"Interestingly enough, the folks at Harmonix swear by playing the guitar controller with an actual guitar pick." THANK YOU! See that?? ACTUAL GUITAR PICK. I've been doing that since Guitar Hero 1! So a big 'F*ck You' to Neversoft for making it impossible to do on GH3. I'm really glad I held off on buying Rock band, as I have no qualms about picking this game up asap.