So you've started rocking and have hit a snag of sorts. The notes are going faster, going in funky lines and in general being a pain to follow. With any music game there comes a point that skill is paramount. So, pull the guitar out of the wall or get a replacement because it got smashed on "accident" last night.

There are only so many techniques that one has to learn, some are easy and are quick to grasp, others take a bit more time and patience to learn and employ properly. This guide will cover Hand Position, Hammer-Ons/Pull-Offs and Strum. As well as just a few little tips to improve your chances.

Hand Position:
This is usually the first thing to change. Progressing from Medium to Hard forces it and Expert makes this a top-priority concern. This is also the easiest thing to incorporate of all the little changes someone can make. Another thing to consider is the shape of your hand. While it is a controller and curving your fingers into the buttons seems a bit silly, this is how it works on a real guitar to ensure the clearest sound, but the designers were thinking about a real guitar while they designed this thing.
Already the basics of where your hand needs to be should be firmly in your mind.
For Easy/Medium: At the First Fret button. This allows for full access to every button, no shifting involved in the least.
for Hard/Expert: At the Second Fret button. This small shift allows one to get used to the motion of moving around the neck of the guitar.

A little trick commonly employed for those just learning to move around on the neck is to have something to work as a marker on the neck. A bump of Duct Tape is very useful and completely stylish in this game.

The Hammer-On/Pull-Off:
A common trick, especially in the harder difficulties of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. In Rock Band these notes are smaller, almost stubs, of the usual color for the fret. In Guitar Hero, these notes are only a little smaller, but the white lining is notably more present than with the others. Hammer-Ons are a fast, joined, ascending sequence of notes that, when done right, can all be hit with one strum. A Pull-Off is just the opposite, a fast descending sequence of notes.
These are of a moderate difficulty to begin to grasp. The In-Game tutorials have practice options, but practicing the section of song is better than what the tutorial offers. Pulling these two bits off takes a bit of practice, but ultimately will improve your playing.
As with a real guitar, its a good idea to just add on fingers to execute a Hammer-On or Pull-Off. These notes are usually near each other so its no great challenge to just use the next finger to press through the sequence initially. A good way to think about this trick is building-up (Hammering-On) and stripping away (Pulling-Off) tone. With your fingers curved into the buttons, it will ensure a quick response to the on-screen scrolling.

Strumming:
An essential skill that only takes a little thought to improve. Strum both ways. Grab the strum between your thumb and index finger and move up/down as appropriate to match the tempo of the song. This allows for awesome shredding and for very fast, single note streams.

Misc.
One song got you frustrated? Grab the song (we of RarityGuide.com do not endorse music piracy) and listen to it a lot. This let's you listen to the song itself away from the game so you get a better chance to notice the smaller shifts in tempo or to know when the song will take off. This technique is recommended also for down-right awesome songs as well to keep up "skills"
The song still owning you? Let's see ... got friends who play? Got friends who can clear higher difficulties? Bring along the memory card and the game to a social event, load it up and get them to beat that annoying song. Pizza, Soda/Beer, chips, first born child are all acceptable forms of payment for this method.
The song making a fool of you and your friends? Or no one else plays one of these awesome games? Aside from trying to get them to play the game, the last options would be cheat codes and cheat devices. Codes are the safer options as they can't mess up your game. They won't always, indefinately, unlock everything, but they'll help with access and let you laugh at the song that was blocking you. A cheat device (Ex. Game Shark) allows for instant unlock, max money and many other little goodies. Just a word of caution; limit the use as it can mess up the save files of any game.