How to get really good at one specific DDR song

So you’re going to a Dance Dance Revolution tournament and you need to practice up on one hard song that you’ll pick to beat someone else with. Typically the tournaments are structured so that you pick one song, your opponent picks one, and the third is randomly selected. So you definitely want to get really good at a hard song really quickly so they don’t beat you at your own song! Luckily there are some simple techniques that have helped me that I’ll share with you.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. The best thing you can do to start out is get really familiar with the song you picked. So if you’re using Stepmania on your PC, grab the song out of the songs folder and burn it to a CD and play it in your car. Or listen to it just on your computer while you’re doing something else. You’ll want to memorize how the beat sounds and any little pauses or other details. Usually on harder difficulty settings those little side things in the song have arrows attached to them so if you’ve heard the song many times before, you’ll know exactly how it’s supposed to go.

2. Besides listening to the song alone, you’ll want to listen to it with the assistance option on. In earlier versions of DDR, you’ll want to go into training mode and then turn the assistance option to “hand clap.” That way while you’re playing the song, every arrow will play a short hand clap sound so you can memorize the exact tempo of them. Any off-beat steps will throw your opponent off if they’ve never heard the song before so you’ll have a big advantage if you hit them correctly, which is easy if you memorized the tempo of the hand claps for those arrows. In most console versions of DDR you can press the start button again after selecting a song and pick an option for a hand clap or drum beat or something similar to be added to the song. In Stepmania for the PC you do the same thing by pressing enter again after selecting a song to play then going to the second page of options and turning “Assist Tick” on.

3. Once you have the song playing with the assistance on, take your hands/feet off the controls and just listen to the song with the arrows making the hand clap or drum beat noises. It’s easier to memorize how they’re supposed to go if you’re just listening and not trying to actually play the song. Once you’ve heard the song that way a couple times in a row, you’ll be able to hop on the pad and you can sort of tell your brain to have your feet make the same sound as the arrows did. This will increase step accuracy so much because your mind will be adding the hand clap to the song from your memory even when it’s turned off.

4. Now that you know the song and know how the arrows “sound,” you’ll find it really easy to start practicing it on an actual dance pad. Before you even start, you’ll want the best chance at being able to hit all the arrows not to mention preventing leg soreness. To do this, stretch out your legs, hips, and knees before starting. Make sure you didn’t just eat recently or you’ll get a cramp and be a bit sluggish. If you’re too tired it won’t be very easy either. So basically don’t start playing it unless you’re in generally good condition for it at the moment. If you don’t, you may think the song is harder than it is when really it’s just you.

5. You’re going to be playing the song a lot of times in a row for a long period of time so make sure you have really good cooling. A fan blowing on you will help greatly. If you’re in a room with a window and it’s colder outside, open it and let the room air out. You’d be surprised how hot a room can get after a half hour of practicing. Always stay cool and hydrated with water and if you have any, popsicles and slushies work great. Make sure you take a drink break and slight rest in between attempts of the song.

6. After a bunch of times through the song, you should have the steps down pretty well but it’s likely that a few parts will be giving you trouble every time. Some versions of DDR let you go into a training mode where you can start the song at a certain position like halfway through for example. So if you can do that, zoom a few measures ahead of a part that gives you trouble and try it over and over until you get it right. Some games let you slow down the temp greatly so you can hit the steps in slow motion then speed up gradually after you’ve got them down.

7. Once you’ve got the song perfect and you can pretty much combo the entire thing, don’t just sit on your butt until the tournament and assume you’ll perform that well then too. Keep in shape and keep practicing the song until it’s effortless. You may not want to play much the day before the tournament so your legs aren’t tired or sore but definitely play up until two days before the tournament. You may find that you’ve gotten slightly worse and forgot some of the footing and note combinations so that’s a good time to refresh it all in your memory by playing through it a few times. After that you should do great at that on song.

Tips & Warnings

• be sure you practice up at DDR in general or your opponent will beat you on all the rest of the songs.

[Haoie]

on 10/17/2009 Good you mentioned Stepmania.

[ruf1950]

on 9/22/2009 Great article on how to get really good at one DDR song...5*****

[joanhaines]

on 6/18/2009 Train that muscle memory, and rule at DDR!

[WolfTech]

on 6/2/2009 well I saw the article title in your articles list and my first thought was "there's a song about RAM?" lmao. I'm not that into DDR (as in the game this time, not the RAM :P), but I have a friend that is so I'll be sure to point them to this article! :D

[dlcass]

on 5/30/2009 My son does DDR. I'll have to show him these tips. Thanks Des.