satch Boogie".
HOPO chord[]
For many Guitar Hero video games until Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits and Guitar Hero 5, all chords must be strummed. Starting in these games, chords can be tapped as hammer-ons/pull-offs as well while the player is in a combo.
A long note, commonly referred to as sustains, hold note in the Nintendo DS titles, sustained notes in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and Glu Mobile's titles, and longer note in the BackstagePass titles, is a note with a line (or tail) attached to it. To complete a long note after playing the note, keep the fret(s) held until the entire tail passes through your target(s). As a long note is being sustained, the player continually accumulates points to their score every frame and the higher the multiplier, the faster the score is accumulated.
Releasing a long note early before the end of the tail passes through the target will cut off the audio of the instrumental track and no further points will be accumulated. However, this does not count as a mistake so the player's note streak does not reset and the Rock Meter doesn't take the direction of the needle away. But if the player does release too early, they cannot go back on the same sustained line.
Releasing any frets of a long chord early will cut off all notes on the chord as well.
In Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass and Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass, the player must keep longer notes held and must release their touch when the end of the tail hits the target to register notes, otherwise longer notes in the Backstage Pass titles will not register if the notes are releases too early or too late, and all points acquired on that longer note will be taken away. Successfully releasing at the end of the tail counts as an additional note hit in the hit streak.
Extended sustains[]
An extended sustained YB chord passing a sustained orange HOPO note in Guitar Hero: Metallica.
Extended sustained notes (or extended sustains for short) are a variation of long notes introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour, appearing in every console title since then, that allows a long note's or notes' tail to pass by other notes and chords.
Extended sustains start on the left side of other notes (or right side in Lefty Flip) as its tail passes through notes on the right (or left side in Lefty Flip). As long as the player is in a combo during an extended sustain while the extended sustained note and fret is still held, the sustain will continue to play. The extended sustained notes are also ignored by chords within the extended sustain, allowing chords to be played while the extended sustained fret is held. If the player breaks a combo during an extended sustain, the sustain will cut off and the player cannot go back on the sustain.
It is not possible for most Guitar Hero video games to do extended sustains with the extended sustained note on the right side of other notes (left side in Lefty Flip) as notes on the left of an extended sustain (right side in Lefty Flip) cannot be strummed when a note on the right (left side in Lefty Flip) is being held, however, in Band Hero on Nintendo DS and Guitar Hero Live, this became possible.
A reverse extended sustained B3 note with a W1 note in it during the intro of "Buried Alive" (Live).
In Guitar Hero Live, notes (regardless if it's black or white) on the left side or the right side of an extended sustained note can be strummed, ignoring the held sustained fret. Extended sustains played from right to left (or left to right) are dubbed as "reverse extended sustains" by fans.
While it is possible to chart "reverse extended sustains" in GHMix 2.0 for Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, extended sustains on the right must be released before playing notes left of the sustain as notes will not register if the sustain is still held before playing notes on the left.
Guitar Hero World Tour also introduced another note type exclusively for Bass in most console games (but are also featured in Guitar Hero on iOS as Accent Gems and in Guitar Hero Live on Guitar). In most Guitar Hero games, they appear as purple lines.
To play an open note, strum up or down as an open note hits the target line without holding any frets. Having any frets held while playing an open note will prevent the open note from registering.
Open notes also support the HOPO feature. To play pull-off notes, release any fret(s) held as soon as the pull-off open note reaches the target line.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock included the sustained feature for open notes. A sustained open note would have a wide purple tail covering the RYB lanes (or a thin black/white tail in the B2 lane in Guitar Hero Live for custom songs only). When playing a sustained open note, as long as no frets are being held, the player continually accumulates points to their score and if it's during a Star Power phrase, it can be whammied for more Star Power energy. Tapping any fret during a sustained open note cuts the note's audio.
Slider notes (also known as slider gems and known as tap notes in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock) were also introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour for Guitar and Bass tracks. These type of notes are played similar to HOPO notes except slider/tap notes can be tapped at any time, even when a combo is broken.
The idea of slider notes was to use the Guitar Hero World Tour guitar controller's touch-sensitive slider bar controller feature in the middle of the fretboard to slide from one note to another. However, these notes can also be tapped as normal with the five main fret buttons.
Drums is a playable instrumental track first introduced in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Depending on the type of drumkit controller the player is using, Drums are played on a 5-lane RYBOG highway (i.e. World Tour drumkit) or a 4-lane RYBG highway (i.e. Rock Band drumkit) and a P bass note (see Bass Notes below).
Toms and cymbals[]
There are several types of basic notes on Drums including:
A drum roll of red snares.
Snare: The left lane will have red gems commonly used for the snare drum (also known as "side drum"). A snare is a cylindrical drum that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick. It is often seen and played on beat every other beat and are often used in drum rolls.
