Guide to ToshX's method, and general FFR basics V1.3

[ToshX]

LD gave me permission to repost this.

As for Moogy, just don't start it, just hit the back button right now.

----------Sticky Please?----------

Well I'm sure at least one of you is wondering how I got so damn good one handed. Well, theres a method I used that takes time but when you get good at it, you can nail the arrows, perfection will be tought after you nail the arrows in the first place.

Version 1.0- I made this guide July 10th, 2004. This was made for and only for the Flashflashrevolution site, and hopefully it will be stickied. I put in the lessons of my method of getting great at FFR. I also added how much credits Purchased songs cost.

Version 1.1- Added FAQ section, only 2, but will be updated when you start asking questions.

Version 1.2 Secret songs section added, thanks to the posts of Dronak and Jimerax. Special Thanks section added.

Version 1.3 some FAQ added.

Part 1- Learning How
Lesson 1- Preparation
Lesson 2- Nailing the Left Key
Lesson 3- Nailing the Right Key
Lesson 4- Nailing the Down Key
Lesson 5- Nailing the Up Key
Lesson 6- Nailing the Right/Left Keys
Lesson 7- Nailing the Right/Left and Down Keys
Lesson 8- Nailing the Right/Left/Down and Up Keys
Lesson 9- Doubles
Lesson 10- Triples
Lesson 11- Quads

Part 2- Purchasing Songs

Part 3- FAQ

Part 4- Secret Songs

Part 5- Special Thanks



----------LEARNING HOW----------

----------LESSON 1----------Preparation

First put your hand in the common noob style, right hand pointer on left, right hand middle on down, right hand ring on right, if you haven't already.

----------LESSON 2----------Nailing the Left Key

Now, do a song, preferably a hard song, that has a wide range of 4th notes, 8th notes, and 16th notes. Maybe Rondo would be a nice start. Then, load up the song. Now that the song is playing, only hit the left [<-] key and nail all of the arrows. Continue this until you nail all the arrows until a point where you automatically fail because of not hitting the others. When you master this on many songs, go to the next lesson.

----------LESSON 3----------Nailing the Right Key
Now, do the same with the ring finger on the right [->] key, but only do this key. This will be a little harder, because the ring finger is not the most powerful finger, just keep trying, you'll get it.

----------LESSON 4----------Nailing the Down Key

Now, try it with the middle finger on the down [V] key, but only do this key. Keep trying, your already almost half way through.

----------LESSON 5----------Nailing the Up Key

Now, try the up key, but always keep your middle finger on the down key and move it up to the up key, as if you were playing FFR for real, or assuming that there are like 4 8th notes in a row, then you could keep it there. Just remember to reset your position as if your playing FFR. This will be easy because you've probably mastered the other 3 keys.

----------LESSON 6----------Nailing the Right and Left Key

Here comes the hard part. Try to nail both the Right key and the Left key while playing the same game. Once you have overcome this, you will seem a lot better already.

----------LESSON 7----------Nailing the Right/Left and Down keys.

Do the same thing as lesson 6, only do it with the right and down and left and down. Once you have mastered these two, move on.

----------LESSON 8----------Nailing the Right/Left/Down and Up keys.

This will take some time. First do Left and Up, remember to keep your middle finger on the down key as if you were playing FFR and only bring it up to get the notes in a row or just to get the note that pops up. Now, do Right key and Up key, this should be a little challenging. Next, do the bottom key and the up key. How you do this is move your middle finger up to the up key, then move your pointer to the bottom key if you need to do those that have both Up and Down arrows at the same time. Otherwise, this will take a lot of time and patience, good luck, go for it.

----------LESSON 9----------Doubles

Now, just go ahead and practice those times where there are two of the same arrow, like <- and V, V and ^, etc. This should be pretty easy by now.

----------LESSON 10----------Triples

Now try to nail Triples, even though they dont appear in FFR yet, they could later, and they appear in Stepmania, practice it now to learn it so its easier later. This is pretty easy, all the possible triples are: left down right; left down up; left up right(use V and ^ formation just move your left hand pointer to get the left); and down up right. I'll be surprised if you even run into these, they are rare.

----------LESSON 11----------Quads

Now, we learn Quads. This can only be Left Down Right AND up all at the same time. Simply use V and ^ formation then put your right ring on the right and your left hand pointer on the left. If your keyboard doesn't support 4 keys, meaning it wont work, it will just register it as doing nothing, then I cant do anything for you, except tell you to MASH FAST. If it is a stream, then MASH FAST and KEEP MASHING. This is not cheap as your computer may not support Quads.

