Whammying on short sections?

**metasynthie** · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Posts: 77 Location: New York, NY

I'm kind of new at this score optimization, and I'm trying to get my score up on songs that I can FC + Gold Star. I know the score variability has to do with squeezing and whammying. I understand the concept of squeezing, although I mostly tend to do it on accident especially since the tilt sensor in my Strat is... well, not sensitive enough for precise timing.

Whammying though... I should be able to get this down, but I still have trouble whammying on short notes. Does anyone have tips for this? Are you playing with the whammy bar resting in your hand all the time? I can't seem to get used to that, but if I snag the whammy with a finger while I'm playing, I always end up starting late, or worse still on short whammies, missing the next note in fast sections.

Advice appreciated!

**UPSWyatt** · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 11 Location: Keene, NH

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure whammying doesn't do anything to your score, it increases the amount of OP (Overdrive Power?) you can squeeze out , but I don't think it makes your score goes up any faster. At least it was that way in Guitar Hero.

**metasynthie** · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Posts: 77 Location: New York, NY

Yeah I mean for getting more energy out of overdrive whammys, just to be clear.

**iagomonk** · Joined: 16 Oct 2007 Posts: 1045 Location: Lynnwood, WA

**ocelot11** · Joined: 04 Oct 2006 Posts: 263 Location: Lino Lakes, MN

Man, someone around these forums (can't remember who it was, sorry) put it best one time. They said something along the lines of holding the whammy bar with your fingers while you play, and when you come to a hold, bring your hand together like a sock puppet! That sock puppet thing helped me. Essentially you want to press the whammy and strum at the same time so you get maximum time to whammy on the short and long holds. It can get tricky when you are alt strumming faster parts though.

I can't explain it very well I guess, but just try to visualize a sock puppet and maybe it will click for you like it did for me!

**TheGlow** · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 2748 Location: J Train Brooklyn!

Well I usually never worried TOO mucha bout it but when I got to green grass.. during the 2nd solo right before the 2nd batch of zigzags theres a bunch of short sustain OD notes.
I saw the Sluggo vid and he whammyed them and got a CRAZY amount of OD, enough to build a half bar off of.
I had to do the same to get through the 2nd zigzag

**malklavious** · Joined: 20 Aug 2007 Posts: 94

I found that the speed you whammy does not change the rate of whammy-OD gain. To test this, whammy a long OD note when in overdrive and it seems like whammy-OD gain is the same rate as natural OD-drain.