Guitar Hero Live uses the same basic gameplay as previous titles in the series, controlling the game through a guitar-shaped controller with buttons and a strum bar, and matching the notes played to those scrolling down a fretboard on the screen, corresponding to the notes in the song. Unlike the series' principles, the guitar controller in Guitar Hero Live has six buttons instead of five, arranged in two rows of three. The frets are represented by three lines on the screen, containing black or white notes, to differentiate the two rows of buttons. Lower difficulty levels use only one row of buttons, while higher difficulty levels will use chords played by combining both rows. There are no plans to include other instruments such as vocals or drums in the game, which Jackson has stated is "guitar-centric."
