How to FC Raining Blood: A Guide for Overthinkers

[Ontwikseltsaar]

Introduction
I recently FCd Raining Blood, and after grinding the song for three months I found that there were so many little subtleties I had to keep in mind while playing, that I thought it might be useful to share my perspective. I know the Score Hero wiki has a couple of Raining Blood guides and topics listed, one of which states I don't need to start a new topic. I hope we can all agree the statute of limitations has passed on that 12-year-old topic title. If not, feel free to permarocker me or something.

Note: This is my first guide. Any tips are appreciated!

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
   
2. Table of Contents
   
3. What to Expect from This Guide
   
4. Legend
   
5. Video
   
6. Section-by-Section Analysis
   
   1. The Calm
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   2. Drizzle 1
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   3. Hard Rain
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   4. Mosh 1
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   5. Verse
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   6. Mosh 2
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   7. Drizzle 2
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   8. Bridge
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   9. Chorus
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   10. Flood!
       
       1. Part 1
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       2. Part 2
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       3. Part 3
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       4. Part 4
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       5. Part 5
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       6. Part 6
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       7. Part 7
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
       
       
   11. The Aftermath
       
       • The Technique
         
       • The Psychology
   
   
7. Grinding the FC and Handling the Pressure
   
8. Conclusion

What to Expect from This Guide
In this guide, I will discuss all the techniques (fingerings, strum patterns, etc.) for all sections of the song (including Mosh 1 and Flood!). In addition, I will discuss the psychology of hitting several sections. Which notes to focus on, how to group parts, when to hit things early, late, fast, slow, etc.

That's not all there is to it, though. There's another aspect to the psychology of going for this FC. When attempting milestone FCs like this, I tend to overthink things. I start getting:

• paranoid ("Uh oh, that part felt a bit harder than usual. That spells trouble for the even harder section coming up", or the exact opposite: "That section went smoothly! I better get the FC this time, because I won't get a better opportunity than this..."), or;
  
• superstitious ("I'm wearing a different shirt today. Maybe that will affect my freedom of movement when tapping."), or;
  
• otherwise distracted ("This part is so boring.", "I wish the neighbors would stop playing piano." (true story), etc.).

I will also try to discuss any overthinker's problems that I can think of.

An important takeaway from all this is that this guide details just one person's experience. I understand there are more methods, but I will not discuss these unless I have a particular opinion on them I consider relevant.

There will be pointers in this guide which may not apply exclusively to Raining Blood, especially in the section Grinding the FC and Handling the Pressure. I found it helpful to remind myself of them to keep my sanity and continue believing that it was possible to FC this and therefore decided to include these notes.

Legend
1 = Index
2 = Middle
3 = Ring
4 = Pinky
d = Downstrum
u = Upstrum
e = Elbow strum
Underlined = Anchored finger
Red = Tapping finger

Video
I don't have a video of this guide, but I have a video of my FC:

Raining Blood 100% FC

To my knowledge, this FC showcases everything discussed in this guide except the following:

• In the video, I elbow strum the first note of the song.
  
• I use slightly different fingering in the first section of the song.

If there are any other inconsistencies or slip-ups, let me know and I will list them here.

Throughout the section-by-section analysis, I will include links to this video with the timestamp placed at relevant moments.

Section-by-Section Analysis
I will be analyzing the song according to the sections indicated in the game. For the most part, these can all be studied separately. There is one exception I can think of, which is the transition from Mosh 1 to Verse, where the strumming in Mosh 1 means Verse will start on an upstrum. The same thing happens in The Aftermath, but is much less impactful.

The Calm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d------------------------------------------------------------------------u--------d----u------------____________________d-----u---d---------_____
1------------------------------------------------------------------------4--------2----3------------____________________1-----2---4---------_____
2------------------------------------------------------------------------_--------_----_------------_____________________-----_---_---------_____
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
u----------------------d--------------u--------____d-----------u---------d----------------u---------------d----------------------------------------------------------------------------u---------------
2----------------------1--------------3--------____3-----------4---------1----------------4---------------3----------------------------------------------------------------------------2---------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 0:10

The Technique
This section should be no problem. The only thing I can think of from a technical standpoint is to make sure you choose the fingering to anticipate the next notes, which I have done above. Although it should make no difference in FCing this section, it may be ever so slightly easier to get all ticks this way.

In the video, I elbow strum the first note. This is the only whimsical thing I permitted myself, since it was easy to do consistently. Besides, who knows, maybe it helped to make sure I could still do elbow strums if I hadn't made it to Flood! in a long time, where my method requires seven elbow strums.

The Psychology
This section is boring. My tip would be to not try to make it interesting. Don't play around, don't use exotic fingerings or strum patterns, and try to stay focused. When I ever started missing in this section it would only make me more frustrated because of the unnecessary restarts. It's not worth it. There's value in spending some energy exercising restraint and accepting the boredom.

Drizzle 1

d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u_d_u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u_d_u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u___
1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 0:43

The Technique
Simple fretting. I try to alt strum straight through this section in order to set myself up for the right movement and rhythm for the next section.

The Psychology
Even though this section is technically harder than the previous one, I made fewer mistakes in this one, because it's more engaging. I had a decent scare one time when I made a few mistakes in this section in consecutive runs. Did I lose "it"? Was this section suddenly un-FCable for me? Nope. Of course not. And eventually my fingers reminded my brain that this section is not the problem.

Hard Rain

dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_
111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_1_2_3_4_4_3_2_1_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_1_2_3_4_4_3_2_1_

dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_
111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_1_2_3_4_4_3_2_1_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_1_2_3_4_4_3_2_1_
Raining Blood 100% FC: 0:54

The Technique
There are not many ways to play this. Personally, I can only alt strums straight through it.

The Psychology
Although the gallops should be easy, especially compared to the rest of the song, there was actually a moment where this section gave me some trouble. My galloping skill and speed had fully caught up with this section and naturally, I felt it was easier to play the gallops a bit faster. However, if I were to "shift down a gear", so to speak, I would be playing too slowly. At that moment, the gallops in this section existed in this gray area where it was either too quick or too slow for me. Fortunately, it was just a matter of practice to become consistent again.

Mosh 1

d_______________________________
43214321432143214321432143214321

____________________________d__u________________________d___u__d____________________________d__u________________________d___u__d____________________________d__u________________________d___u_d_
432143214321432143214321321_3__343214321432143214321432_1___3__3432143214321432143214321321_3__34321432143214321432143211___3__3432143214321432143214321321_3__34321432143214321432143211___3_2_
____________________________4___________________________2___4_______________________________4___________________________2___4_______________________________4___________________________2___4___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 1:16

The Technique
The fingering I had initially had a lot more sliding, e.g.:

2__23211
3_______
However, I noticed it was much harder to keep a tight rhythm, so I came up with this. The time between the chord changes and the to transition is enough to shift positions and after practising this fingering in practice mode it soon felt very natural. No sliding required.

The optimal star power path for Raining Blood has an activation in this section. For some reason I couldn't activate with my fingers on the strum bar. Naturally, my fretting hand would skip a note while waiting for star power to activate. I could have tried fighting this instinct, but fortunately, since this section is mostly hammer-ons and pull-offs, there is enough time to move my hand from the strum bar and use my fingers to activate instead of my palm.

The Psychology
The first two measures (the first line of freticons) are played at 201 BPM, while the rest of Mosh 1 vacillates around 217 BPM. Since you are just coming out of Hard Rain, which ends at 172 BPM, you'll have to speed up for the first two measures of Mosh 1. Sometimes you'll just happen to start the Mosh 1 scales too slowly. When that happened to me, I felt the urge to try to catch up gradually. Since the 201 BPM part of Mosh 1 only lasts for two measures, this meant that I was still doing this gradual speedup by the time I had to also increase my pace to 217 BPM for the rest of Mosh 1. This didn't work for me. If you start the first two measures of Mosh 1 too slowly, my advice would be to try to correct your speed immediately. For the rest of Mosh 1, you'll have more than enough time to gradually correct your pace.

I also want to discuss the little pinky tap at the end of every other measure:

This was giving me a lot of trouble, but I managed to become consistent when I tried to release my pinky as soon as I hit the chord. This would give my pinky more time to "breathe" and turned this part from feeling like a mini-trill to a simple scale.

In summary, after practising and internalizing the fingering, this is what I was focusing on while playing Mosh 1:

• Playing at the right tempo during the first two measures.
  
• Releasing my pinky as soon as I hit a chord.
  
• Activating star power.

