Guitar Hero: Van Halen

What can I say other than this is going to take some practice. Like the description says you only need to concentrate on the Van Halen songs for this achievement, meaning if you want this achievement the quickest you'll have to play two guest acts in addition to the Van Halen songs at the minimum.

Difficulty-wise the drums for Van Halen are VERY easy for most good Expert drummers, being nothing at all like GH:Metallica. Only the final tier of drums were more difficult and even that wasn't much. The only songs I didn't 5-star on my sightread were Jamie's Crying and Loss of Control due to the cymbal rides in certain spots. I'm not very good at alternating from the yellow pad to the red pad on my rock band drumset, but when I played them on my guitar hero drumset I 5-starred Jamie's Crying easily and got Loss of Control after a few tries. The important thing in most drum songs is learning the bass beat--if you can do this, you'll get this achievement in no time.

I finally got this after countless amount of tries on "Loss of Control" and I just have 3 pieces of advice to add:

1:
Loss of Control; after trying a countless amount of times, I went into practice mode and practiced the "Walkie Talkie Rock" section, (3 yellows + 1 snare),then after fully practicing that and learning the exact hand movements, I went back to career and got the 5* on my second attempt.

To do this MY hand placement was;
Right hand plays the 1st and 3rd Yellow (which also have a bass).
The Left hand plays the 2nd yellow (with a bass) and the Snare.

The 2nd Yellow and the Snare are the only notes that you should look at/think about when you try to keep on time while playing this section.

This section becomes a lot easier when you are only focusing on hitting those 2 notes on time, the rest falls into place naturally. (which is why you practice)

So practice that part and make sure you can be solid, going into it and out of it, also being strong in the Outro helps.



During the ride section, there's a Red+Blue followed directly by a Red Yellow, then a bass right after that, this part might be a reason you are losing streak.

If it is, be sure that you always hit the Red+Yellow very quickly, this can help you get the bass that follows directly on time. Also it will help a lot to have this down for the Outro.

So your left hand should be hitting the Red twice very quickly when playing that part.



As for StarPower, I always used it during the ride section, just because the ride section was a lot easier and felt more natural for me. I could always keep a consistent combo on it.

In my 5* run, I didn't 100% any section, and I missed twice during StarPower.

So, you really don't need a great score, just try to be consistent and eventually you will get a good run.



Tip: If you've been trying 10-20+ times in 1 sitting, what mighty help is try putting it on HyperSpeed 5 (going into 2 players with HyperSpeed 5 can help a lot too because that makes it even faster), play 1 song, then switch to 0 Hyperspeed, and play 1 song.

The abrupt change in speed totally messes with your perception and sometimes this can help you see notes easier and play better.

(I used this method a ton of Through the Fire and Flames, it's really neat how it works sometimes.)


2:
The intro to Hot for Teacher might be giving some people problems, and if it is there's a pretty easy way to beat it.

At the beginning, just focus hitting the green notes at a fast even pace, and keeping the bass on time.

When the blues start coming what you want to do is just hit the Greens with your right hand at a fast even pace, without looking at them or thinking about it.

With your left hand, keep the Blues on time and the bass on time.

By doing this, you are only focusing on a small amount of notes and the rest of the notes are being hit automatically without much thought, which should be enough to keep you from failing off.


Getting 5*s on the song shouldn't be much of a problem, just notice that sometimes the notes are before the bass pedal, and on these sections make sure you play those notes early so you can get the bass pedal to register.

(if you are having problems with that section, make sure you nail it on this song, because it happens endlessly in Loss of Control, and you will need to be able to combo it to get 5* on Loss of Control.)



3:
Whatever you do, just to avoid yourself trouble/possible glitches, DON'T try playing the songs in career on Expert+.

When I first 5*'ed Loss of Control the achievement didn't pop (even though it was the last one I needed).

I had to replay Hot for Teacher (Which I know I've 5*ed many times) and luckily, it unlocked after the first time I re-5*'ed Hot for Teacher.

This could be because of Expert+ scores, it still says 4 stars on Hot for teacher Expert+ and 5 stars loss of control Expert+, (even though I've never accomplished 4 or 5 stars on either of those songs in Expert+)

Anyway, it might mean nothing, but if this achievement is a pain for you, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious.