Leveling up in RS 1 and RS 2014 vs using Riff Repeater

[905]

I was over in the RS 1 forum and advised someone who thought leveling up was too slow to go to riff repeater and set mastery to the highest you can play for each section to get the song leveled up faster. I was told by another player that this was bad advice and that the song will level up with a couple of play throughs. That was never my experience in RS 1. What do you guys think about my RS 1 advice.

Then the poster said they never used riff repeater in RS 2014. I use it all the time to level new songs up to about 75% and then go from there. Are you guys just playing the song over and over again to level up, or do you use riff repeater to get it up to a good level?

[grimlog]

I never said, this was bad advice. Are you trolling me? I said it levels faster by just playing the song a few times. And it does. At least, if you are playing correctly. Which you don't seem to understand. I also did not say, that I never use Riff Repeater. I use it "barely". You know the difference between "never" and "barely". I'm sure you do. So... yes you're trolling me obviously.

[Bobifle]

Here's what I'm doing when learning a song I know nothing about:

Usually I play rythm guitar

playthrough at the easiest level.

During which I'm playing the notes or not, I don't really care I'm just listening to the song. And try to grab some informations with my ears, type of scale/progression/rythm.
I may repeat this step, depends on the song.

Because I'm just listening, it won't level up.

riff repeater ( and I'll never go back to the song, ever....)

Select the whole song,

• set the difficulty to 100%
  
• set the speed to 80%, maybe less, depends on the song

And I start learning. If the difficulty is too high, I remove some chords / strums/ notes without changing the difficulty, it's very important for me to see the notes on the highway and to on purpose decide not to play them because one particular chord/rythm/scale is too difficult for me. In the process I try to keep the melody of the song.

riff repeater for muscle memory

Classic stuff, I'm selecting a short section and I'm playing it, over and over again to build the memory. At the end I must be able to play the riff without think about it, I'm speaking loud to myself to test it.

riff repeater until 100%

When I know a song (> 95%), I'm always playing it on the riff repeater (whole song selected). I'm checking regularly the miss counter and identify the faulty section when the counter is going wild (I'm not always hearing my mistakes so this counter becomes handy).

Conclusion

In my opinion the riff repeater is the killer feature of RS 1 and 2014. No one should overlook it and it is best set at difficulty 100% (low speed) from the start.

[grimlog]

Groz: yes, that's a good way actually. I never claimed otherwise. But it's not the fastest way. The fastest way is to just play the song correctly. Just play what RS throws at you, the song will level up to 100% in no time. For me it takes 2 (easy songs)-3(medium-hard songs) playthroughs. That's ~10min averaged for one song. How long does it take for you using your way? Note: the original question was *not* how to achieve 100% mastery. The OP was interested in seeing all the notes of a song.

[Bobifle]

Well I started to write my post, your first post was not even here so I was honestly answering 905 :)

And secondly, if I'm playing a song I already know, it takes my 10 sec to bring it to 100% and have all the notes (happened to me yesterday with black keys next girl):

Enter the song, enter the riff, select the whole song, set the diff to 100 % resume song, restart song, you're at the begining of the song and you'll have all the notes. Try it.

[grimlog]

I'm talking about songs I don't know. If I already know it, I just play it. No need to see the notes then :)

[905]

Publicado originalmente por grimlog:

I never said, this was bad advice. Are you trolling me? I said it levels faster by just playing the song a few times. And it does. At least, if you are playing correctly. Which you don't seem to understand. I also did not say, that I never use Riff Repeater. I use it "barely". You know the difference between "never" and "barely". I'm sure you do. So... yes you're trolling me obviously.

Not trolling you. I just find it facinating that you barely (I guess I projected never) use riff repeater. I don't mean use it like over and over. I mean select the whole song and set the level to a much higher level. I also assume you don't play customs that have maybe 100 levels.

Now I know if you already know how to play a song and play all the notes it will level up in a couple of plays, but what you are saying is nowhere near my experience. So I want to see what the community says. Maybe I'm just that bad.


Also, as I stated I find sometimes the minimal notes are harder to play than if I have more notes. The rythm of playing the song flows better. I just really don't think everyone has your experience of it leveling up so easily just playing the song. But we will see. I do assume I am getting close to playing something correctly when I'm over 100%. Heck even at the 90% level you are getting close.

[905]

Publicado originalmente por Groz:

Well I started to write my post, your first post was not even here so I was honestly answering 905 :)

And secondly, if I'm playing a song I already know, it takes my 10 sec to bring it to 100% and have all the notes (happened to me yesterday with black keys next girl):

Enter the song, enter the riff, select the whole song, set the diff to 100 % resume song, restart song, you're at the begining of the song and you'll have all the notes. Try it.

He is saying you can level up a song just playing it through in two or three plays. That has not been my experience.

By the way, I do what you do to get a song to 100% of the notes. But over in the RS 1 forum the original poster was complaining it took too long to level up.

I told him use riff repeater, set the mastery to some level you can play through and then boom that secion is now leveled up in the song. At the end of my playing RS 1 that was my SOP.

