The Official FFR Picture Dictionary

[rushyrulz]

Hello and welcome to the Official FFR Picture Dictionary! In this thread, there will be several examples of the different terminology used in this game. All examples will include either a picture or a gif file to help you fully understand them.

NOTE: If at any time you run into a term you don't understand early in the post, it will probably be explained later in the post, so feel free to CTRL F it quickly and return to your previous spot once you understand the concept.

A quick reference: I will be using the number 1 in place of the left arrow, 2 in place of the down arrow, 3 in place of the up arrow, and 4 in place of the right arrow. So that's
Left: 1
Down: 2
Up: 3
Right: 4

I will also be using some terms in regards to the different playing styles with respect to some of the different patterns mentioned later on. Here is a quick reference on the different styles of play:

One hand 3-fingers: This style is generally adopted by new players and involves using your index, middle, and ring finger on the arrow keys.
Advantages: Allows new players to get a feel for the game.
Disadvantages: I find it rather difficult to hit speedy sections accurately using this method. It's also difficult to gain muscle memory seeing that certain keys might be hit with one finger some of the time and a different finger other times.

One hand 2-fingers: This is a very rare play style, but some people use it to simulate your two feet dancing on a dance pad. This style involves using your index and middle finger on the arrow keys.
Advantages: Gives you a challenge while still trying to maintain the challenges of playing with your 2 feet.
Disadvantages: This style can be extremely tricky when attempting some patterns. Only using 2 fingers (especially on 1 hand) translates to not having very much speed, and it's also extremely difficult to hit hands and quads with this style. Please keep in mind this is a keyboard game and most of the songs are not meant to be played on a dance pad.

Index: This is one of the more common play styles where you use your two index fingers on the arrow keys (or another key setup similar to the arrow keys).
Advantages: It gives you the "2 feet" feel as well as allowing you to have speed. Fast streams and tricky patterns usually aren't a problem. Trills and running men are very easy.
Disadvantages: The clutter effect: Your hands get in the way of each other trying to operate in such a limited space. Only having 2 fingers on the keys at any time provides some trouble with jumpstream and fast jump patterns as well as hands and quads. (all terminology you don't understand probably has an explanation later in this post.)

One hand 4-fingers: The placement of your hand with this style is quite tricky. Your thumb goes on the down arrow, index on 4 of the num pad, middle on 8, ring on 6.
Advantages: Allows for greater speed and muscle memory than the other 1-handed play styles. Considerable speed can be gained through practice.
Disadvantages: It's a very awkward to learn. Thumb/ring finger dexterity is less than that of your index and middle fingers, proving to be troublesome when attempting fast patterns.

Spread: This is one of, if not THE most common playing styles in FFR and StepMania. The index and middle fingers on both hands are used in this 4-finger style of play. All the arrow keys are usually assigned to different keys on the keyboard with the settings menu. Left middle finger goes with the left arrow, Left index finger goes with the down arrow, Right index goes with the up arrow, Right middle goes with the right arrow.
Advantages: This style provides opportunity for high speed play. Jumpstream, bursts, hands, and quads aren't a problem. Allows you to get better faster because muscle memory develops fairly quickly.
Disadvantages: Learning some patterns initially can prove to be quite challenging.

Split: This is similar to spread, except you use 3 fingers on one hand and 1 finger on the other. A big disadvantage is when a song becomes particularly dense in the hand where you are using the 3 fingers. Up-down trills become extremely tiresome, and the one-handed trill (an allusion to the spread play style where there is a trill on either up right or down left, thus making it a one handed trill) on your dominant hand is difficult to master. Loss of speed. Advantages include: ease of playing rolls, and big improvement in overall accuracy.

-All terms that you don't understand so far will probably be explained later in this post.-

Lets first start out with some of the possible outcomes you can get after playing a song:

Full Combo (FC):

A full combo is when you complete a song with 0 misses, thus hitting every arrow in the chart with a Perfect, Good, or Average result. It is still a full combo no matter how many boos you accumulate.