Important---practice!!! You will get pretty good one handed with this method, but if you want to get better and be a pro with my method, theres a pretty good chance you'll need to do this over again. It is also greatly suggested that you try other methods too, this is just a style, not how you must play the game.

----------PURCHASING SONGS----------
Song------------------------------Credit Cost

Stay With Me V2-----------------200
Party2U---------------------------500
AIM Anthem----------------------1000
NeoMAX---------------------------1500(it displays 500 but you actually pay 1500)
Silence----------------------------2000

----------FAQ----------
1. How long did it take you to make this guide?
About 2 hours.

2. How long will it take for this method to work?
Anywhere from a week to 3 months depending on how well and fast you work on it, and how good you were before you tried this method. You should see improvements by the time your done with the lessons, but it is intended that you go back and practice in the same order.

3. What happened with Moogy?
He's not banned, I'm not banned, thats all you need to know. You would be surprised how many people ask me this.

4. Which level of player should use this guide?
Beginner to Average, I guess pro's could use this guide if they wanted to play 1 handed, but I really dont think it would be of that much help by then.

5. This guide sucks, what the hell were you thinking when you made it?
Dont use it, it's just there to help for those who want to.

----------SECRET SONGS----------
Burnout [25]
Secret Zombie Room [50]
Fett's Vette [75]
For FFR [150]
La Luna Caida [200]
Ingenuity [250]
Green Twilight FFR Edit [300]
Abtrusity [350]
Lethal Injection [400]
Water Like Pudding [450]
Synesthetic FFR Edit [500]

----------SPECIAL THANKS----------
To Dronak and Jimerax for posting the Secret Songs.
To Synthlight for making an uber game.
To LD for being a great admin, and hosting this site, and the radio, and updating, and a whole bunch of other stuff I cant remember off the top of my head.
To ddrking for ruling(and for having an awesome forum which I'm a mod on).
To miny for ruling.
To Zajac for beating me(he requested it)

If any of this information is incorrect, please post. Also, for comments and suggestiosn on what I missed, please post. I know that I missed Secret Songs, as I am not sure of the requirements for those yet. Also, please point out any typos.

New rule- none of those 'stfu n00b' or 'Your guide sucks, go to hell' things, if that happens both of us will probably wind up being banned. On the other hand, if you put something like "You n00b, you forgot the..." or "Your guide sucks, it isnt even setup right. It should be like" or something like that, I'll listen and change it(if it makes sense to me).

[CypherToorima]

DAMN! I haven't heard flaming like that in awhile.

with that aside, you spent way too much time on this, tosh. If people want to get better, they just have to play. that's all, really. they can play how the feel comfortable playing.

[jewpinthethird]

It was a nice..er...lesson. But it really isnt necessary...sorry.

[CyanoticXtC]

Its a guide for noobs.. and its in the Noob section, let him do his thing. I think if you arent a noob you have no right to criticize it.

[IAMTHEEVILBEAN]

Sure we do.

[CypherToorima]

If a noob can't play a button pushing games WITH ARROWS, they might not be fit for...well...playing the game.

[flypie743]

Yea, I agree with Cypher...people need to play how they want to play...you can't really teach people a certain method of playing...

[Dronak]

*rolls eyes* Don't instigate, people.

ToshX, some typos: lesson 4 says you've done 3 keys already, but there were only two before it. Lesson 7 references lesson 5, but I think it should be 6. You're missing a few apostrophes on contractions, too, but those are fairly minor. I don't have time to proofread and find them all, but as you do revisions you should eventually catch them.

I normally play one handed as well and FWIW I tend to prefer leaving my middle finger on the up key, not the down key. For one, the middle finger is a bit longer than the index and ring fingers and on the inverted T arrangement of my arrow keys it feels a bit more natural on the up key than the down. Also by leaving it on or near the up key, I find it easier to hit the up/down double -- I can either slip the tip of my finger down a little and hit both that way or just flatten out my finger and hand and sort of get up with the finger tip and down with the first knuckle. Unless I'm leaving my middle finger on the last key it hit, which I must do at some times, I think I tend to let it rest more on the up key than the down key mainly for the two reasons just noted.

[Moogy]

Hitting B with your middle finger is not accurate at all. If you try that on something like my Dignity you'll get a ton of greats.