Verse

u_dudud_u_d_u___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_
1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_
________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_

d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_
1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_
________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_
Raining Blood 100% FC: 1:32

The Technique
Be aware that you're starting this section on an upstrum, because of the strum pattern at the end Mosh 1, which ends in a downstrum. So whenever you practise this section, make sure to practise it starting with an upstrum. Besides that, this just happened to be one of those sections where the sliding and the strumming eventually just clicked and I became really consistent.

The Psychology
Mosh 1 ends at 218 BPM and Verse starts at 224 BPM and I don't know if it's just in my head, but I felt like it was a noticeable speedup. In my experience, it's easier to start Verse going slightly too fast rather than slightly too slow. Since the star power phrase at measures 5 and 6 is where the section settles into a steady pace of around 218 BPM for a while, I always took a breather during that SP phrase. I always went into Verse going very fast, then I'd slow down a little during the SP phrase and re-evaluate my pace, then finish the section as steady as possible.

I still don't know for certain if the 6 BPM difference between the end of Mosh 1 and the start of Verse is really noticeable, but it felt noticeable and that made a difference to me.

Mosh 2

d_u_d_u_d_______d_u_d_u_d_u_d___d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u___d_u_d_u_d_______d_u_d_u_d_u_d___d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u___
1_1_1_1_34323___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1___1___1_1_1_1_34323___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1___1___
________________________________3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_2___2___________________________________3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_2___2___
________________________________4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_3___3___________________________________4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_3___3___

d_u_d_u_d_______d_u_d_u_d_u_d___d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u___d_u_d_u_d_______d_u_d_u_d_u_d___d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u___
1_1_1_1_34323___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1___1___1_1_1_1_34323___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1___1___
________________________________3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_2___2___________________________________3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_2___2___
________________________________4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_3___3___________________________________4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_3___3___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 1:50

The Technique
Ten years ago, I would routinely play the zigzag pattern as follows:

23212
However, for some reason I couldn't do that consistently anymore. I still don't know what changed, but using the fingering 34323 worked for me, so I took what I could get. If I was feeling particularly nervous, I'd often hit the zigzag a bit earlier so I could fret it a bit slower.

Sometimes while playing this section my leg was feeling restless or I may have been sitting in the same position for too long. I usually took the three-note chords as an opportunity to readjust my position. Even if I was aware of any physical discomfort before this section, I'd wait until these three-note chords because the chords don't change for a while and the rhythm is simple, slow and steady.

The Psychology
On multiple occasions, when I got to this point in the song, I'd be tempted to let my guard down and think I cleared the first hard part of the song. Then I'd make a mistake in the zigzag pattern. As long as I focused and made sure to fret the zigzag pattern very deliberately, I'd have no problem.

Drizzle 2

d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u_d_u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u_d_u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u___
1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:10

The Technique
The exact same as Drizzle 1.

The Psychology
When going for this FC, I usually grouped the meat of the song into two parts: Mosh 1 + Verse + Mosh 2, and Bridge + Chorus + Flood!, with Drizzle 2 as a transition. If I got to Drizzle 2, I'd know that this was now a serious run. In the beginning, this would be where I got nervous. The more consistent I got, the more I was able to delay that nervousness.

Bridge

d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____
1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____
2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____

d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_
1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_
2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:21

The Technique
It's much more consistent for me to play instead of
It's much more consistent for me to play 1234 instead of 1344. I think there are two reasons for this:
It's much more consistent for me to play 2___ instead of 2

• It separates the chord more from the following three notes, making it easier to emphasize the downbeat while playing.
  
• It makes the finger movement identical to fingering the following four notes (they're both 1234), except for the position change on the neck.
  It makes the finger movement identical to fingering the following four notes (they're both 2

The Psychology
When playing this there are two things I keep in mind:

• I make every downstrum on the chords very deliberate, in order to keep a steady rhythm.
  
• I can play most of this on autopilot, but mentally I separate the recurring pattern from the rest. Every other measure, if I make sure I hit at least these three notes consciously, I don't really need to think about the rest.

Chorus

d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_
1_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_1_1_1_2_1_1_3_2_1_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_1_1_1_2_1_1_3_2_1_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_1_1_1_2_1_1_3_2_1_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_1_1_1_2_1_1_3_2_
2_2_3_4_2_2_3_4_2_2_2_4_2_2_4_3_2_2_3_4_2_2_3_4_2_2_2_4_2_2_4_3_2_2_3_4_2_2_3_4_2_2_2_4_2_2_4_3_2_2_3_4_2_2_3_4_2_2_2_4_2_2_4_3_
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:48

The Technique
Fairly straightforward. I once tried to play
Fairly straightforward. I once tried to play 1133, but that did not work at all for me.
Fairly straightforward. I once tried to play 2244

The Psychology
When playing this section, I don't put emphasis on the downbeat. Instead, I emphasize the downstrum of the chords. Sometimes I abuse the timing window a little bit to make sure I position my fingers correctly before hitting the chord. I think you can even hear it a little in the video. Sometimes there is a slightly bigger pause before I hit the chord. It helped me become more consistent.

I do something similar with the chords. If I make sure to hit the very deliberately, I'll have no problem. This goes doubly for the last chord. I've had multiple runs where I was already distracted by the green streak at that point and then missed the last chord of Chorus.

In short, what goes through my mind when playing this section (aside from the panicked screams knowing that Flood! Is coming) is:

• Make sure to hit the chords.
  
• Make sure to hit the chords.

Flood!
---------------------------------------------
dudududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududud-----d___d______________________-----------e_______________d___u-------d___d_______e____________d____u_____d-----------d-----------
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111113-----2___21212123443211212112124-----------1313131313132___1___4-------1___12121212212121212344_3211_3_____1-----------3-----------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
d___d____-------d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d-------------------e___________________________d___u------d----e________---------------d-----------u__d__u--------d____d_______d___u___d_________________________________
312111213-------4_1_4_1_3_1_2_1_2-------------------3131313131313131313131313___4___2------4----313131311---------------3-----------21_2__3--------13___31211___2___3___4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d_____u_____d_____u___e_________d____u___e_________d____u_d------e____________________d___u___d___u-------d___u-----------d-------u-------d-------u-------d___u____d____u___d_____u----------d----------u____d------------
1_____2_____1_____13__212121232_21___43__212121232_11___4_3------212121212121212121___3___2___1___4-------1___2-----------1-------3-------1-------3-------2___34___3____4___3_____2----------3----------4____1------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:59

Self-explanatory.

Just kidding. This is the longest section with the most notes, without any repetition whatsoever. Let's split this up into smaller parts, shall we?

Part 1
----------------
dudududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududud-----d___d______________________-----------e_______________
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111113-----2___21212123443211212112124-----------1313131313132___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:59

The Technique
First of all, let me just say that I grouped the green streak together with these first trills and scales because it makes this part self-contained, while the way the fingering and strumming flows together within this part is really important.

The downstrums right after the green streak are a very deliberate choice. If I tried to alt strum this, my left hand would accidentally fret instead of . Downstrumming these three notes helped my middle finger synchronize the downstrums with hitting the frets. This also ties into my choice of fretting the ----- as 322 instead of 432. This is because it loosens up my middle finger for the upcoming trills. I also hold down my index finger on the green during the -----, to prepare for the trill.

For a long time, I was simply not fast enough to consistently hit the . In particular, my middle finger didn't seem to be able to count the number of taps before going into the scale. To remedy this, I got into the habit of idly practising this pattern, using my forearm as a guitar neck. It worked surprisingly well for building the necessary speed and muscle memory. Actually, the exact pattern I practised was , since I need my middle finger to hold the red when I start tapping the . This is also why I indicated the reds in are hit with an anchored finger.

The held before the elbow strum gives you enough time to replace your pinky (which you just used to hit the blue note) with your tapping finger and to plant your ring finger on the yellow. This is why I decided to indicate the first notes of the next trill, , are hit with anchored fingers. So in effect, this is played as follows:
------------
_------------e_______________
_-----3-----________________
4-----1-----1313131313132___

The Psychology
I find it easier to play the green streak a bit faster than it's charted and then to slow down as necessary when you hear the countdown on the hi-hat. Right after that, similarly to the quick pinky taps I mentioned in Mosh 1, when I play the ----- I make sure to release my middle finger as soon as possible after hitting the yellow. This helps me hit the trills right after, since it primes my middle finger for quickly releasing buttons.