Cymbal: Cymbals are metallic disc-like percussive instruments. There are different types of cymbals including:
Hi-hat: The second lane will have yellow gems, usually for hi-hats. A Hi-hat is a combination of two (small) cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. When tapped softly without the foot pedal held, they provide a high-pitched tick-like sound; this resting position is referred to as "closed hi-hats". With the foot pedal held, the sound is heavier and lasts longer, referred to as "open hi-hats". Open hi-hats would often appear as accentedyellow notes.
A mix of notes including orange and yellow cymbals.
Ride cymbal: A ride cymbal is a cymbal of material sustain used to maintain a beat in music, like hi-hats. When using 5-lane drumkit, the ride cymbal would appear on the fourth lane as orange gems. When using a 4-lane drumkit, the ride cymbal would appear on the fourth lane as green gems but in the Rock Band series, they would appear in the third lane as blue gems.
Crash cymbal: A crash cymbal is a type of cymbal that produces a loud, sharp "crashing" sound and is used mainly for occasional accents, as opposed to a ride cymbal. A drum kit would usually have at least two different crash cymbals of different sizes to produce a different pitch of "crash". In Guitar Hero, they would appear in either the second yellow lane (usually when the orange lane is being occupied by ride cymbals) or the fourth orange lane (usually when the yellow lane is being occupied by hi-hats).
China cymbal: A china cymbal, also known as "trash cymbal", is a distinct type of crash cymbal designed to produce a bright, crisp, and explosive tone.
Splash cymbal: A splash cymbal is a small cymbal that provide a "splashing" sound effect rather than an "explosive" sound effect of a crash or china cymbal.
A drum roll of blue and green toms.
Toms:Toms (also known as "tom-toms") are cylindrical drums with no snares. Their pitch when hit by drum sticks varies by the size of the toms. Higher-pitched toms would often appear as blue gems in the third lane while lower-pitched toms would often appear in the right-most lane as green gems. In the Rock Band series, the second yellow lane would have the highest-pitched toms and the righter blue and green lanes would be lower.
Floor Tom: While regular toms are elevated from the ground, floor toms are tall toms that rest on the floor. They have a strong, low-pitch sound when hit by drum sticks. Due to their low-tone nature, they would appear in the right-most lane as green gems.
Bass drum notes is the last basic note type for Drums, appearing as purple lines like open notes on Bass (Completely played on Beginner on Guitar, too in Guitar Hero: World Tour and gray lines in some games as shown in the image). They require at least one kick pedal attached to the drums controller to play and are played with the foot.
Songs with fast-paced streams of bass drum notes may not be possible with a single foot pedal—with the exception of using certain kick pedal techniques)—so Guitar Hero: Metallica introduced a special difficulty level exclusive to Drums called Expert+ featuring all bass drums in specific songs with fast-paced streams of bass drum notes while Expert difficulty ignores every other 1/16th (or less) distanced bass drum note in a stream of 3+ bass drum notes. It is recommended to have a Y-cable and a second foot pedal when playing Drum songs on Expert+ difficulty.
Drum notes with a line attached to their back are called swells. These are similar to long notes on Guitar and Bass but are played differently. To hit and maintain swell note(s), the corresponding drum pad must be hit repeatedly. In Guitar Hero World Tour, if the drum swell is hit and then dropped the player will not lose their multiplier but they cannot continue to play that swell. In Guitar Hero 5 and later games if a swell is dropped it can be played again by re-hitting the corresponding drum(s). In Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, swells for kick drums were added. Hitting the kick drum swell is just like the normal swells; keep the swell going by repeatedly hitting the corresponding drum.
Accent note[]
Red and blue accent notes.
Accent note, also known as the velocity note, are notes with a silver crown over them. They can be played as normal but hitting them harder (at higher velocity) on the pressure-sensitive pad/cymbal adds more points to the player's score.
A red ghost note followed by a regular red note and anotherred ghost note.
Introduced in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, ghost notes—which are transparent like tap notes—are similar but opposite to accent notes. They can be played as normal but playing them lighter (at lower velocity) on the pressure-sensitive pad/cymbal adds more points to the player's score.
Like Drums, Vocals were a playable instrument introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour to complete a full band. Vocals are played using a microphone. Vocals appear in Guitar Hero Live, however, doesn't increase the score but has it own score. Having the Microphone plugged in doesn't make the crowd react decrease.
Vocal note[]
Vocal notes are the basic notes on Vocals. The player sings to the pitch of the vocal note to play these notes and the pitch can dive up or down. On higher difficulty, the pitch hitbox window is tighter. As long as the player is pitch-accurate with their voice to the spoken note, the word/syllable below them are not required to say to successfully complete a vocal note.
Spoken notes are pitch-less vocal notes. They do not require a specific pitch to play them as long as the microphone picks up audio. They commonly appear in hip-hop and death metal songs during raps and screams respectively.
A freeform is a section of a song (appearing to be wavy) where the player can freely say anything to earn additional points (pre-Guitar Hero 5) and recover their Rock Meter as long as the microphone is picking up audio. However, as of Guitar Hero 5, freestyle no longer adds points to the players score but they can still be performed to recover the player's Rock Meter towards green. Freestyle sections are optional to play.