Single Digit Good (SDG):

It is considered a Single Digit Good, or SDG as it's usually referred to when the total amount of goods is less than 10, but greater than 1. (why it's not called a SDG with 0 or 1 goods will be covered next.) Although it's not limited to having a "clean score" (averages, misses, and boos totalling 0), it's generally only called a true SDG when the only flaws you've made were getting those goods.



Blackflag (BF):

The unfortunate anomaly of a blackflag is when you get a result of 1 good clean. (1-0-0-0) Nobody knows why it's so hard to avoid these, but people have joked that in order to get a AAA (see next section), you have to get a blackflag first.



There are also variations on the blackflag for scores where you might get (0-1-0-0 [avflag]), (0-0-1-0 [missflag]), or (0-0-0-1 [booflag]).

Omniflag / Rainbowflag:



This is a special case, and a rare occasion where you get 1 good, 1 average, 1 miss, and 1 boo exactly, hence why it is called an omniflag.

AAA:

A AAA (triple A) is achieved when you hit every arrow in a chart with a 'perfect' result. You will also receive rank 1 on that song, match the FFR Best and in theory, will never have to play that song again. (although you probably will anyway)



Sightread AAA:

AAA a song on the first time you've ever played it.

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Different types of notes:
4th note:



A 4th note is represented by a red arrow. These are the most common in the game since they represent whole beats. (They're the numbers in 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &)

8th note: (2x faster than 4th notes)



8th notes are represented by blue arrows and are almost as equally as common as 4th notes. They represent the off beat as I like to call it. (They're the &s in 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &)

12th note: (1.5x faster than 8th notes)



12th notes are represented by purple arrows. These types of notes are commonly used in polyrhythms (see next section) and are used to create 12 beats instead of 8 in one measure (4/4 time signature)

16th note: (2x faster than 8th notes)



16th notes are represented by yellow arrows and are very commonly used in streams and jumpstreams (see next section). They act as the off beat for 8th notes. (They're the e, a in 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a)

24th note: (2x faster than 12th notes)



24th notes are represented by pink arrows. They provide the same function as 12th arrows, just two times faster. (24 beats per measure in 4/4 time signature)

32nd note: (2x faster than 16th notes)



32nd notes are represented by red-orange arrows. These aren't very common and can make for some very nasty patterns in the game. (They're the .s in 1.e.&.a.2.e.&.a.3.e.&.a.4.e.&.a.)

48th note: (2x faster than 24th notes)



48th notes are represented by turquoise arrows. The main application of these are being grace notes (see next section). If not used as a grace note, 48th notes can be very fast. (48 beats per measure in 4/4 time signature.)

64th note: (2x faster than 32nd notes)



64th notes are represented by green arrows. These are mainly used as grace notes as well, but if not used as a grace note, 64th notes can be brutally fast.(They're the 's in 1'.'e'.'&'.'a'.'2'.'e'.'&'.'a'.'3'.'e'.'&'.'a'.'4'.'e'.'&'.'a'.')

192nd note: (4x faster than 48th notes)



192nd notes are represented by white arrows. These are never used as a stream component (there will not be a 192nd stream). The primary purpose of 192nd notes are for voice-stepping and grace notes. Some step artists use 192nd notes as a technique to make their stepfile look more colorful (like the song Counting Snow), but for the most part they're the same thing as the note they're closest to.


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This next section will contain some of the patterns you might encounter during a song on FFR. The key to mastering these patterns is practicing them often and challenging yourself by striving to perfect them.

Jumps:



A jump is when two arrows need to be hit simultaneously. It's a term coined in DDR because in order to hit a jump, one would be required to physically jump in order to hit it.

Jumpglut: A jumpglut is a term used to denote several jumps in rapid succession over a period of time.

Jump Chains:



Jump chains are when there are jumps on every 4th note connected by a single 8th arrow between each jump. The connecting 8th arrow must be the common arrow between the two jumps. (For instance if there were two jumps at [14] and [13] the connecting 8th arrow would have to be a 1.

