Guitar Hero 5 is the fifth installment in the best-selling Guitar Hero series. The player plays as a member of a virtual band. Available instruments in this version of the game include lead guitar, bass guitar, drums and multiple vocalists.

As in previous games in the series, players must press the corresponding buttons on the guitar-shaped controller as the colors are displayed before them on the screen. Doing this correctly will produce a specific song. Doing so incorrectly results in your virtual "rocker" getting "booed off the stage." Added to the series in the previous installment, Guitar Hero World Tour, players are also able to imitate the action of drumming with the drum kit peripheral and singing with the microphone peripheral.