Retraining your fingers after a year of play (AKA I think I'm in serious trouble).

[Compass]

I've been playing for about a year now, and I've come to notice I have serious trouble with songs weighted to the rightmost three keys. Well, to put it another way, I just completely fall apart. I figured I only needed to strengthen my pinky and ring fingers, and that this would come in time. So far it hasn't.

Well, tonight, after failing Andromeda 7k HARD, I put it into practice mode to see just what exactly the problem was. Well, sweet mother of crap, I never noticed it before, but I use my ring finger EXCLUSIVELY for BOTH keys 5 and 6 (with my pinky handling 7). This explains why scales are so difficult for me. This also pretty much guarantees I won't be able to pass any of the tougher songs with charts weighted to the rightmost keys. And no, I have no idea how I've gone this long without thinking about this.

Once I realized, I tried for awhile to use any other combination of fingers and keys during this one small section of Andromeda in practice mode, AND IT WAS A NIGHTMARE. I just could not do it. My body is so used to doing it "wrong" that it won't hear tell of any other methods. I'd just freeze up and start stabbing random keys.

So, much like learning any real instrument, since I was self-taught, I've now picked up at least one terrible, possibly game-breaking habit. My question:

Is there any hope of getting out of this? Any chance I could teach my muscles a new style after a year of steady playing? Have any of you found yourselves in such a quandary? What did you do to get out of it? Any help appreciated. I'm feeling much despair right about now.

[The Chemist]

This isnt the answer you want to hear, but its possible through training and practice. To put it bluntly, you need to go back to basics. Pick some really easy songs and concentrate on the positioning of your fingers more than the actual songs. Do this for a while and I think it will counter the problem.

I had a very similar issue (still do) with not using my pinky on my right hand.

[word]

Yeah, once you're in a habit of doing songs wrong, you will need to go back to easier songs, just to get your feel of the keys back, then start moving onto your normal level again. Also, I find that breaks from IIDX is a good thing, and sometimes makes me clear songs that I have never cleared before.

[Lost_One]

On a slightly different note...my local arcade doesn't maintain the right hand side of our 10th style cabinet, so I want to learn to left hand scratch...unfortunately I'm left handed so the majority of 1 to 4/5ish are handeld by my left hand. Is my retraining just as difficult?

Oh and I've seen tatsujin videos of individual presses with index and forefingers bunched together. Do I assign one finger to each button as my local moderate players tell me to or can I use 4 fingers predominately?

[word]

Originally Posted by Lost_One

On a slightly different note...my local arcade doesn't maintain the right hand side of our 10th style cabinet, so I want to learn to left hand scratch...unfortunately I'm left handed so the majority of 1 to 4/5ish are handeld by my left hand. Is my retraining just as difficult?

Oh and I've seen tatsujin videos of individual presses with index and forefingers bunched together. Do I assign one finger to each button as my local moderate players tell me to or can I use 4 fingers predominately?

Like everyone will tell you... Just put your fingers where they feel comfortable. And yes, i find retraining quite easy, well, when I moved from 5 - key Beatmania to IIDX (right hand TT to left hand TT.) I got the hang of the new side in about a week.

[Luigi-Bo 87]

I have the same problem as you Compass. Songs like Red Nikita, Please Dont Go, and Spica give me a lot of trouble. I don't use my right pinky at all, it feels too weird. It makes me sad that those songs except for Spica totally kill my life bar when they get to their right sided parts. I haven't found a solid way to conquer my problem yet, but I try things like using my right ring for 7, right middle for 6, and what ever finger/thumb necessary for 5.

[NTV]

watching videos on youtube helped me to get a play style and i ended up playing like this. use as much fingers as you can. i use 8

edit: that's not me btw

[Luigi-Bo 87]

That dude snapped. I've tried playing like that, but my left hand can't function on it's own worth a shit. It's the only reason I can't beat Colors [H] my left and right hands need a sense of symmetry in order to function properly.

Compass- What side do you play on? Just wanted to know.

[NTV]

Originally Posted by Luigi-Bo 87

That dude snapped. I've tried playing like that, but my left hand can't function on it's own worth a shit. It's the only reason I can't beat Colors [H] my left and right hands need a sense of symmetry in order to function properly.

