Technique

First off, I didn't mention it but i am a right side player, and excuse my grammar and mistakes. I haven't written in ages.

Lets start off with the base of this game which is Technique

Technique

Remember this: 

Technique is far by the MOST important thing in IIDX, if you cant hit shit then you obviously cant time shit.

Your technique is pretty much what makes you and breaks you in this game. If you got a shitty technique then i'm sorry to say your never going to get anywhere.

What is a right technique and wrong technique?

Honestly i believe that there's no such thing as a right technique or a wrong technique, do whatever works for you but at least realize when its not working anymore its time to do something about it. I'm just going to say this: Try not to watch videos and copy what someones doing, what they are doing may not even work for you. The best thing you can do is to use videos for ideas to improve your playstyle.

This is a template for a basic technique that should work:

  

1. Pinky scratch (Unless you one hand or play any kind of DJ Mass song)

2. Your scratch hand should cover no more then the 3 closest keys to you.

3. Your non-scratch hand should at least cover the left 4-5 keys.

Somethings to think about regarding technique:

1. You don't have designate a finger for THAT one key only. (Its pretty good on high density songs)
2. You don't have to always pinky scratch (Especially on scratch songs. I use my middle+ring+pointer for better control and timing.)
3. Key 4 can be split among your hands (depending on position of notes)
4. Its ok to jam. (If your just trying to hit shit)
5. Think about position of the notes and the type of random it is.
6. Nothing is set in stone, you can always change your technique even though its the hardest thing in the world.
7. CONTROL of your hands
8. Your fingers can slide.
9. DO what works for you.

How can i improve my technique?

Well, this is just my opinion and it might not work for everybody.

1. Use RANDOM

To all you non-random advocates, sorry but theres only so much songs like in the sky, colorful cookie, diavolo, faxx and scratch songs. Your hands will be only good at doing scales, shit thats slapping, and up and down shit like 13 24 rolls. If you believe random is fraudulent or "not playing the game" then i suggest you quit. Top players don't use random for no reason and there are a shit TON more bad randoms then good randoms.

Random will pretty much open up your eyes to different types of patterns and different ways to hit keys.

Just don't "Random whore" and cherry pick your randoms (i still do this btw) play through every song you get even though its a horri-bad random. To me long as your trying to hit it, you will eventually get better at it and gives you more exposure to more patterns.

2. Get creative

There's no concrete way of hitting a certain pattern. Trying hitting things in a ton of different ways, you will be surprised that hitting things differently can open up a lot more possibilities. Just don't do something like hit the furthest key from the scratch with your scratch hand though. You have your whole hand to work with and i'm sure there's no rule saying your fingers have to hit the keys at your fingertips and im pretty sure there's ways to hit 2 keys with your thumb on your scratch hand. Not to mention, your hands can turn too.

When trying new things i will tell you this. ALWAYS remember the playstyle that you left off from.

3. Play harder songs and a variety of songs. 

Playing harder songs will of course improve your ability to read and hit shit. Just don't play stuff that's like WAAAY out of your league though. To me if i play a song that's like a few levels above me and somewhat CAN hit it, the song that i wanted to improve on will look and be a lot easier. This might involve playing crazy shit on LR2 though. And don't feel so bad for 2% a song all the time, I still do this shit. This especially helps on fast songs, playing a faster song will probably improve your overall control of your hands on the BPM you wanted to get better at.

As for playing a variety of songs, your not going to get better by AAA full comboing Mermaid Girl, any Terra song, mosaic, etc 80 times. Unless you really love Mermaid Girl (which i do). To me playing the same songs over and over doesn't really help me but make me feel stagnant. I play different songs to get different ideas.

4. Persevere 

Your going to have to try new things in order to improve and those new things may not work right away or not work at all. Don't feel bad if your playing like shit cause your trying something new, no one gets good instantly. Don't feel bad if it doesn't work, if its not working then go back to the drawing board and go back to your old playstyle. Who said shit will work a 100% of the time.

Wrist Scratching:

Ok so alot of people ask me about this cause im probably the only player that does this in the English speaking community that plays on AC

Is it something that i should do??

No and Yes. If you think it can work for you then go ahead and try it out and see how you like it. I'll be honest though, its pretty fucking inaccurate timing wise but it allows you to hit shit. Its not the BEST play style and ONLY playstyle that can make you better. Crazy ass players like DOLCE and TAKA.S dont wrist scratch and look how fucking good they are. I don't wrist scratch 100% of the time, now its maybe 30/70, the 70 being regular scratching. I've been changing my play style to wrist scratch on the fly when i need to recently just to improve my accuracy.

I'm not going to go into the details of improving in certain aspects like chords, streams, scratches and dense shit or what not since idk what people are bad at. In the future i will try to attempt to write on specifics if people want. But for now you can ask me questions and ill answer as best possible.

I hope this helps you open your mind on Technique.

-DJ Rea