In order, this goes through my head when playing this part:

1. Play the green streak fast and wait for the hi-hat countdown to gauge whether I need to slow down a bit.
   
2. After hitting the first yellow, release as soon as possible.
   
3. The elbow strummed trill requires 6 taps (including the blue that opens the trill).

Part 2
------------------
d___u-------d___d_______e____________d____u_____d-----------
1___4-------1___12121212212121212344_3211_3_____1-----------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:07

The Technique
In my experience, the earlier you can plant your index finger on the red, the easier the trills are. For that reason, I play the first as if it were a chord:
-------
1___1-------1
____4-------_
This is also the reason why I indicated that the first charted in this part is hit with an anchored finger.

The fingering for the trills that follow is fairly straightforward. The only thing to watch out for is that if you release your middle finger from the yellow too early at the end of the trill you may miss the yellow in the transition and end up playing the following:

2121211
For this reason, I practically tap the three blue notes as fast as possible, giving the last yellow of the trill the best chance at being hit.

The last three strums of this part are almost at one steady pace, so when I hit this part, the strumming would feel really natural.

The Psychology
Whenever this part was coming up, I was mostly focusing on hitting the first red note of the trill in time (or maybe a little early) and hitting that first trill at a steady pace instead of trying to go as fast as I could, especially since it's easy to make up for a slower trill by tapping the trill quicker. Even though the trill is almost the same speed as the first trill right after the green streak, it always felt significantly slower to me. In short:

1. Make sure to hit the first red note of the trill on time (or maybe a little early).
   
2. Hit the trill at a steady pace.
   
3. Hit the trill with 3 really quick taps.

Part 3
-------------------------------------
d-----------d___d____-------d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d-------------------
3-----------312111213-------4_1_4_1_3_1_2_1_2-------------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:11

The Technique
One of the leading reasons that drove me to write this guide. I've seen many people complain about this part, but when I came up with this fingering (not that I claim to be the only person doing it this way), I'd be able to hit this almost every time. Really, the seed for this fingering was planted by jnukes2's method of hitting the red snake 12 years ago... anyway! I think the major problem these two mini trills pose is that they require you to hit a note, then release it as quickly as possible, and do that twice in very quick succession. Add two extra taps and you get an incredibly counterintuitive pattern. With the above fingering, this is reduced to a pattern that requires only two quick middle finger taps, with no thought going into when to release your finger whatsoever.

To start, put your index finger down on the blue before starting the mini trills (this is why I indicated that the first blue note is hit with an anchored finger):
-------------------
d------------d___d____-------
_-----1-----_________-------
3------------312111213-------
As for building the muscle memory for this part, just go into practice mode and start at slowest, then work your way up. I practised the fingering without the strumming a lot too. That way, when practising this part I eventually only had to concentrate on when to strum. Especially replacing your ring finger with your middle finger may feel a bit weird at first, but should soon feel natural.

I don't think it's better to hit the blue note after the mini trills with your pinky per se. In fact, it's probably easier to not drop ticks if you practise sliding your ring finger down to hit it. However, by the time this concern occurred to me, I was already too close to the FC to care about putting in the effort to tweak this.

The Psychology
Once I had the muscle memory down to hit these mini trills with my left hand, the only thing I had to focus on was the timing of the two downstrums. If I concentrated on that, trusting that my left hand would be able to play this on muscle memory, I'd hit this almost every time.

Part 4
-------------------------
e___________________________d___u------d----e________---------------
3131313131313131313131313___4___2------4----313131311---------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:14

The Technique
I carefully count all the taps in Flood!. However, sometimes I would over-tap this trill (in the video I think I tap it 14 times). This was usually no problem, but once or twice when tapping 13 times it caused me to miss because the taps didn't line up exactly with the chart anymore.

Every now and then I'd have trouble hitting the elbow strummed blue note. Eventually I figured out the solution for me was to forgo the ticks from the preceding orange sustain to make sure I put my ring finger on the blue in time, then slowly make my timing tighter, until I could hold the entire orange sustain again (while still hitting the trill).

The Psychology
When this part came up, I'd be thinking the following:

1. 12 taps on the blue.
   
2. Make sure to hit the elbow strummed blue.
   
3. 4 taps on the orange.

Part 5
-------------------
d-----------u__d__u--------d____d_______d___u___d_________________________________
3-----------21_2__3--------13___31211___2___3___4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:18

The Technique
I used to play
I used to play 21211, but then I realized I could apply the same idea behind the mini trills in part 3 here, which greatly increased my consistency. The preceding notes are ideal for setting up the index finger on the yellow and the ring finger on the blue.

The Psychology
This part has two things that could catch me off-guard if I didn't remind myself to prepare for them. In order:

1. Replacing my ring finger with my middle finger in the pattern.
   
2. Strumming the that quickly follows the pattern.

Part 6
------
d_____u_____d_____u___e_________d____u___e_________d____u_d------e____________________
1_____2_____1_____13__212121232_21___43__212121232_11___4_3------212121212121212121___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:23

The Technique
Because I'm fine with elbow strumming, but don't like elbow strumming quickly in succession, and I'm not too fast at trills, I came up with this pattern to combine all those preferences.

First of all, the final upstrum of the pattern sets you up perfectly to swing your arm over to start tapping (and in the video you can see I basically combine the upstrum with the arm movement to start tapping). Secondly, after tapping the first three yellows of the first trill, I fret the last yellow with my ring finger to give myself time to return to the strum bar for the following strums. This also turned out to pose a new challenge, because it's much harder to release your ringer finger in time to hit the following pull-off yellow. Releasing my ring finger as soon as possible after hitting the blue was something I had to be very mindful of while trying to hit this part.

Sometimes I would miss the first elbow strum in this part, because I didn't put down my middle finger on the yellow early enough. As long as I reminded myself to do so, I'd be fine. In practice, I fretted this more closely to than .

As a consequence of this fingering, I had to move the star power activation to the second green of this part. If you want to execute the optimal star power path, you can either learn to activate star power on an upstrum, which should hopefully give you enough time to reach over to start tapping, use tilt activation (which to me seemed hard to combine with tapping) or one-hand the first trill (which I was not quick enough for).

The Psychology
In order, these are some things I had to make sure not to forget:

1. Make sure to put my middle finger down on the first yellow of the first trill as early as possible, so I don't miss it when elbow strumming.
   
2. Make sure to release my ring finger at the end of the trills as soon as possible.
   
3. After the first trill, I have to hold my middle finger before strumming. After the second trill, I have to release my middle finger before strumming.
   
4. Although it seems from the video I was not too careful with this in my FC run, I often reminded myself that I shouldn't strum the ------ after the second trill too quickly, but that there should be a decent pause between the green and the orange. This part is so fast-paced that it's easy to forget these things and just do everything as quickly as you possibly can.

Part 7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d___u___d___u-------d___u-----------d-------u-------d-------u-------d___u____d____u___d_____u----------d----------u____d------------
3___2___1___4-------1___2-----------1-------3-------1-------3-------2___34___3____4___3_____2----------3----------4____1------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:27

The Technique
Not much to mention here. At slower speeds in practice mode it happened to me a couple of times that I tried hitting the last yellow in ---------- too early, because there's a bigger pause before this note than before the others. However, I don't think this ever happened to me when playing on full speed.

The Psychology
When I was playing Flood! in practice mode, I set a rule for myself that I would always play this part with the same fretting. Since it's only practice mode and it's such a stark contrast with the hardest part of flood that precedes it, it was very tempting to try out some nonsense. But I didn't want to run any risk of getting my fingers confused during an actual FC run of the song, so I made sure to always play this consistently in practice mode.

The Aftermath
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
u-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:34

The Technique
Protip: Hold this note as long as possible for more points! See the video for an example on how not to do it.

The Psychology
Because Flood! ends on a downstrum, the natural thing to do would be to hit this chord on an upstrum. At some point, I got paranoid and thought maybe it's easier to hit this chord on a downstrum and I actually spent some time thinking what to do, before eventually deciding on the upstrum anyway. Turns out this was totally unnecessary and I didn't think about this at all (or rather, I didn't have the time to) during my FC run. So yeah, that was a waste of time.

Grinding the FC and Handling the Pressure
As a warm-up before each grinding session, I advise to do the following, in order:

1. FC Mosh 1 + Verse + Mosh 2.
   
2. Play Bridge + Chorus + Flood and make sure to FC at least Bridge and Chorus while doing so (preferably also the green streak). If you FC Flood! you can skip the next step.
   
3. FC Flood!.

Initially, my warm-up was to FC Mosh 1 + Verse + Mosh 2 and Flood! three times each, and alternatingly, because that's the order the sections appear in the song. However, I found that to be counterproductive and ultimately I felt I could focus better during the actual FC attempts if I only FCd Mosh 1 + Verse + Mosh 2 and Flood! once each.