Hands:



Hands are jumps with 3 notes. They're called hands because if you were attempting one on a dance pad, you would need to use both feet as well as a hand to hit it.

Quads:



Quads are jumps with 4 notes.


Grace Notes:



Grace notes occur as notes of short duration before the sounding of the relatively longer-lasting note which immediately follows them. Grace notes are generally a 32nd or higher note paired with a 24th or under note. (shown above) During gameplay, these can usually be hit as a jump because of the close proximity of the notes.

Trills:



Trills are pretty tricky to master if you play with 4 fingers (spread), but are generally pretty easy with index (index fingers only). A trill is any pattern where you're alternating between the same 2 arrows. ( 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4)

Jump Trills:



Trills except instead of 2 alternating single arrows, there's 2 alternating jumps.

Jackhammers (Jacks):



Jackhammers (or as commonly referred to, jacks) are when you have to hit the same arrow repeatedly for 3 or more arrows. There are definitely jacks with more than 3, but if there's only 2 in a row, it's considered a mini jack.

Mini Jacks:



Mini jacks are just jacks that only consist of 2 of the same arrow in a row. These are more common than full-blown jacks and might be found in streams or jumpstreams. (shown next)

Stream:



A stream is a continuous string of single notes. In the example above, it's a string of 16th notes, but there are also streams with 24th and even 32nd notes. Any string of slower than 8 key taps per second isn't considered a stream.

Jumpstream:



Jumpstream is one of the most difficult patterns to master, especially for index players. A jumpstream is a stream with 'jumps' within it that usually occur on drum beats or any other emphasized beat. Jumpstream is usually only found in songs difficulty 50 and above.

Handstream:



A Jumpstream with hands instead of jumps.

Triplets:



Triplets are a general term of any pattern that consists of *pause* 3 single notes *pause*.
Like stream and jumpstream, this is usually only associated with 16th notes and up.

Gallops:



Gallops are similar to triplets, but they only have 2 single notes instead of 3. (*pause* 2 single notes *pause*). Only applies to 16th notes and up.

Running Men:



This difficult to master pattern is a variation on stream, where there's 1 recurring arrow (also known as anchor) that you need to keep hitting every other note. The other notes are alternating between 2 or 3 notes, if it's only alternating with 1 other note, it's considered a trill. The best way to explain this pattern is through the gif above.

Crossovers:



Crossovers are a variation on running men. In crossovers, the anchor is on either the down or up arrow and follows the pattern in the gif above. It's called a crossover because if you were attempting this on a dance pad, you would need to cross one foot over the other to hit it correctly. (Try it.)

Rolls:


Alternate:


Another variation on stream, rolls consist of either a (4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1) pattern or a (1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4) pattern. Rolls are generally used in a song when the music is going from a low pitch to a high pitch or vice-versa.

Staircases:



Staircases are a pattern that create kind of an ascending/descending feel by going left to right to left to right on the arrow keys (1 2 3 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 3 2 1). They are similar to rolls, but they change direction at every right or left arrow instead of starting the pattern over again.

Bursts:



Bursts are a very tricky pattern. They consist a very rapid succession of notes and are used with fast drum/synth beats.

Polyrhythms:


Alternate:


Two rhythms simultaneously sounding, resulting in a confusing pattern known as a polyrhythm. 8ths/12ths, 12ths/16ths, 16ths/24ths combinations are common for polyrhythms.

WALL OF DEATH



Kids, don't try this at home.
Wall: A cluster**** of arrows.

Note: Keep in mind that patterns sometimes fit the criteria of more than one basic pattern (example: jumptrill = trill of jumps) and who knows what kind of crazy names people will come up with.
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Pattern Demonstration video:

Now that you know most of the common terminology here on FFR, there's nothing stopping you from becoming a true FFR master! Practicing these common patterns should accelerate your skill development very quickly and you'll be on the leaderboards in no time!

Here is a useful tool to practice some of the above listed patterns : http://mzrg.com/stepmania/stream%20s...ster%20v2.html
^credit to qqwref for coding this applet.

Good luck, and don't forget to have fun!