Yesterday I finally earned enough credits to get Pants (7500), then started going for more so that I could buy some songs. The first on on my list, from the ones available, was Stay With Me (V2). It was cheap (200 credits) and at a nice, moderate difficulty level. I bought it last night, but being tired because it was so late, opted not to play it until today. I FC'ed it in 3 tries. Maybe that's not impressive for most people, but I don't ever remember getting a FC that quickly before. It's not great though, 501 perfects, 50 goods, 4 averages, and 1 boo (stupid finger slip), so with some practice, I should improve my score. I'll also start building up more credits to buy more songs.

I noticed that this includes all your 0 scores and dead last ranks. So, in an attempt to improve my average rank, and make it a bit more accurate, I decided to play all the songs I hadn't tried yet. I got a nice jump in average rank from something like 15000 a day or so ago to 7000-something now. The hardest songs kicked my butt, but on some I got decent ranks, comparable to my ranks on mid-difficulty songs. I guess some songs don't get played by very many people. I've still got a long way to go, but playing one-handed makes it tough.

BTW, I did better on Alpha Helix by muting my computer. I also improved on Skelly Bones by muting it halfway through. Those "off-beat" notes, as I think they call them in the song, usually caused some problems. Withouth the music, it was a bit easier to hit them.

The LDUR pattern and doubles on 16th notes aren't the only things that mess me up. At higher speeds, a bunch of doubles in a row can create problems, as can doubles popping in where I don't expect them. I almost dread them when I see them now. I've started to get some slower and/or shorter runs of 16th notes, but the longer and faster these runs are, the more trouble they cause me. Sometimes I get through by basically mashing, but what's a bit irritating is that I think I can actually read some of the patterns, but not get my fingers moving to the right keys fast enough. Practice is helping, but my hand/arm/fingers still get tired, so I suppose I need more stamina. I also need to find ways to hit patterns I can't right now (like LDUR) and fix them in muscle memory so I don't have to consciously think about them anymore.

What almost always messed me up, at least until I practice songs enough to anticipate and consciously adjust for it, is arrows that don't match the melody. I think some songs use bass notes or harmony for the arrows and if I'm expecting a melody pattern, like because that's what it has been so far in the song, I'll often miss these off-melody notes. Given my level, I can't definitely say that arrows aren't matching notes all the times I think that. However, if I can't hear a note that matches the arrow, it makes things harder for me. That's probably due to my long music background.

I suppose I could be wrong, but I think this song is slightly out of sync. It seems to me that the arrows need to be hit about 1/16 beat after the music hits the note. This is kind of annoying because I tend to follow the music and it's hard to force my fingers off the beat I hear. I tried turning off the music, but it didn't help much. I only tried once though, so maybe I just need to try some more. It may be easier to play without music if I think the arrows are out of sync.

I'm nowhere near as good as the top players and probably never will be, but it's still nice to see some improvements. I've finally managed to FC Breaking The Common (twice). Maybe it's not the milestone it used to be, but I was happy to get the FC. I even managed one more PC. It was on a very easy song, but it's still an improvement. I've been improving my song ranks on a lot of the easy and mid level songs, too. I think I'm also getting a bit better at reading 16th streams as I practice. I seem to be hitting some of them better now than I used to, at least on the slower/easier songs, but some songs or parts of songs still get me.

I've also noticed that some songs aren't as technically difficult as they are tiring; Breaking The Common is one of them. I knew the pattern was simple, but I'd get tired and slip up. I guess I'm starting to build up some FFR stamina on top of whatever I have from playing piano for ages. Using only 4 keys in a small space kind of limits how much my piano practice helps here. My fingers and/or arm still gets tired, and tensing up during harder parts can't help either. (I seem to relax more, and do better, as I get familiar with the songs.)

So while I may not be great, I'm glad that I'm starting to do better. I'm sure I have a long way to go, I haven't even tried some of the hardest songs, but one step at a time. :)