Tips for improving dexterity? (GF)

blind51de · 03-07-2007, 08:40 PM

I've been playing off-and-on for about seven years now, and only started taking GF seriously this past year. There's only a V1 machine (though I have experience with 1st/10th/11th) where I am. I'd say my skill by the numbers is up in the mid-to-late 40s (yeah, I know, remember: "off-and-on").
I'd say my highest accomplishment so far that I've pulled off more than once is beating Agnus Dei on basic, which takes a LOT out of my left hand. Another problem is that after playing for a while, my ring finger starts hurting. It stays sore for days after the session.

1) How can I improve my dexterity for GF without just blowing more cash on it?
2) What am I doing wrong to make my ring finger ache?

And in case anyone wonders, my default speed is 3x.
If there's a topic for this, pardon me; I did search for "dexterity" and "improving".

Megamanny · 03-07-2007, 08:44 PM

It involves a lot of wrist movement so...........if you ya know........wrist......

LouieT · 03-07-2007, 09:55 PM

How hard are you gripping the fret buttons? It sounds like you're giving them the grip of death or the buttons take too much effort to push down.

You can always try the tired-and-true method of playing a song slightly harder than what you can regularly clear as your final song.

chocori · 03-07-2007, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blind51de

1) How can I improve my dexterity for GF without just blowing more cash on it?
2) What am I doing wrong to make my ring finger ache?

1 - Not much, really. Every solution has a cost of some sort... you could try watching people play/videos and try to shadow it. If you really want to get better at GF, sadly you will either have to blow tons of money at the arcade or invest in a PS2/mod/GF controller.

2 - It could be the way you're holding the guitar... maybe you have a lot of the guitar's weight on your ring finger (most of it should be on your shoulders/guitar strap). Either that or you just need to work out your ring finger more (or stretch before vigorous activity ;p) so it doesn't get sore.

BobbyS · 03-08-2007, 07:50 AM

To be honest, my fingers and wrists hurt too when I first started playing (and sometimes it could last for a day or 2). There's really no way around it but playing and getting used to it. I guess, you could play real guitar (but I think you'd get bored just moving your fingers for dexterity practice). Just take it easy and keep playing. It'll go away.

Checky · 03-08-2007, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blind51de

I've been playing off-and-on for about seven years now, and only started taking GF seriously this past year. There's only a V1 machine (though I have experience with 1st/10th/11th) where I am. I'd say my skill by the numbers is up in the mid-to-late 40s (yeah, I know, remember: "off-and-on").
I'd say my highest accomplishment so far that I've pulled off more than once is beating Agnus Dei on basic, which takes a LOT out of my left hand. Another problem is that after playing for a while, my ring finger starts hurting. It stays sore for days after the session.

1) How can I improve my dexterity for GF without just blowing more cash on it?
2) What am I doing wrong to make my ring finger ache?

And in case anyone wonders, my default speed is 3x.
If there's a topic for this, pardon me; I did search for "dexterity" and "improving".

Your not going to get better at all without blowing tons of cash in the long run, either way. Sorry about that. You could drop the money on a home setup, i.e ps2, modchip, and controller.. which would run around 250 bucks. Or you could do what I did. I estimate just to make the jump from 70's to 90's cost me 200+, and I don't want to know how much I spent before that :X. As for songs that help with dexterity, try songs with tapping or songs with scales.. maybe FIRE or Tocatta would be good.

BobbyS · 03-08-2007, 10:35 AM

lmao. how in the world did you estimate the jump between 70 to 90+ would cost you a little over $200??

I'm very interested how in the world someone can calculate such a thiing. That's hilariously awesome.

Murmur_Twins · 03-08-2007, 10:45 AM

He didn't estimate how much it WOULD cost him. He estimated that he paid around 200$ at the arcade for his skills to go from 70s songs to 90s. He's better than you think ^ ^

BobbyS · 03-08-2007, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murmur_Twins

He didn't estimate how much it WOULD cost him. He estimated that he paid around 200$ at the arcade for his skills to go from 70s songs to 90s. He's better than you think ^ ^

damn it. I thought there was some secret formula to figure out how many times you had to play to reach new limits.

I could theoreteically be playing forevere to get to 80s or 90s :scared:

AdamW · 03-08-2007, 01:58 PM

I've been playing DM for a bit over half a year now and I figure I've spent around $1500-2000.

y'know, that didn't sound so hilariously insane until I wrote it down...

sigh.

Checky · 03-08-2007, 03:40 PM

Well.. I've been playing for three years.. but basically sporadically and only once a week. I could only pass up to about 70's (although with good grades, and very low grades). Last october though, I met this a Japanese guy (who happened to be a topranker on DM..), who taught me to play with 7x and random, and I saw an immediate improvement. Then I just went to the arcade and spent 20$ a day for 20 weeks, and then I could do 90's lol.

aeriyu · 03-08-2007, 04:17 PM

My fingers have always been lacking flexibility, yet I can still pass every song on the roster (except you, Day Dream, fuck you). Sadly, I can't really give you $$ estimate, but...

For the longest time I've been stuck near your area... my S range was probably around 30-40, but I played 50-60 songs. I believe my speed was similar to yours as well... only difference being that I play REV.

One day I decided to play seriously, and began upping speed. Within 4 months I was up to around 90, with an effective S range of 70-75. I also added the rest of my other mods, but few people I've met play around with mods as much as I do, so I think you could disregard that.

Apparently, it's all about the speed mods. There may be some really, really good players out there who can S Timepiece on 1.0x, but those people are extremely rare and talented. For the rest of us, there's speed mods :p

BobbyS · 03-08-2007, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by checkrox

Well.. I've been playing for three years.. but basically sporadically and only once a week. I could only pass up to about 70's (although with good grades, and very low grades). Last october though, I met this a Japanese guy (who happened to be a topranker on DM..), who taught me to play with 7x and random, and I saw an immediate improvement. Then I just went to the arcade and spent 20$ a day for 20 weeks, and then I could do 90's lol.

I'm sure it's because of the accumilation of time spent with the game, but I swear everytime I up the speed, I seem to play better. I've recently made the virgin jump to 7.0 (not if it's a crazy song), from 6.0.... and I swear it's helped me play better on some songs. I've almost made it to 7.0, the speed that the pros stop at.

Screw 7.5. That's reserved for crazy folk.

oni-ice · 03-08-2007, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by checkrox

Last october though, I met this a Japanese guy (who happened to be a topranker on DM..)

Lucky bastard.

BobbyS · 03-08-2007, 07:58 PM

^ I bet he called him sensei and they trained in slow-motion with rain falling. The Japanese guy would bash checkrox's head with a fan for every poor checkrox got, and the day checkrox outscored 'sensei' in a song, was the day his teacher left without a trace...