Songs to play in Guitar Freaks V4 & Advice Needed!

[aeriyu]

Originally Posted by Zarcom

here is an easier way, find out your bpm speed, then do the following: hold down the green button, then press the knob that is closest to your left, turn it towards your left until you see something that says "BPM 1xx-1xx (some sort of number that I cant think of right now lol)".

What?

I've found that the best way to learn skills like double-picking and fast switching is, as already mentioned earlier in this thread, pick songs that force you to use the skills.

Want to learn to double-pick? Find out the fastest you can downpick without pulling some muscles; then, pick a song that's faster than that. IMO it's best to learn how to double-pick before venturing into SRA territory because without the ability to pick "unconsciously", you won't make too much improvement. You can either concentrate on picking on fingering; it's very difficult to do both simultaneously. Sure, it's possible, and you will make progress, but I believe you'll progress much slower than if you were to isolate the skills you wish to train each alone.

[Cellac]

^
I agree with you. After playing for a while, I realise that I can't get away on just downpicking the whole song in the upper 70+ region. I have used double-pick to strum through some of the quick notes but I still mostly downpick especially if the notes are spaced. I want to learn how to double pick the entire song but I think it'd take a while to do... Esp. now that I've downpicked the entire one year I play GF lol. It'd be qite a change of habbit.

On the positive note, now I can get B in Idle Gossip (EXT)/Misirlou (EXT)/Leaving it Behind (ADV) without light. I can pass Zenith (EXT) without light too, though I'd get C instead of B. I think I'm improving.... very... slowly... orz

[Cellac]

Sorry for double posting but I really want to find out whether you (the experienced guitar freaks players) actually double pick the entire songs for tracks like ZENITH, GLIDE or Desert Rain?

I mean, they're not as fast as some of the songs like Leaving All Behind, Black Sheep and Model DDs (etc) but do you actually still double-pick it nonetheless or downpick it since the notes are spaced quite a bit... Their notes alternate quite a bit too so I found it hard to time them properly with double picking.

I tried double-picking mostly today and so far the song that benefits from the method is the likes of Yamato Nadeshiko and Taisetsu Na Mono... The rest, I fail miserably lol. I feel like I'm starting all over orz

[tsugaru7reveng]

Double picking Timepiece phase II BSC BASS and TAMAYURA BSC BASS are fun, and they can probably help.

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

Theoretically you can double pick everything. However, I'm only good enough to double pick streams (my best is a B on Strike Party ext open) and redundant patterns (e.g., Break Down adv bass). Any disorderly patterns has me downpicking them (I hate you, Green Lime), and that's probably what's keeping me down. Even now, I can't perfectly double pick Agnus Dei on even basic.

Still, I have enough ability to perform and pass that difficult loli song in V4 (it's high time I knew what the song's name is, so what is it?).....

[June.H]

I think it's just a matter of stamina if you downpick some of those songs. Songs like Glide, I just get friggin' tired towards the last 15-20 seconds and I just start messing it up...but it's great fun downpicking the entire last minute-ish IMO.

[aeriyu]

Last 15-20 seconds? I can only maintain downpicking on a song like GLIDE for 15-20 seconds max

After playing casually at the ~50 range, I discovered I wasn't making any progress... so from that point on I only double-picked due to necessity, pretty much. Y'know that cliche "practice makes perfect"? Yeah. Only thing is, my perfect rate sucks

All being said, though, play how you want to play; do what feels comfortable. No matter your choice, you'll only get better the longer you go about your chosen method. I mean, there's some guy out there who downpicked Over There in its entirety (yes, even the 250bpm hyperpick section...) and walked out with a C. The big, big plus that comes with full downpick is that it's very good for stamina -- and you need lots of stamina for the crazy shredding high-BPM songs like R#, Leaving All Behind, NEMESIS, Over There, etc...

If you want to be able to play every single song, you need to be equally good at everything. You could have all the rhythm in the world, but if your fret hand can't keep up with the note changes, you'll still fail the song. Likewise, if you have horrible rhythm and stamina, all the flying fingers in the world can't save you. Of course, V5 fixes all that

I hate numbers, and never looked at them when I play. Looking back, however, I probably would've improved at a slightly faster rate if I payed attention to the BPM description of the songs. There are lots of songs at each BPM, and each of them contain one or more sections that provide opportunities to train important skills like staircases (Orbital Velocity, TOCCATA, Little Prayer), triplet/reset picking (Die Zauberflot, You Can't Do It If You Try, Kozo songs), hyperpicking (Rolling1000toon, Tsuminagara, Mad Blast, Tamayura), hyperpicking in 2 note blocks (Neji no Hito, Yamato Nadesico, Zenith, Captivate), and so on. By no means a complete list, of course.

In summary, try everything, note your progress, practice, and post your achievements on the accomplishment thread. Oh yeah, don't forget to have fun lol

[Cellac]

^

First of all thanks for the replies guys/gals... I improved a significant amount from the advices you guys brought in! I think I'm in the right track then... Just needs more practice I suppose :V So I guess I shouldn't be fretting about not being able to perfectly double-pick every songs from beginning to end ^^;

@aeriyu

Thank you so much for the suggestions of the songs to play to practice those skills! I'll try them out as soon as I get the chance to.

ATM I'm wayyy too sucky to put anything in the accomplishment thread lol but I'll work on that ^^; But yea I agree with you the main point is to have fun. Otherwise what's the point of doing it :V

The last question is that I have is how does hyper-picking and double-picking different from each other? And what is triple reset picking? Is that when you are faced with 3 notes that is basically next to each other like in Karma (ext)?

[aeriyu]

Originally Posted by Cellac

ATM I'm wayyy too sucky to put anything in the accomplishment thread lol but I'll work on that ^^;

Lol wut

The last question is that I have is how does hyper-picking and double-picking different from each other?

Double-picking = picking down and up when you don't have to. Say, if you do that to a song like Robinson...

Hyper-picking = songs like Leaving All behind... basically stuff that you wouldn't even dream of down-picking.

And what is triple reset picking? Is that when you are faced with 3 notes that is basically next to each other like in Karma (ext)?

Not really. You know how hyper picking is usually in even number bunches? Think RISE or Misirlou. Kozo makes a lot of annoying songs that are at the traditional hyper-pick speed (2x bpm), but in groups of 3... very annoying. I tackle things things as a normal set of hyper-picking (and failing). A more accurate method, albeit taxing on your stamina, is to start each set of 3 on a down pick... so down-up-down, down-up-down, down-up down, instead of down-up all the way through.

[Cellac]

@aeriyu
Thank you so much for the clarifications!

BTW, Is it just me or I notice that I actually recover faster when I double-pick? It seems that downpicking takes forever to recover my groove gauge...

[aeriyu]

... because hyper-picking = moar notes

[AdamW]

There is no quality standard for the accomplishment thread. It just has to be an accomplishment *to you*. If you just started playing yesterday you can post a D on a level 20 song, if it made you happy to do it.

If this wasn't the case I wouldn't be posting my shitty lvl 60 FCs next to Arctures.

[Cellac]

^
Ah ok then... Thanks for the clarification. Mayble I'll have some stuff up there next time