Make sure you play in an environment that's consistent, so that it's the least distracting, or at least the most predictable. If you want to film yourself and/or the screen, you can use your time in practice mode to get used to being on camera. When I first started filming my progress, I got self-conscious and suddenly played much worse, until I got used to being on camera.

After a good FC attempt (say I made it all the way until Flood! without breaking streak), often I would have a string of bad runs, due to my hands being shaky from the nervousness. This would take about 15 minutes to wear off and if that happens to you, don't let it get to you and see it as an opportunity to test your performance under pressure.

I touched on consistency and nervousness a little bit when I discussed Drizzle 2 above. To expand on that, I had an early run when I made it all the way to the last set of trills in Flood!, but I was way too nervous to be able to FC it (and I didn't, naturally). I have tried to calm myself down mentally and try to keep my cool, but it just doesn't seem to work well for me. Sadly, the only way I know how to conquer my own nervousness, is to experience myself getting more consistent. When I make it to the end and get a shot at the FC, I need to have been there before and know that it's not going to be my only shot. Only then will I be able to relax and think "if I don't get it now, I'll get it another time". Well, I'll still want to FC it right then and there, of course, but it will calm me down.

You will have ups and downs. You'll have off days. Improvement may be steady, but it won't be constant. A section you learn today may give you trouble yet again tomorrow. If you suddenly "lost it", realize it happens to everyone all the time and know that if you keep practising, you'll get it back sooner or later. I found that Raining Blood in particular had many parts I had to learn and later re-learn when my hands suddenly couldn't seem to FC them anymore.

Conclusion
If you have any feedback for me or ways to improve this guide, please let me know. Everything is appreciated, be it related to content or to things like typos or formatting preferences. Although this guide is meant to elaborate on my personal experience FCing this song, I can still add, modify or remove information depending on the feedback I get.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Back to top
_________________

[Ontwikseltsaar]

Introduction
I recently FCd Raining Blood, and after grinding the song for three months I found that there were so many little subtleties I had to keep in mind while playing, that I thought it might be useful to share my perspective. I know the Score Hero wiki has a couple of Raining Blood guides and topics listed, one of which states I don't need to start a new topic. I hope we can all agree the statute of limitations has passed on that 12-year-old topic title. If not, feel free to permarocker me or something.

Note: This is my first guide. Any tips are appreciated!

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
   
2. Table of Contents
   
3. What to Expect from This Guide
   
4. Legend
   
5. Video
   
6. Section-by-Section Analysis
   
   1. The Calm
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   2. Drizzle 1
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   3. Hard Rain
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   4. Mosh 1
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   5. Verse
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   6. Mosh 2
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   7. Drizzle 2
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   8. Bridge
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   9. Chorus
      
      • The Technique
        
      • The Psychology
      
      
   10. Flood!
       
       1. Part 1
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       2. Part 2
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       3. Part 3
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       4. Part 4
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       5. Part 5
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       6. Part 6
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
          
          
       7. Part 7
          
          • The Technique
            
          • The Psychology
       
       
   11. The Aftermath
       
       • The Technique
         
       • The Psychology
   
   
7. Grinding the FC and Handling the Pressure
   
8. Conclusion

What to Expect from This Guide
In this guide, I will discuss all the techniques (fingerings, strum patterns, etc.) for all sections of the song (including Mosh 1 and Flood!). In addition, I will discuss the psychology of hitting several sections. Which notes to focus on, how to group parts, when to hit things early, late, fast, slow, etc.

That's not all there is to it, though. There's another aspect to the psychology of going for this FC. When attempting milestone FCs like this, I tend to overthink things. I start getting:

• paranoid ("Uh oh, that part felt a bit harder than usual. That spells trouble for the even harder section coming up", or the exact opposite: "That section went smoothly! I better get the FC this time, because I won't get a better opportunity than this..."), or;
  
• superstitious ("I'm wearing a different shirt today. Maybe that will affect my freedom of movement when tapping."), or;
  
• otherwise distracted ("This part is so boring.", "I wish the neighbors would stop playing piano." (true story), etc.).

I will also try to discuss any overthinker's problems that I can think of.

An important takeaway from all this is that this guide details just one person's experience. I understand there are more methods, but I will not discuss these unless I have a particular opinion on them I consider relevant.

There will be pointers in this guide which may not apply exclusively to Raining Blood, especially in the section Grinding the FC and Handling the Pressure. I found it helpful to remind myself of them to keep my sanity and continue believing that it was possible to FC this and therefore decided to include these notes.

Legend
1 = Index
2 = Middle
3 = Ring
4 = Pinky
d = Downstrum
u = Upstrum
e = Elbow strum
Underlined = Anchored finger
Red = Tapping finger

Video
I don't have a video of this guide, but I have a video of my FC:

Raining Blood 100% FC

To my knowledge, this FC showcases everything discussed in this guide except the following:

• In the video, I elbow strum the first note of the song.
  
• I use slightly different fingering in the first section of the song.

If there are any other inconsistencies or slip-ups, let me know and I will list them here.

Throughout the section-by-section analysis, I will include links to this video with the timestamp placed at relevant moments.

Section-by-Section Analysis
I will be analyzing the song according to the sections indicated in the game. For the most part, these can all be studied separately. There is one exception I can think of, which is the transition from Mosh 1 to Verse, where the strumming in Mosh 1 means Verse will start on an upstrum. The same thing happens in The Aftermath, but is much less impactful.

The Calm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d------------------------------------------------------------------------u--------d----u------------____________________d-----u---d---------_____
1------------------------------------------------------------------------4--------2----3------------____________________1-----2---4---------_____
2------------------------------------------------------------------------_--------_----_------------_____________________-----_---_---------_____
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
u----------------------d--------------u--------____d-----------u---------d----------------u---------------d----------------------------------------------------------------------------u---------------
2----------------------1--------------3--------____3-----------4---------1----------------4---------------3----------------------------------------------------------------------------2---------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 0:10

The Technique
This section should be no problem. The only thing I can think of from a technical standpoint is to make sure you choose the fingering to anticipate the next notes, which I have done above. Although it should make no difference in FCing this section, it may be ever so slightly easier to get all ticks this way.

In the video, I elbow strum the first note. This is the only whimsical thing I permitted myself, since it was easy to do consistently. Besides, who knows, maybe it helped to make sure I could still do elbow strums if I hadn't made it to Flood! in a long time, where my method requires seven elbow strums.

The Psychology
This section is boring. My tip would be to not try to make it interesting. Don't play around, don't use exotic fingerings or strum patterns, and try to stay focused. When I ever started missing in this section it would only make me more frustrated because of the unnecessary restarts. It's not worth it. There's value in spending some energy exercising restraint and accepting the boredom.

Drizzle 1

d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u_d_u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u_d_u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u___
1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 0:43

The Technique
Simple fretting. I try to alt strum straight through this section in order to set myself up for the right movement and rhythm for the next section.

The Psychology
Even though this section is technically harder than the previous one, I made fewer mistakes in this one, because it's more engaging. I had a decent scare one time when I made a few mistakes in this section in consecutive runs. Did I lose "it"? Was this section suddenly un-FCable for me? Nope. Of course not. And eventually my fingers reminded my brain that this section is not the problem.

Hard Rain

dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_
111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_1_2_3_4_4_3_2_1_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_1_2_3_4_4_3_2_1_

dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_dud_udu_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_
111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_1_2_3_4_4_3_2_1_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_111_1_2_3_4_4_3_2_1_
Raining Blood 100% FC: 0:54

The Technique
There are not many ways to play this. Personally, I can only alt strums straight through it.

The Psychology
Although the gallops should be easy, especially compared to the rest of the song, there was actually a moment where this section gave me some trouble. My galloping skill and speed had fully caught up with this section and naturally, I felt it was easier to play the gallops a bit faster. However, if I were to "shift down a gear", so to speak, I would be playing too slowly. At that moment, the gallops in this section existed in this gray area where it was either too quick or too slow for me. Fortunately, it was just a matter of practice to become consistent again.