Note gems shaped as a star are known are Star Power notes, Star Power gems, starred gems, or starred notes. Starred notes occasionally appear throughout the songs in segments. Successfully completing a sequence of starred notes without breaking combo adds 25% Star Power energy to the player's Star Power Meter (50% in Guitar Hero 5 Mobile). However, breaking a combo during a Star Power phrase will transform the rest of the starred gems into regular gems of their note type.
Using the whammy bar on a starred long note repeatedly gradually gives the player more Star Power energy. The colored line would turn cyan when being whammied.
A beginner note (given name unofficial) is a special note that exclusively appears in Beginner/Basic difficulty on Guitar, Bass, and Drums in Guitar Hero World Tour and newer console titles, as well as Band Hero for Nintendo DS. In most Guitar Hero titles featuring the Beginner difficulty, they appear as rainbow-colored lines. In Band Hero for Nintendo DS, they appear as orange lines and in Guitar Hero Live, they appear as white lines similar to open notes.
These notes can be played by strumming them with any frets held or no frets held at all.
Guitar Hero (iOS) notes[]
List of note types available in Guitar Hero on iOS. These note types and their quoted description are listed in the game's help menu.
Tap Gems:"Tap Gems are round. Simply touch them as they enter the note catcher at the bottom of the screen."
Basic (strum) notes in other Guitar Hero games.
Tap Chords:"Tap Chords are two Tap Gems. Touch both at the same time as they enter the note catcher."
Tap Chords in Guitar Hero on iOS will never be adjacent to each other. In other words, the only combinations of Tap Chords on Guitar Hero (iOS) are GY, RB and GB. Strum Gems fill the role of "adjacent chords".
Strum Gems:"Strum Gems are shown with arrows. As they enter the note catcher, move one finger across the entire arrow in the direction the arrow points."
Not to be confused with regular strum notes in other games, this is a special type of note where the player quickly slides from one lane to another the strum note it pointing at, simulating a strummed chord. It can be from left to right (like G→R, or from right to left (like Y←B). Some songs have wide strum gems that can stretch from G→Y or R←B.
Star Power:"Play gems with star tops to fill your Star Power meter. When the blue Star Power button appears, touch it to boost your score for a short time!"
Hold Lines:"Hold Lines represent sustained notes. Touch Hold Lines while they are in the note catcher to earn extra Star Power."
Unlike the previous Guitar Hero titles where you can only acquire additional Star Power energy on long notes during a Star Power phrase, whammying any Hold Lines by moving your finger on a targeted Hold Line will gather Star Power energy even on non-starred gems. On sustained Tap Chords, you only need to move one of the two fingers around for both Hold Lines in the chord to vibrate.
Accent Gems:"Accent Gems are wide orange bars. Touch anywhere on the gems as they enter the note catcher."
These notes appear and play similarly to open notes on both Guitar and Bass but orange instead of purple and instead of being used on the lowest guitar/bass note, they are used for percussions.
Slide Lines:"Slide Lines let you play a series of notes easily. Tap the first note and slide across the purple line as it enters the note catcher."
Appearing similar to slider notes except not transparent, the player taps the first note, then slides their finger to the next note on the left or right as it passes the target line to register the next note. This is optional as they can also be simply tapped like a regular Tap Gem.
Hold Lines with a R→Y Strum Gem, GY Tap Chord, G→R Strum Gem, and GB Tap Chord in Guitar Hero (iOS). Star Power also available to be activated.
A green Tap Gem as well as Slide Gems from Y→B in Guitar Hero (iOS).
Accent Gems in the help menu of Guitar Hero (iOS).
Guitar Hero Live (iOS Touch Mode) notes[]
Tutorial for combo notes (top) and swipe notes (bottom) in Guitar Hero Live on iOS's Touch Mode.
Guitar Hero Live on iOS plays similar and has similar notes to the previous iOS title, including:
Tap notes: Regular notes shaped like inverted barre chords (1, 2, 3, 4). Tap the notes on the target as they approached the target line to acquire points to your score and increase your note streak, multiplier, and Rock Meter.
Sustained notes: When holding a sustained tap notes, points are quickly accumulated over time as long as they are held. All sustained notes, even outside of Star Power phrases, can accumulate Star Power energy by gently moving the touched finger around the held fret.
Chords: 2 notes on the same row as normal. Unlike the iOS title, which only had split chords, Guitar Hero Live supports adjacent chords (i.e. 12, 23, and 34 chords) in addition to all other 2-note chords.
Swipe notes:[1] Similar to Guitar Hero (iOS)'s strum note where the player quickly swipes from from one lane to another, following where an arrow is pointing at, commonly found on Advanced and Expert difficulties. It can be from left to right (like G→R, or from right to left (like Y←B).
Combo notes:[1] Similar to slide notes in Guitar Hero (iOS) where the player can swipe between roped notes or tap them.
_-_Accent_Gems.png "Guitar Hero (iOS) - Accent Gems.png (387 KB)")
_opening.jpg){kind=link}
