Which is more important?...

**Azuarc** · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 1389 Location: Philadelphia

More important isn't really the right phrase, so much as more of a means of identifying an accomplishment, but that wouldn't fit in a subject line or grab attention.

Being fairly new to the site, and not being an avid 5-star general, I'm looking to improve my scores, but the question becomes: what do I focus on? I'm noticing there are basically 4 kinds of songs...

1) Songs I do well on in general
2) Songs I have 5-starred, but am well behind the community curve
3) Songs I haven't 5-starred, but I compare respectably
4) Songs that simply need work

There's not much to focus on with #1 yet, and #4 is the songs that I am simply not ready to do considerably better in. (I can barely beat Bark at the Moon, much less play it for score.) But out of the second and third categories, which is more meaningful to work on? Is it better to focus on getting 5 stars on everything, or songs where my position in the community would suggest I have farther to go there?

For example, and mind you I'm 357th overall:
Type 1) Sedated is #223, with 277k. Just fine for now.
Type 2) My best overall ranking is on Farewell Myth, at #173. It's only a 4-star ranking, though. (166k)
Type 3) I have a 5-star rating on Smoke on the Water, but it's my second-worst ranking at #564.
Type 4) Frankenstein is a dismal #566, but I'm content with that for now.

I'm at a stage where I can easily sit down with pretty much any song and make *some* improvement to it, but I don't play so much I can just say "well, play them all!" I realize what I'm asking is an opinionated stance, but do you think it's better to focus on those elusive star rankings to drive you, or look at your position within the community and feed off the potential rivalries?

**IEatGlue** · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:00 pm Post subject:

my brain itches

after reading that
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**Genga** · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 2474 Location: Glasgow, Scotland

last I checked, I was 151st, this is me basically making the best I can get. I If i make any improvement, it will be by a slight 500 points or such. When I FC'd Unsung the other day, I was overjoyed, but most things I get about 20,000 under or just slightly over. The only way I can improve is by 5starring the other songs, but thats just constant practice, and I think ill end up concentrating on something else which isnt good :/

Best thing really would be to keep practicing at it. Some songs Im really down low score with, ILRR for example; ive FC'd that song, but im still low in the rankings. Other songs like Unsung for example, Im in the top 50 (15th last time I seen) so I probably wont play that song for a while and concentrate on ILRR more, while also trying CFH and Frankenstein..

Hope you do well, and who knows, you could overtake me soon

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**achat** · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 123 Location: Long Beach

for me, it wasn't so much a need to boost scores, but to work on skill in general. for example: increasing a bark at the moon score from 150,000 to 200,000 might seem like a great jump, but how productive is it really? the thing i would suggest is just to play songs with sections that are a bit out of playable range, and simply work on those songs until you can play that specific section. once you learn how to play pieces of some songs, you can more easily learn slightly more difficult sections on other songs. eventually you will be able to FC more and more songs by learning the most difficult portion of the song. that's how it worked for me. does it make sense?

**Fly1ngV** · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:07 pm Post subject:

for me, after i got guitar god on expert. all i really have left to do is become the absolute best player that i can be. I'm working on my hard scores right now, I'm about 23k shy from my current goal of 10 mil total score, but i'm sitting pretty in 29th overall place on hard. Afterwards i plan to work on making my expert scores better and becoing a better player overall because i still suck horribly at solos and am in dire need to get those solos on expert if i have any hope of getting better. I also need to work on SP strategies, which i struggle with because i don't read charts like some of the really great players do.

**rabies** · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:10 am Post subject:

I worked on star power strategies first...looking over the charts...getting an optimum path...then trying to execute on it. Maybe I am wierd for that. I hated the thought that I would play a song well, but my score was not all it could be because I had not a clue on how to use star power in the song....and I had free time sitting at a desk but not being able to play guitar hero...so mapping star powers became a side task (at lunch during work..or during slow moments at work).

Now that I have all the star powers mapped out, its just a mattter of spending an hour or two a day to play songs and execute the star path...and work on difficult areas. I don't have to think about when/where to use star power, cause that is already established...I can just concentrate on playing the song without messing up. When I get a good run, it does not surprise me to see that my score is often fairly high up on the boards. I've held over a half-dozen #1 scores on hard...which then probably clued Echelar in to do better on the song... *grumble*

I went through hard first..then hit a bit of a wall..so for the past couple weeks I have been going through expert..and have shot up over 50 places overall..and I still have about 10 songs I have not tackled yet..so I figure those should be good for another 10-20 places.

**JHetfield0816** · Joined: 10 Apr 2006 Posts: 2230 Location: New Jersey

**Echelar** · Joined: 26 Feb 2006 Posts: 1246 Location: Fort Wayne, IN

**rabies** · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:06 am Post subject:

**joker** · Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:42 pm Post subject:

i hope i'm not lagging in asking this, but does anyone know what the maximum score total for expert? if not, is there any way to find out? there has to be an absolute point where you maximize every point out of every song (100% all songs, perfect SP technique)
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**Anthony** · Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 659 Location: Cali

JC is working on a program to determine the perfect star path, so once that's done we can find out the best possible score. Although it may take awhile.
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**Suitata** · Joined: 25 Jun 2006 Posts: 135 Location: Michigan

**Azuarc** · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 1389 Location: Philadelphia