Mosh 1

d_______________________________
43214321432143214321432143214321

____________________________d__u________________________d___u__d____________________________d__u________________________d___u__d____________________________d__u________________________d___u_d_
432143214321432143214321321_3__343214321432143214321432_1___3__3432143214321432143214321321_3__34321432143214321432143211___3__3432143214321432143214321321_3__34321432143214321432143211___3_2_
____________________________4___________________________2___4_______________________________4___________________________2___4_______________________________4___________________________2___4___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 1:16

The Technique
The fingering I had initially had a lot more sliding, e.g.:

2__23211
3_______
However, I noticed it was much harder to keep a tight rhythm, so I came up with this. The time between the chord changes and the to transition is enough to shift positions and after practising this fingering in practice mode it soon felt very natural. No sliding required.

The optimal star power path for Raining Blood has an activation in this section. For some reason I couldn't activate with my fingers on the strum bar. Naturally, my fretting hand would skip a note while waiting for star power to activate. I could have tried fighting this instinct, but fortunately, since this section is mostly hammer-ons and pull-offs, there is enough time to move my hand from the strum bar and use my fingers to activate instead of my palm.

The Psychology
The first two measures (the first line of freticons) are played at 201 BPM, while the rest of Mosh 1 vacillates around 217 BPM. Since you are just coming out of Hard Rain, which ends at 172 BPM, you'll have to speed up for the first two measures of Mosh 1. Sometimes you'll just happen to start the Mosh 1 scales too slowly. When that happened to me, I felt the urge to try to catch up gradually. Since the 201 BPM part of Mosh 1 only lasts for two measures, this meant that I was still doing this gradual speedup by the time I had to also increase my pace to 217 BPM for the rest of Mosh 1. This didn't work for me. If you start the first two measures of Mosh 1 too slowly, my advice would be to try to correct your speed immediately. For the rest of Mosh 1, you'll have more than enough time to gradually correct your pace.

I also want to discuss the little pinky tap at the end of every other measure:

This was giving me a lot of trouble, but I managed to become consistent when I tried to release my pinky as soon as I hit the chord. This would give my pinky more time to "breathe" and turned this part from feeling like a mini-trill to a simple scale.

In summary, after practising and internalizing the fingering, this is what I was focusing on while playing Mosh 1:

• Playing at the right tempo during the first two measures.
  
• Releasing my pinky as soon as I hit a chord.
  
• Activating star power.

Verse

u_dudud_u_d_u___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_
1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_
________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_

d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_d_ududu_d_u_d___d_ududu_d_u_d_u_
1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_1_11111_2_3_2___1_11111_2_2_3_3_
________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_________3_4_3___________3_3_4_4_
Raining Blood 100% FC: 1:32

The Technique
Be aware that you're starting this section on an upstrum, because of the strum pattern at the end Mosh 1, which ends in a downstrum. So whenever you practise this section, make sure to practise it starting with an upstrum. Besides that, this just happened to be one of those sections where the sliding and the strumming eventually just clicked and I became really consistent.

The Psychology
Mosh 1 ends at 218 BPM and Verse starts at 224 BPM and I don't know if it's just in my head, but I felt like it was a noticeable speedup. In my experience, it's easier to start Verse going slightly too fast rather than slightly too slow. Since the star power phrase at measures 5 and 6 is where the section settles into a steady pace of around 218 BPM for a while, I always took a breather during that SP phrase. I always went into Verse going very fast, then I'd slow down a little during the SP phrase and re-evaluate my pace, then finish the section as steady as possible.

I still don't know for certain if the 6 BPM difference between the end of Mosh 1 and the start of Verse is really noticeable, but it felt noticeable and that made a difference to me.

Mosh 2

d_u_d_u_d_______d_u_d_u_d_u_d___d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u___d_u_d_u_d_______d_u_d_u_d_u_d___d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u___
1_1_1_1_34323___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1___1___1_1_1_1_34323___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1___1___
________________________________3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_2___2___________________________________3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_2___2___
________________________________4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_3___3___________________________________4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_3___3___

d_u_d_u_d_______d_u_d_u_d_u_d___d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u___d_u_d_u_d_______d_u_d_u_d_u_d___d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u___
1_1_1_1_34323___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1___1___1_1_1_1_34323___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1___1___
________________________________3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_2___2___________________________________3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_3_2___2___
________________________________4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_3___3___________________________________4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_4_3___3___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 1:50

The Technique
Ten years ago, I would routinely play the zigzag pattern as follows:

23212
However, for some reason I couldn't do that consistently anymore. I still don't know what changed, but using the fingering 34323 worked for me, so I took what I could get. If I was feeling particularly nervous, I'd often hit the zigzag a bit earlier so I could fret it a bit slower.

Sometimes while playing this section my leg was feeling restless or I may have been sitting in the same position for too long. I usually took the three-note chords as an opportunity to readjust my position. Even if I was aware of any physical discomfort before this section, I'd wait until these three-note chords because the chords don't change for a while and the rhythm is simple, slow and steady.

The Psychology
On multiple occasions, when I got to this point in the song, I'd be tempted to let my guard down and think I cleared the first hard part of the song. Then I'd make a mistake in the zigzag pattern. As long as I focused and made sure to fret the zigzag pattern very deliberately, I'd have no problem.

Drizzle 2

d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u_d_u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d_u_d_u_d___u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u_d_u_d_u___d_u_d___u_d_u___
1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___1_1_1_2_3_4_3___1_3_2___1_3_2___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:10

The Technique
The exact same as Drizzle 1.

The Psychology
When going for this FC, I usually grouped the meat of the song into two parts: Mosh 1 + Verse + Mosh 2, and Bridge + Chorus + Flood!, with Drizzle 2 as a transition. If I got to Drizzle 2, I'd know that this was now a serious run. In the beginning, this would be where I got nervous. The more consistent I got, the more I was able to delay that nervousness.

Bridge

d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____d_u_____
1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____1_1_____
2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____2_2_____

d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_
1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_4_1_2_3_4_1_1_2_3_1_2_3_1_
2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______2_______
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:21

The Technique
It's much more consistent for me to play instead of
It's much more consistent for me to play 1234 instead of 1344. I think there are two reasons for this:
It's much more consistent for me to play 2___ instead of 2

• It separates the chord more from the following three notes, making it easier to emphasize the downbeat while playing.
  
• It makes the finger movement identical to fingering the following four notes (they're both 1234), except for the position change on the neck.
  It makes the finger movement identical to fingering the following four notes (they're both 2

The Psychology
When playing this there are two things I keep in mind:

• I make every downstrum on the chords very deliberate, in order to keep a steady rhythm.
  
• I can play most of this on autopilot, but mentally I separate the recurring pattern from the rest. Every other measure, if I make sure I hit at least these three notes consciously, I don't really need to think about the rest.

Chorus

d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_
1_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_1_1_1_2_1_1_3_2_1_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_1_1_1_2_1_1_3_2_1_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_1_1_1_2_1_1_3_2_1_1_2_3_1_1_2_3_1_1_1_2_1_1_3_2_
2_2_3_4_2_2_3_4_2_2_2_4_2_2_4_3_2_2_3_4_2_2_3_4_2_2_2_4_2_2_4_3_2_2_3_4_2_2_3_4_2_2_2_4_2_2_4_3_2_2_3_4_2_2_3_4_2_2_2_4_2_2_4_3_
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:48

The Technique
Fairly straightforward. I once tried to play
Fairly straightforward. I once tried to play 1133, but that did not work at all for me.
Fairly straightforward. I once tried to play 2244

The Psychology
When playing this section, I don't put emphasis on the downbeat. Instead, I emphasize the downstrum of the chords. Sometimes I abuse the timing window a little bit to make sure I position my fingers correctly before hitting the chord. I think you can even hear it a little in the video. Sometimes there is a slightly bigger pause before I hit the chord. It helped me become more consistent.

I do something similar with the chords. If I make sure to hit the very deliberately, I'll have no problem. This goes doubly for the last chord. I've had multiple runs where I was already distracted by the green streak at that point and then missed the last chord of Chorus.

In short, what goes through my mind when playing this section (aside from the panicked screams knowing that Flood! Is coming) is:

• Make sure to hit the chords.
  
• Make sure to hit the chords.

Flood!
---------------------------------------------
dudududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududud-----d___d______________________-----------e_______________d___u-------d___d_______e____________d____u_____d-----------d-----------
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111113-----2___21212123443211212112124-----------1313131313132___1___4-------1___12121212212121212344_3211_3_____1-----------3-----------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
d___d____-------d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d-------------------e___________________________d___u------d----e________---------------d-----------u__d__u--------d____d_______d___u___d_________________________________
312111213-------4_1_4_1_3_1_2_1_2-------------------3131313131313131313131313___4___2------4----313131311---------------3-----------21_2__3--------13___31211___2___3___4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d_____u_____d_____u___e_________d____u___e_________d____u_d------e____________________d___u___d___u-------d___u-----------d-------u-------d-------u-------d___u____d____u___d_____u----------d----------u____d------------
1_____2_____1_____13__212121232_21___43__212121232_11___4_3------212121212121212121___3___2___1___4-------1___2-----------1-------3-------1-------3-------2___34___3____4___3_____2----------3----------4____1------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:59

Self-explanatory.