[grimlog]

When you are 90% to 100% mastery you already see all the notes. Don't you? Of course you played it correctly (somewhere RR or LAS) to get there. That's exactly what I'm saying. Play the song, whatever RS shows you, you will see all notes quite fast, done. Then you can work on 100% mastery. This is where RR is useful for me. I cannot play all the solos by only looking at the notes flying by, I'm a human after all. This works for some of them, but for others I go to RR and play single parts slowly, but at 100%. You're right assuming that I don't play customs. I don't think you are "that bad". I also know I'm not "that good". We only have different ways of "getting things done". That's ok for me. And that's why I did not say, that your advice is crap. It isn't. It's just not the fastest way for everybody :)

[grimlog]

905: "But over in the RS 1 forum the original poster was complaining it took too long to level up".That is not my understanding. The OP was complaining, that he could not see all the notes from the start. So leveling up the song by playing it correctly is a valid response and it's quite fast also.

[905]

Agreed, we have different experiences with the leveling up. And I'm sure there are people that have your experience and some that have mine. Now I'm just curious who is in the majority. But it does sound like you are a better player than me.

Its funny, right now I'm more proud of getting 87% on Wasteland by Earlyrise than any of my songs at 100%.

[TRex Bassist]

To be honest I never start a new song out under 80%. I go into riff repeater, highlight the whole song, then turn it up between 80-100 percent. Depends mainly on what I am seeing for notes. Fewer notes mess me up more then too many or all the notes. Here is why:

When listening to a song and trying to play it my main input is my ear. Not my eyes. The eyes are a backup to what my ear hears. So when the song is at a lower level I am hearing notes, trying to play to them and playing more notes than what is showing visually. If I stumble I like to see where and what im stumbling at.

Recap: Fastest way to get a song to 100 percent it to go into the song in riff repeater and crank it to up. Fastest way for a person to master a song is to play as many of the maxed out sections of notes as possible and play them correctly.

Now, whatever method works for the individual is what works for that individual. At some point you may want to play with others and your ear will need to be trained. I have many songs I know how to play note for note but I have played them in band settings and everyone does not play them the same way so you have to adjust.

[grimlog]

Publicado originalmente por TRex Bassist:

Recap: Fastest way to get a song to 100 percent it to go into the song in riff repeater and crank it to up.

Nope :) Fastest way is to play the song correct in the first try. That's true naturally. It needs one single run through the song. Because that's unlikely, it needs a few more runs in reality, but no matter what you do within RR, if you play good enough to master the song without much exercise, you don't need it and will always be slower in leveling up using it than just playing the song. This may not be true for you (I doubt it is not, you seem to be a very capable player). It is for me and so this absolut, no alternative, statements you guys make are plain wrong. I agree with you on the mastering part though.

[wraith7201]

Publicado originalmente por grimlog:

Nope :) Fastest way is to play the song correct in the first try. That's true naturally. It needs one single run through the song.

For easier songs that's true, but for some of the harder songs, the level up process does not work fast enough to completely level up in one play through, even if you play perfectly.

I find that the more accurate you play across all songs, the faster each individual song will level up, but I don't know if that's true or it's just my perception. Overall, 905's advice is correct, but it comes down to what works best for each individual.

I don't use Riff Repeater very often, because I find that songs level up quickly enough for me. For songs that I don't know, a few play throughs at lower difficulty help me get a feel for positioning and chords without focusing on details.

[905]

Publicado originalmente por TRex Bassist:

To be honest I never start a new song out under 80%. I go into riff repeater, highlight the whole song, then turn it up between 80-100 percent. Depends mainly on what I am seeing for notes. Fewer notes mess me up more then too many or all the notes. Here is why:

Sounds like you are a bit like me. If I'm getting too few notes and it doesn't really follow the feel of the song, it throws me off big time. So for me, it is usually easier to crank the level up via riff repeater. Then I exit riff repeater and just play the song at the level I've set. I'm like you, I usually set my level at 75% or higher. But, I think like you I am using my ear quite a bit. The note highway really just reminds me where to put my fingers.

[grimlog]

Publicado originalmente por Rogue203:

Publicado originalmente por grimlog:

Nope :) Fastest way is to play the song correct in the first try. That's true naturally. It needs one single run through the song.

For easier songs that's true, but for some of the harder songs, the level up process does not work fast enough to completely level up in one play through, even if you play perfectly.

I find that the more accurate you play across all songs, the faster each individual song will level up, but I don't know if that's true or it's just my perception. Overall, 905's advice is correct, but it comes down to what works best for each individual.

I don't use Riff Repeater very often, because I find that songs level up quickly enough for me. For songs that I don't know, a few play throughs at lower difficulty help me get a feel for positioning and chords without focusing on details.

I have the same feeling as you do. I bought Iron Maiden Song Pack and RS threw quite a lot notes at me in my first playthrough. I think, this is related to my overall level I have on the other songs. It seems you use a similar approach to mine.