Compass- What side do you play on? Just wanted to know.

you can play like that you just need practice(when i say practice is like playing for more than 2 hours and a half not playing like for 10 minutes and saying fuck it. i know how it feels because i've tried to change my left hand play style and that's what i say). it wasn't easy at first for me, i used to play with 5 fingers when i started after like 2 months of playing i added my thumbs and my ring finger of my right hand. it's all about practice and i used to play all day or a least 8 hours

[Compass]

I play 1P side. Thanks all for your comments. It's good to know you mostly agree it's possible, and won't necessarily take *too* long. I just need to go back to really easy songs for awhile.

I watched the video NTV posted. That seems like a decent style except he covers key 3 with his left hand most of the time. My hands are TINY, and I play on a DJ Dao, so I can only cover keys 1+2 and still have a chance of pinky scratching. Aside from that, it looks like he doesn't use his right pinky at all, and actually uses a different finger for almost every key than I currently do. It would take a long while I think for me to retrain every finger...

Also, I'm realizing that *maybe* I don't have to retrain. There are one-handed players after all, who must be covering two keys with one finger (five fingers, seven keys, means two of those fingers are covering four of the keys), or else playing very dynamically (which I admit, I cannot do at all).

[Starscream1215]

Another biiiiig factor is getting your fingers to isolate. Just like any other muscle, you have to get them to function on their own without affecting any other finger. One excercise I try doing when I'm not playing is rolling.

Example being, on my right hand I can roll pinky => thumb with no problem, but going backwards is really tough. Try getting in the habit of being able to roll from one end to the other and immediately back. Once your able to do that, speed it up, make it to where each finger is coming down and hitting then immediately moving to the next. After a while I'd say try doing both hands like that at the same time; maybe even try rolling in opposite directions.

After you can move them completely independently, try alternating, like going pinky, middle, ring, index, middle, thumb. Or try double tapping in staircases. Basically any rhythmic pattern moving solo fingers.

[[NesS]]

I have this thing where i use my left hand for scratch+1+2+3 where as my right hand does the rest. It feels really weird to me but it helps me get a bunch of higher combos. However, my timing isn't very good and 1+2 chords just tend to flat out make me feel dumb.

[bandit22]

i use pointer finger on right hand for 4 and 5. if there's a chord sometimes i use my right thumb for 5. but fuck relearning the game, everyone has a different style. i can "double tap" with that finger pretty fast.

[M4j3s7ic12]

Originally Posted by Starscream1215

Another biiiiig factor is getting your fingers to isolate. Just like any other muscle, you have to get them to function on their own without affecting any other finger. One excercise I try doing when I'm not playing is rolling.

Example being, on my right hand I can roll pinky => thumb with no problem, but going backwards is really tough. Try getting in the habit of being able to roll from one end to the other and immediately back. Once your able to do that, speed it up, make it to where each finger is coming down and hitting then immediately moving to the next. After a while I'd say try doing both hands like that at the same time; maybe even try rolling in opposite directions.

After you can move them completely independently, try alternating, like going pinky, middle, ring, index, middle, thumb. Or try double tapping in staircases. Basically any rhythmic pattern moving solo fingers.

I think this is true and it is good practice to get independant movement of the fingers. I learned to roll my fingers too going back and forth. Without practicing it, most people can only do index to pinky and not the other way!

I play 2P side and also play guitar as a right handed person so it is important for me to be able to use my left hand and fingers precisely. I notice however, when playing IIDX my right hand is stronger and therefore dominates. Some identical patterns on say 1,2,3 and 5,6,7 are easier with my right hand. Because of this I kind of wonder why I learned to play guitar normally when playing so-called "left-handed" would be easier on the fretboard.

To counteract the weakness of my left hand, I purchased a Gripmaster, which is one of those hand exercisers. Using it will definitely increase the strength of both hands for better stamina when playing IIDX. It even has four separate springs so you can train individual fingers I recommend checking one out!

[mime genocide]

Before you try starting over try 14key. That helped me out alot.