Just kidding. This is the longest section with the most notes, without any repetition whatsoever. Let's split this up into smaller parts, shall we?

Part 1
----------------
dudududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududud-----d___d______________________-----------e_______________
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111113-----2___21212123443211212112124-----------1313131313132___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 2:59

The Technique
First of all, let me just say that I grouped the green streak together with these first trills and scales because it makes this part self-contained, while the way the fingering and strumming flows together within this part is really important.

The downstrums right after the green streak are a very deliberate choice. If I tried to alt strum this, my left hand would accidentally fret instead of . Downstrumming these three notes helped my middle finger synchronize the downstrums with hitting the frets. This also ties into my choice of fretting the ----- as 322 instead of 432. This is because it loosens up my middle finger for the upcoming trills. I also hold down my index finger on the green during the -----, to prepare for the trill.

For a long time, I was simply not fast enough to consistently hit the . In particular, my middle finger didn't seem to be able to count the number of taps before going into the scale. To remedy this, I got into the habit of idly practising this pattern, using my forearm as a guitar neck. It worked surprisingly well for building the necessary speed and muscle memory. Actually, the exact pattern I practised was , since I need my middle finger to hold the red when I start tapping the . This is also why I indicated the reds in are hit with an anchored finger.

The held before the elbow strum gives you enough time to replace your pinky (which you just used to hit the blue note) with your tapping finger and to plant your ring finger on the yellow. This is why I decided to indicate the first notes of the next trill, , are hit with anchored fingers. So in effect, this is played as follows:
------------
_------------e_______________
_-----3-----________________
4-----1-----1313131313132___

The Psychology
I find it easier to play the green streak a bit faster than it's charted and then to slow down as necessary when you hear the countdown on the hi-hat. Right after that, similarly to the quick pinky taps I mentioned in Mosh 1, when I play the ----- I make sure to release my middle finger as soon as possible after hitting the yellow. This helps me hit the trills right after, since it primes my middle finger for quickly releasing buttons.

In order, this goes through my head when playing this part:

1. Play the green streak fast and wait for the hi-hat countdown to gauge whether I need to slow down a bit.
   
2. After hitting the first yellow, release as soon as possible.
   
3. The elbow strummed trill requires 6 taps (including the blue that opens the trill).

Part 2
------------------
d___u-------d___d_______e____________d____u_____d-----------
1___4-------1___12121212212121212344_3211_3_____1-----------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:07

The Technique
In my experience, the earlier you can plant your index finger on the red, the easier the trills are. For that reason, I play the first as if it were a chord:
-------
1___1-------1
____4-------_
This is also the reason why I indicated that the first charted in this part is hit with an anchored finger.

The fingering for the trills that follow is fairly straightforward. The only thing to watch out for is that if you release your middle finger from the yellow too early at the end of the trill you may miss the yellow in the transition and end up playing the following:

2121211
For this reason, I practically tap the three blue notes as fast as possible, giving the last yellow of the trill the best chance at being hit.

The last three strums of this part are almost at one steady pace, so when I hit this part, the strumming would feel really natural.

The Psychology
Whenever this part was coming up, I was mostly focusing on hitting the first red note of the trill in time (or maybe a little early) and hitting that first trill at a steady pace instead of trying to go as fast as I could, especially since it's easy to make up for a slower trill by tapping the trill quicker. Even though the trill is almost the same speed as the first trill right after the green streak, it always felt significantly slower to me. In short:

1. Make sure to hit the first red note of the trill on time (or maybe a little early).
   
2. Hit the trill at a steady pace.
   
3. Hit the trill with 3 really quick taps.

Part 3
-------------------------------------
d-----------d___d____-------d_u_d_u_d_u_d_u_d-------------------
3-----------312111213-------4_1_4_1_3_1_2_1_2-------------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:11

The Technique
One of the leading reasons that drove me to write this guide. I've seen many people complain about this part, but when I came up with this fingering (not that I claim to be the only person doing it this way), I'd be able to hit this almost every time. Really, the seed for this fingering was planted by jnukes2's method of hitting the red snake 12 years ago... anyway! I think the major problem these two mini trills pose is that they require you to hit a note, then release it as quickly as possible, and do that twice in very quick succession. Add two extra taps and you get an incredibly counterintuitive pattern. With the above fingering, this is reduced to a pattern that requires only two quick middle finger taps, with no thought going into when to release your finger whatsoever.

To start, put your index finger down on the blue before starting the mini trills (this is why I indicated that the first blue note is hit with an anchored finger):
-------------------
d------------d___d____-------
_-----1-----_________-------
3------------312111213-------
As for building the muscle memory for this part, just go into practice mode and start at slowest, then work your way up. I practised the fingering without the strumming a lot too. That way, when practising this part I eventually only had to concentrate on when to strum. Especially replacing your ring finger with your middle finger may feel a bit weird at first, but should soon feel natural.

I don't think it's better to hit the blue note after the mini trills with your pinky per se. In fact, it's probably easier to not drop ticks if you practise sliding your ring finger down to hit it. However, by the time this concern occurred to me, I was already too close to the FC to care about putting in the effort to tweak this.

The Psychology
Once I had the muscle memory down to hit these mini trills with my left hand, the only thing I had to focus on was the timing of the two downstrums. If I concentrated on that, trusting that my left hand would be able to play this on muscle memory, I'd hit this almost every time.

Part 4
-------------------------
e___________________________d___u------d----e________---------------
3131313131313131313131313___4___2------4----313131311---------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:14

The Technique
I carefully count all the taps in Flood!. However, sometimes I would over-tap this trill (in the video I think I tap it 14 times). This was usually no problem, but once or twice when tapping 13 times it caused me to miss because the taps didn't line up exactly with the chart anymore.

Every now and then I'd have trouble hitting the elbow strummed blue note. Eventually I figured out the solution for me was to forgo the ticks from the preceding orange sustain to make sure I put my ring finger on the blue in time, then slowly make my timing tighter, until I could hold the entire orange sustain again (while still hitting the trill).

The Psychology
When this part came up, I'd be thinking the following:

1. 12 taps on the blue.
   
2. Make sure to hit the elbow strummed blue.
   
3. 4 taps on the orange.

Part 5
-------------------
d-----------u__d__u--------d____d_______d___u___d_________________________________
3-----------21_2__3--------13___31211___2___3___4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_3_4_
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:18

The Technique
I used to play
I used to play 21211, but then I realized I could apply the same idea behind the mini trills in part 3 here, which greatly increased my consistency. The preceding notes are ideal for setting up the index finger on the yellow and the ring finger on the blue.

The Psychology
This part has two things that could catch me off-guard if I didn't remind myself to prepare for them. In order:

1. Replacing my ring finger with my middle finger in the pattern.
   
2. Strumming the that quickly follows the pattern.

Part 6
------
d_____u_____d_____u___e_________d____u___e_________d____u_d------e____________________
1_____2_____1_____13__212121232_21___43__212121232_11___4_3------212121212121212121___
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:23

The Technique
Because I'm fine with elbow strumming, but don't like elbow strumming quickly in succession, and I'm not too fast at trills, I came up with this pattern to combine all those preferences.

First of all, the final upstrum of the pattern sets you up perfectly to swing your arm over to start tapping (and in the video you can see I basically combine the upstrum with the arm movement to start tapping). Secondly, after tapping the first three yellows of the first trill, I fret the last yellow with my ring finger to give myself time to return to the strum bar for the following strums. This also turned out to pose a new challenge, because it's much harder to release your ringer finger in time to hit the following pull-off yellow. Releasing my ring finger as soon as possible after hitting the blue was something I had to be very mindful of while trying to hit this part.

Sometimes I would miss the first elbow strum in this part, because I didn't put down my middle finger on the yellow early enough. As long as I reminded myself to do so, I'd be fine. In practice, I fretted this more closely to than .

As a consequence of this fingering, I had to move the star power activation to the second green of this part. If you want to execute the optimal star power path, you can either learn to activate star power on an upstrum, which should hopefully give you enough time to reach over to start tapping, use tilt activation (which to me seemed hard to combine with tapping) or one-hand the first trill (which I was not quick enough for).