[Dronak]

I realize that using only the middle finger on both up and down all the time isn't exactly the greatest idea. It's working fairly well so far on the easier songs, but as I start pushing up to harder levels, it's getting more difficult. I am trying to work my index finger over onto the down key for some up/down parts because of that, but it's going to take some time and practice to get used to it.

[tina_goes_doo]

My beautiful flame

Give it a rest guys. Obviously tosh put a lot of effort into this and tried to get it back up again. It's in the n00b section so quit flaming.

[ToshX]

wtf, WTF, it wont let me delete this post but it lets me delete all the rest. Theres just no X at the top of the box like every other post made by me, not my fault.

[ToshX]

Give it a rest guys. Obviously tosh put a lot of effort into this and tried to get it back up again. It's in the n00b section so quit flaming.

I wont take credit for 'working to put it back up', LD just said "put it back up tomorrow" so I copied and pasted it on to here. As for Dronak, I'm working on those right now. The reason it's like that is because that I had to move a lot of things around.

----------I fused the two posts together here----------

*rolls eyes* Don't instigate, people.ToshX, some typos: lesson 4 says you've done 3 keys already,
but there were only two before it.

Ok I'm changing it now.

Lesson 7 references lesson 5, but I think it should be 6.

Its meant to be like that, it's referring to do the same type of thing as you did in lesson 7. I guess I could make it make more sense and say lesson 6, because that's also the same lesson.

You're missing a few apostrophes on contractions, too, but those are fairly minor. I don't have time to proofread and find them all, but as you do revisions you should eventually catch them.

I'll be honest with you, I have been to school for so long that I dont remember what apostrophes or contractions are, I just know how to type the right way. If I remembered what everything was called, then I would be perfect whenever typing like some other people...*points to you, Dronak* I'm not mad, I'm just showing that your good at typing :P

I normally play one handed as well and FWIW I tend to prefer leaving my middle finger on the up key, not the down key. For one, the middle finger is a bit longer than the index and ring fingers and on the inverted T arrangement of my arrow keys it feels a bit more natural on the up key than the down. Also by leaving it on or near the up key, I find it easier to hit the up/down double -- I can either slip the tip of my finger down a little and hit both that way or just flatten out my finger and hand and sort of get up with the finger tip and down with the first knuckle. Unless I'm leaving my middle finger on the last key it hit, which I must do at some times, I think I tend to let it rest more on the up key than the down key mainly for the two reasons just noted.

It doesn't feel confortable to me to hit two keys at the same time with the same finger, but that's just me.

[Dronak]

But lesson 6 and 7 are both working on 2 keys and lesson 5 is working on 1 key. I think the numbers were fine when you still had the left key and intro together as a single part, but now that they've been separated, I think the numbers should be shifted. It makes more sense (to me anyway) to make a section on two keys refer to another section on two keys, not a section on one key.

You seriously don't remember what apostrophes and contractions are? Example: "don't" which is a shortened (contracted) form of "do not" and the ' is an apostrophe which marks where letters were removed. Leaving out the apostrophe as in "dont" is incorrect. This type of mistake is in there a few times, on various words, that I noticed. It also happens to be in your last post ("... I dont remember what apostrophes..."). Like I said, it's not a major problem because it's still understandable, but it would be nice if you could correct them as you see them while making other revisions. It does help to have things spelled properly. BTW, I'm not perfect at typing, I make my share of mistakes and typos, too. I do try to write properly all the time though, the main exception being that I will use some casual internet abbreviations and smileys in informal electronic writing when I wouldn't use them in regular paper writing or any formal writing.

Two keys with one finger probably depends on the keys and the person. For me on my laptop's arrow keys, it's not that hard or uncomfortable at all. On the full sized keyboard here, it doesn't seem as comfortable. And for playing FFR, it probably won't work very well on higher level songs that are faster with more complicated streams of arrows. It is generally working OK for me on the easier songs I tend to play. As I push up though, it's working less often and I have to start learning to adjust, bringing my index finger over to get the down key while my middle finger takes the up key. I just can't see some of the fast streams well right now though so that's a bit more of a problem than which finger is on which key. When I can see the streams to know which keys to hit in what order, then I can worry more about which finger is best to use for it.

P.S. -- It looks like you can only delete a post if it's the last one in the thread. Once another post appears after it, by you or anyone else, it's stuck. You can still edit it yourself though, like you did. If you want it deleted, accidental double post or something, maybe an admin or mod can do it for you.

[ddrking133]

Toshx, thanks for your hard work on this guide, it helped me start with one hand.