Tea Leaves

Is it like a carpal tunnel pain, or sore fingertips?
I've been debating whether or not to pick this game up, but if it'll just make my wrists worse I'll have to pass...

Wow, its like learning to play a real guitar

*ducks*

No, it's not carpal tunnel. It's simply the muscles in your hand going sore. At least it was for me. But then again, I played it for six hours straight.

And then I realized I could've actually practiced my real-life music skills instead.... Anybody want to buy a slightly used Guitar Hero?

For me, it's more the stretching to reach the fifth note. So specifically the space between my fourth and fifth knuckles is a bit sore.

I could reposition my hand. But then I forget where all the other notes are.

Use the ridge on the yellow button to keep your hand position oriented during shifts. Shifting's very important--and makes playing the chord-based songs a lot more fun. You actually feel like you're moving power chords around during something like Smoke on the Water.

I hate shifting. Mostly because I'm not really sure that I'm doing it right. Currently, my way of doing it is to sort of fumble my whole hand down a little bit, but I'm almost certain there has to be a better way. It kinda makes me wish they had included a tutorial just for that...

Josiah,

You can sometimes reach out with one finger to "anchor" the rest of your hand when you shift. That's a bit more accurate, but it's slower and it doesn't work for the harder levels. I think you're probably doing it right. Guitar Hero, like a real guitar, eventually demands that you just form some muscle memory for where the frets are. There's no real tutorial method they could give you. It just takes practice.