The Psychology
In order, these are some things I had to make sure not to forget:

1. Make sure to put my middle finger down on the first yellow of the first trill as early as possible, so I don't miss it when elbow strumming.
   
2. Make sure to release my ring finger at the end of the trills as soon as possible.
   
3. After the first trill, I have to hold my middle finger before strumming. After the second trill, I have to release my middle finger before strumming.
   
4. Although it seems from the video I was not too careful with this in my FC run, I often reminded myself that I shouldn't strum the ------ after the second trill too quickly, but that there should be a decent pause between the green and the orange. This part is so fast-paced that it's easy to forget these things and just do everything as quickly as you possibly can.

Part 7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d___u___d___u-------d___u-----------d-------u-------d-------u-------d___u____d____u___d_____u----------d----------u____d------------
3___2___1___4-------1___2-----------1-------3-------1-------3-------2___34___3____4___3_____2----------3----------4____1------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:27

The Technique
Not much to mention here. At slower speeds in practice mode it happened to me a couple of times that I tried hitting the last yellow in ---------- too early, because there's a bigger pause before this note than before the others. However, I don't think this ever happened to me when playing on full speed.

The Psychology
When I was playing Flood! in practice mode, I set a rule for myself that I would always play this part with the same fretting. Since it's only practice mode and it's such a stark contrast with the hardest part of flood that precedes it, it was very tempting to try out some nonsense. But I didn't want to run any risk of getting my fingers confused during an actual FC run of the song, so I made sure to always play this consistently in practice mode.

The Aftermath
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
u-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Raining Blood 100% FC: 3:34

The Technique
Protip: Hold this note as long as possible for more points! See the video for an example on how not to do it.

The Psychology
Because Flood! ends on a downstrum, the natural thing to do would be to hit this chord on an upstrum. At some point, I got paranoid and thought maybe it's easier to hit this chord on a downstrum and I actually spent some time thinking what to do, before eventually deciding on the upstrum anyway. Turns out this was totally unnecessary and I didn't think about this at all (or rather, I didn't have the time to) during my FC run. So yeah, that was a waste of time.

Grinding the FC and Handling the Pressure
As a warm-up before each grinding session, I advise to do the following, in order:

1. FC Mosh 1 + Verse + Mosh 2.
   
2. Play Bridge + Chorus + Flood and make sure to FC at least Bridge and Chorus while doing so (preferably also the green streak). If you FC Flood! you can skip the next step.
   
3. FC Flood!.

Initially, my warm-up was to FC Mosh 1 + Verse + Mosh 2 and Flood! three times each, and alternatingly, because that's the order the sections appear in the song. However, I found that to be counterproductive and ultimately I felt I could focus better during the actual FC attempts if I only FCd Mosh 1 + Verse + Mosh 2 and Flood! once each.

Make sure you play in an environment that's consistent, so that it's the least distracting, or at least the most predictable. If you want to film yourself and/or the screen, you can use your time in practice mode to get used to being on camera. When I first started filming my progress, I got self-conscious and suddenly played much worse, until I got used to being on camera.

After a good FC attempt (say I made it all the way until Flood! without breaking streak), often I would have a string of bad runs, due to my hands being shaky from the nervousness. This would take about 15 minutes to wear off and if that happens to you, don't let it get to you and see it as an opportunity to test your performance under pressure.

I touched on consistency and nervousness a little bit when I discussed Drizzle 2 above. To expand on that, I had an early run when I made it all the way to the last set of trills in Flood!, but I was way too nervous to be able to FC it (and I didn't, naturally). I have tried to calm myself down mentally and try to keep my cool, but it just doesn't seem to work well for me. Sadly, the only way I know how to conquer my own nervousness, is to experience myself getting more consistent. When I make it to the end and get a shot at the FC, I need to have been there before and know that it's not going to be my only shot. Only then will I be able to relax and think "if I don't get it now, I'll get it another time". Well, I'll still want to FC it right then and there, of course, but it will calm me down.

You will have ups and downs. You'll have off days. Improvement may be steady, but it won't be constant. A section you learn today may give you trouble yet again tomorrow. If you suddenly "lost it", realize it happens to everyone all the time and know that if you keep practising, you'll get it back sooner or later. I found that Raining Blood in particular had many parts I had to learn and later re-learn when my hands suddenly couldn't seem to FC them anymore.

Conclusion
If you have any feedback for me or ways to improve this guide, please let me know. Everything is appreciated, be it related to content or to things like typos or formatting preferences. Although this guide is meant to elaborate on my personal experience FCing this song, I can still add, modify or remove information depending on the feedback I get.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Back to top
_________________

[alexhaz64]

Wow, this is incredibly thorough! I haven't seen such a detailed and well-organized guide in probably ten years or more.

Anyway, the main issue for me is Part 6 of Flood, so that's definitely the section I will try to learn from the most. I haven't spent nearly enough time grinding this, but I am definitely interested in trying the "tap most of the high notes but one hand the last few to hit the strums easier" method. That seems really reasonable and probably easier than elbow strumming like 10 notes in that section lol.

Thanks for making this, hopefully it will help lead me to FC!
_________________

2:59 alexhaz64: I'm like 6th place on that song
2:59 alexhaz64: pretty neat
2:59 alexhaz64: :p
2:59 JohnnyGrey: No Alex, I don't care how good your score is
2:59 JohnnyGrey: DAMMIT
2:59 alexhaz64: XD
alexhaz64 flexes
2:59 psxfreak101: too slow on the trigger there, boyo
2:59 alexhaz64: that seems to be the case all night
2:59 JohnnyGrey: I've been too slow a few times tonight
2:59 JohnnyGrey: GDSAKj hfask
2:59 psxfreak101: XD
2:59 alexhaz64: LMAO
2:59 alexhaz64: OMG
psxfreak101 actua-loling

[alexhaz64]

Wow, this is incredibly thorough! I haven't seen such a detailed and well-organized guide in probably ten years or more.

Anyway, the main issue for me is Part 6 of Flood, so that's definitely the section I will try to learn from the most. I haven't spent nearly enough time grinding this, but I am definitely interested in trying the "tap most of the high notes but one hand the last few to hit the strums easier" method. That seems really reasonable and probably easier than elbow strumming like 10 notes in that section lol.

Thanks for making this, hopefully it will help lead me to FC!
_________________

2:59 alexhaz64: I'm like 6th place on that song
2:59 alexhaz64: pretty neat
2:59 alexhaz64: :p
2:59 JohnnyGrey: No Alex, I don't care how good your score is
2:59 JohnnyGrey: DAMMIT
2:59 alexhaz64: XD
alexhaz64 flexes
2:59 psxfreak101: too slow on the trigger there, boyo
2:59 alexhaz64: that seems to be the case all night
2:59 JohnnyGrey: I've been too slow a few times tonight
2:59 JohnnyGrey: GDSAKj hfask
2:59 psxfreak101: XD
2:59 alexhaz64: LMAO
2:59 alexhaz64: OMG
psxfreak101 actua-loling

[Mr.Scientist]

Amazing write up. Sharing methods is always a great way towards improving. Good to see how other people hit certain sections, makes you rethink your methods and figure out how to gain more consistency.

Thanks for sharing

[Mr.Scientist]

Amazing write up. Sharing methods is always a great way towards improving. Good to see how other people hit certain sections, makes you rethink your methods and figure out how to gain more consistency.

Thanks for sharing

[Ontwikseltsaar]

[Ontwikseltsaar]

[LlamaYip]

Wow! This is awesome, especially since I think I have this FC coming up in my Queue soon.
_________________

My Youtube | My Accomplishments | Total Hard FCs: 723/725 | My Stream | GenericName
Latest Hard FC: Through the Fire and Flames GH3 | GH1: 47/47 GH2: 62/64 GH80S: 30/30 GH3: 70/70 GHA: 41/41 GHWT: 86/86 GHM: 49/49 GHSH: 48/48 GH5: 85/85 GHVH: 47/47 BH: 65/65 GHWOR: 93/93

[LlamaYip]

Wow! This is awesome, especially since I think I have this FC coming up in my Queue soon.
_________________

My Youtube | My Accomplishments | Total Hard FCs: 723/725 | My Stream | GenericName
Latest Hard FC: Through the Fire and Flames GH3 | GH1: 47/47 GH2: 62/64 GH80S: 30/30 GH3: 70/70 GHA: 41/41 GHWT: 86/86 GHM: 49/49 GHSH: 48/48 GH5: 85/85 GHVH: 47/47 BH: 65/65 GHWOR: 93/93

[alexhaz64]

Now that I've FC'd, I'd like to share my thoughts, primarily about flood. Although one thing for mosh 1 that helped was that I found it best to stay in second position as much as possible, and focus on the lowest note of each quad (G in BYRG and R in OBYR). I found that because the section was so fast, I often rushed to fret the next quad, and didn't quite fret the lowest note of the previous quad.

