Thumb Technique (by Horie)
DP Intermediate
DP Advanced
Written by Horie.
Table of contents
Your thumbs are the most powerful finger on your hands, capable of dealing with many different situations, and relatively easier to make use of - compared to other fingers.
For instance, you can feel the difference between these trills. The left one probably feels much easier than the second.
Thumb technique
For above reasons, many Korean players who have experience in other rhythm games (such as EZ2DJ) know the benefits of using thumbs on both hands.
SINUS 10K / R3CP
In 10K / 14K modes of EZ2, flexible use of your thumbs are inevitable. Good EZ2 players use their thumb frequently to handle various patterns. Korean EZ2DJ players refer to this as “thumb technique” (엄지 테크닉 / 엄테).
You may ask, instead of thumb technique, why not use a 1:1 hand position where each finger is fixed on a key – since EZ2DJ has 5 buttons on both sides, that would be the obvious question. The answer is that, of course, they also use 1:1 positions as well, but some patterns are better suited by thumb technique.
Issue with IIDX DP home position (12467, 13457)
IIDX has 7 buttons on both hands, unlike EZ2. IIDX DP players are exposed to more varied patterns due to the increased number of buttons.
In current “meta” of DP playstyles, most players stick to the home position, and use additional styles as secondary, as needed. The biggest advantage of home position is that it is intuitive. It is the most stable hand position as three fingers (thumb, middle, pinky) form the axes to support your hand. For the rest of the buttons, theoretically, you can just use index and ring finger movements to handle them.
GuNGNiR DPA
INSOMNIA DPA
That being said, if you only stick to the home position, patterns that demand heavy use of your ring and pinky fingers become be very difficult - see above for examples.
This has been a major problem in DP and many DP players have researched for methods to best handle this challenge.
Thumb technique in IIDX
★10 Imperishable Night 2006 / Mya!
Some IIDX DP players with experience in EZ2DJ often use thumb technique to complement the home position.
In this case, the thumb is moved over to key 5 (on 2p side), where the ringer finger would have been. This avoids the use of your ring finger, but not only that, it shifts your index and middle fingers to the right, allowing you to hit patterns like the above (trill, stairs).
This is referred to as thumb-5 technique in IIDX.
Advantage
TRANOID DPL /w FLIP M/M
Infinity Mirror DPA
超青少年ノ為ノ超多幸ナ超古典的超舞曲 DPL
Thumb technique helps you handle various stairs which may be hard, including previous examples. (INSOMNIA DPA / GuNGNiR DPA)
Elemental Creation DPA
In this case, thumb technique doesn’t bring you a major advantage, but it minimizes your hand movements, and avoids the use of a ring finger in a trill.
Disadvantage
超青少年ノ為ノ超多幸ナ超古典的超舞曲 DPL
quasar DPA
You can’t use the technique in patterns where the thumb cannot aide the ring finger. These are mainly 2 types:
- Charts with bass rush, which often falls on 1 or 7, locking in your thumb or pinky.
- Streams on every finger.
These types demand every finger to try their best in their own area.
Thumb technique as a secondary style
Unlike EZ2DJ, the use of thumb technique is not a common occurrence in IIDX. In both SP and DP, shifting hand positions (while playing) has costs. (Personally, I call this the cost of context switching) - and moving your thumb far away from home position costs a lot.
Elemental Creation DPA
So like in the examples I demonstrated above, you should use the technique as a secondary style only when it is worth the cost, in predictable scenarios.
Conclusion
Many DP players want to know, “How can i be good at DP?” and I always tell them, “stick to the home position, but consider other styles to deal with various patterns.”. Like I said above, if you are super good with index and ring finger techniques, you can stick to the home position 100%. However, most people are not that good with index and ring finger techniques.
Besides, not only home position, but also every hand positions has their own strong points. Hence, the ultimate way to be good at DP is having experiences to use many of them in appropriate circumstances. It’s good to have many choices to pick from.