Anyway, flood. I ended up tapping way more than you, including everything in the last section. For the first part, I focused on hitting the B hold and then the Y, before immediately moving my tapping hand up for the R, and elbow strumming. I found this way more consistent than one-handing, although the transition into tapping certainly takes some getting used to.

Part 2 gave me a lot of trouble near the end. I tap and elbow strum the RY and YB trills, but I would often miss the transition between the two. What ended up helping was realizing that I only needed to tap Y three times, as the fourth would hit itself as I anchored for the YB trill. One of many times that counting my taps ended up helping a lot, actually.

Part 3, believe it or not, I also tapped and elbow strummed. I used to one hand it from third position, but for some reason I lost my consistency. However, sticking with third position and tapping was pretty consistent in the end. The O hold makes it easy to bring your hand up to tap, and then it's just two O taps, two B taps, and the last O hold. Just need to time your elbow strums accordingly.

Finally Part 6, as I said earlier, I tap everything. In fact, I start tapping at the slow BO trill in part 5, to make the transition easier. It's a little awkward elbow strumming the strummed notes before the first trill, but it's easier than what comes next. I start tapping at the first before the YB trill. So elbow strum R, tap B, then elbow strum Y, tap B four times. The elbow strums before and after the second YB trill are harder, but I got them down after enough practice. The biggest thing that helped me in this section was counting my taps. It really helped with consistency to be able to tap 1*elbowstrum*1234*elbowstrumx3*1234*elbowstrumx4*12345678
The final trill I usually tapped with 1(1)1(2) (aka two finger tapping), just to save some stamina after all the previous tapping. I initially tried to do this for the first two trills, but deliberately counting my strums and using one finger was way better.

The downside to this method is that it's nearly impossible to activate in the right spot without tilting. Since my tilt didn't work, I moved the last activation to just before the long YB trill, which ends right after the quick BO trill. This loses about 1200 points, give or take, which was worth it to me.
_________________

2:59 alexhaz64: I'm like 6th place on that song
2:59 alexhaz64: pretty neat
2:59 alexhaz64: :p
2:59 JohnnyGrey: No Alex, I don't care how good your score is
2:59 JohnnyGrey: DAMMIT
2:59 alexhaz64: XD
alexhaz64 flexes
2:59 psxfreak101: too slow on the trigger there, boyo
2:59 alexhaz64: that seems to be the case all night
2:59 JohnnyGrey: I've been too slow a few times tonight
2:59 JohnnyGrey: GDSAKj hfask
2:59 psxfreak101: XD
2:59 alexhaz64: LMAO
2:59 alexhaz64: OMG
psxfreak101 actua-loling

[alexhaz64]

Now that I've FC'd, I'd like to share my thoughts, primarily about flood. Although one thing for mosh 1 that helped was that I found it best to stay in second position as much as possible, and focus on the lowest note of each quad (G in BYRG and R in OBYR). I found that because the section was so fast, I often rushed to fret the next quad, and didn't quite fret the lowest note of the previous quad.

Anyway, flood. I ended up tapping way more than you, including everything in the last section. For the first part, I focused on hitting the B hold and then the Y, before immediately moving my tapping hand up for the R, and elbow strumming. I found this way more consistent than one-handing, although the transition into tapping certainly takes some getting used to.

Part 2 gave me a lot of trouble near the end. I tap and elbow strum the RY and YB trills, but I would often miss the transition between the two. What ended up helping was realizing that I only needed to tap Y three times, as the fourth would hit itself as I anchored for the YB trill. One of many times that counting my taps ended up helping a lot, actually.

Part 3, believe it or not, I also tapped and elbow strummed. I used to one hand it from third position, but for some reason I lost my consistency. However, sticking with third position and tapping was pretty consistent in the end. The O hold makes it easy to bring your hand up to tap, and then it's just two O taps, two B taps, and the last O hold. Just need to time your elbow strums accordingly.

Finally Part 6, as I said earlier, I tap everything. In fact, I start tapping at the slow BO trill in part 5, to make the transition easier. It's a little awkward elbow strumming the strummed notes before the first trill, but it's easier than what comes next. I start tapping at the first before the YB trill. So elbow strum R, tap B, then elbow strum Y, tap B four times. The elbow strums before and after the second YB trill are harder, but I got them down after enough practice. The biggest thing that helped me in this section was counting my taps. It really helped with consistency to be able to tap 1*elbowstrum*1234*elbowstrumx3*1234*elbowstrumx4*12345678
The final trill I usually tapped with 1(1)1(2) (aka two finger tapping), just to save some stamina after all the previous tapping. I initially tried to do this for the first two trills, but deliberately counting my strums and using one finger was way better.

The downside to this method is that it's nearly impossible to activate in the right spot without tilting. Since my tilt didn't work, I moved the last activation to just before the long YB trill, which ends right after the quick BO trill. This loses about 1200 points, give or take, which was worth it to me.
_________________

2:59 alexhaz64: I'm like 6th place on that song
2:59 alexhaz64: pretty neat
2:59 alexhaz64: :p
2:59 JohnnyGrey: No Alex, I don't care how good your score is
2:59 JohnnyGrey: DAMMIT
2:59 alexhaz64: XD
alexhaz64 flexes
2:59 psxfreak101: too slow on the trigger there, boyo
2:59 alexhaz64: that seems to be the case all night
2:59 JohnnyGrey: I've been too slow a few times tonight
2:59 JohnnyGrey: GDSAKj hfask
2:59 psxfreak101: XD
2:59 alexhaz64: LMAO
2:59 alexhaz64: OMG
psxfreak101 actua-loling

[Ontwikseltsaar]

That's so awesome! Always great to read this stuff. It would be absolutely impossible for me to do the things you describe. For example, I couldn't for the life of me tap the GR trill right after the green streak-- or I'd have to seriously reprogram my muscle memory or I'd consistently elbow strum a G instead of an R to start it off.

[Ontwikseltsaar]

That's so awesome! Always great to read this stuff. It would be absolutely impossible for me to do the things you describe. For example, I couldn't for the life of me tap the GR trill right after the green streak-- or I'd have to seriously reprogram my muscle memory or I'd consistently elbow strum a G instead of an R to start it off.

[slashn0]

ok this post is pretty awesome actually
_________________

Guitar Hero + Rock Band Expert Drums Dual FSFC - September 21st, 2017
10,000 unique expert GH/RB FCs - May 18th, 2022
Videos: http://www.YouTube.com/dayzeed
FC spreadsheet: https://bit.ly/FCs
Proud lefty who conformed to right-handed mode... show some respect! ;)

[slashn0]

ok this post is pretty awesome actually
_________________

Guitar Hero + Rock Band Expert Drums Dual FSFC - September 21st, 2017
10,000 unique expert GH/RB FCs - May 18th, 2022
Videos: http://www.YouTube.com/dayzeed
FC spreadsheet: https://bit.ly/FCs
Proud lefty who conformed to right-handed mode... show some respect! ;)

[AbyssionQC]

As the former Raining Blood man, I approve of this guide.
_________________

Accomplishment thread - Road to FSFC

GH1 FC''s: 47/47 | GH2 FC''s: 64/64 | GH80''s FC''s: 30/30 | GH3 FC''s: 70/70 GHA FC''s: 41/41 | GHWT FC''s: 86/86
GHM FC''s: 49/49 | GHSH FC''s: 47/48 GH5 FC''s: 85/85 | GHVH FC''s: 47/47 | GHWoR FC''s: 91/93 | Total FC''s: 657/660

I totally didn''''t steal someone else''''s signature

[AbyssionQC]

As the former Raining Blood man, I approve of this guide.
_________________

Accomplishment thread - Road to FSFC

GH1 FC''s: 47/47 | GH2 FC''s: 64/64 | GH80''s FC''s: 30/30 | GH3 FC''s: 70/70 GHA FC''s: 41/41 | GHWT FC''s: 86/86
GHM FC''s: 49/49 | GHSH FC''s: 47/48 GH5 FC''s: 85/85 | GHVH FC''s: 47/47 | GHWoR FC''s: 91/93 | Total FC''s: 657/660

I totally didn''''t steal someone else''''s signature