Hi, I'm trying to improve my osu! skills, but not with a lot of results. The main problem seems to be timing, which is absolutely abysmal. I keep hitting tons of 100s, even on maps I can full combo. Usually somewhere between 15-35% of the total notes on a map end up being 100s. It's especially bad on streams and fast singles, where I'm happy if half the notes I hit are 300s. I've noticed that might be because I am completely unable to identify a beat. Outside osu, I can't even clap or tap along with songs unless there is someone to mimic. I can't tell when something is out of beat either. Inside osu I'm unable to beat even the simplest maps on hidden or anything from taiko.

On most beatmaps, I get about the same accuracy when I turn my sound off, and actually still get the same accuracy if I play a different song in the background (Even when playing with the hidden mod on). Playing a different song doesn't give me any discomfort or any sort of feeling that it matches the hitcircles less. Only in some beatmaps, where the timing of sung words or notes that stand out to me is the same as the timing of hitcircles, there is a small difference. But then on other maps it seems as if turning the sound off actually helps me. Not leveraging the sound aspect of the game properly could very well what is holding me back here. It seems that most timing information I'm gathering is visual, which might be why keeping a decent accuracy in streams is especially hard and why hidden is completely impossible for me.


The only thing I understand about a beat is that it is some sort of timing mechanic that everyone else is somehow magically picking up, while I'm left standing confused because this beat timing often seems completely different from the timing of the notes that I'm hearing. Sometimes the 'beat' seems to be where notes aren't, while there are many notes and sounds that aren't exactly at the beats.
So, does anyone know how to learn to find a beat in a song if you aren't already magically picking it up?

Play Count: 4,593

What you should do is: Raise it to

Play Count: 45,930

Once you do this, your problem will be solved. I swear it works, and it's the best solution anybody will give you.

You can try playing with hidden, a different song every time. Over time you will learn to follow the beat.

Also, if you notice that you have relatively low unstable rate (less than ~200, the less the better), your low accuracy might be caused by incorrectly set Universal Offset.

play piano

Aqo wrote:

Play Count: 4,593

What you should do is: Raise it to

Play Count: 45,930

Once you do this, your problem will be solved. I swear it works, and it's the best solution anybody will give you.

I will definitely play more, but it's worrying me that I'm seeing absolutely 0 improvement in my timing based on sound though. My timing based on vision is clearly getting better, while the sound timing is apparently still so bad that playing different songs doesn't matter at all.

You can try playing with hidden, a different song every time. Over time you will learn to follow the beat.

I'll try that.

Also, if you notice that you have relatively low unstable rate (less than ~200, the less the better), your low accuracy might be caused by incorrectly set Universal Offset.

I have no idea how to find my unstable rate. Which I'm guessing is the average offset of attempts to hit something?
I tried going into the offset wizard and had not a clue what I was supposed to be looking for,whether the things were even matching the pinging or how well I was able to match the pinging.

Afterwards I tried that offset wizard map from peppy, which apparently I'm supposed to do with my eyes closed. But I wasn't even able to pass that map when my eyes were closed, missed almost all the hitcircles. With eyes open I managed an average accuracy of only 65%....Does that mean my unstable rate is horrible?

You can see your unstable rate on the result screen, if you hover the cursor over your accuracy. Choose a simple map that you can get decent accuracy on for most accurate results.
Also, I see in your profile that you play many Insane diffs with No Fail and get D ranks. Don't do that, you won't really improve quickly if you jump into complicated rhythms before you can do easier ones consistently. Try to work your way slowly up the difficulty levels and you'll notice a much more steady improvement.

Ah alright. It gave me the following unstable rates over four attempts:

-48.00 ms ~ + 20.67 ms unstable rate : 404.34
-37.68 ms ~ + 33.10 ms unstable rate :434.70
-17.00 ms ~ + 43.65 ms unstable rate: 369.0
-50.64 ms ~ 17.20 ms unstable rate: 359.44

So, I'm just bad.



I generally like playing those insanes on nofail more than I like playing easier maps, it feels I'm learning faster as well while playing those. But that could be my imagination.

While it is true that playing maps that challenge you is good for improvement, playing Insanes without a basic grasp of rhythm is actually counterprodictive.
Your aim etc. may improve that way, but your accuracy won't.

Yeah my aim does improve, as well as my reading speed. My sense of rhythm doesn't seem to improve no matter what I play.

Some more unstable rates, I'm enjoying the sight of how horrible I am at this:

Peppys offset wizard with eyes closed:
-69.36ms ~ +80.17ms
Unstable rate: 790.24
(missed more than half the notes)

Insane way above my skill level (Chata - Remind):
-31.98 ~ +45.66 ms
Unstable rate: 454.65
(missed less notes percentually than on the offset wizard)

Normal map, easily passable for me but barely played (Suzuki Konomi - Days of Dash [hard])
-33.78 ~ +24.70 ms
Unstable rate: 351.51

Normal map, easily passable for me, played so often I can dream the song ( Nudarai - Nuclear Fusion [Tritium])
-37.58 ms ~ +22.42 ms
Unstable rate: 377.67

Nuclear Fusion [Tritium] again, now played with bohemian rhapsody as the background music rather than the music you're supposed to play it with
-30.94 ms ~ + 32.52 ms
Unstable rate: 400.16

Map I've got an S rating on (Kola Kid - good old times[hard])
-32.92 ms ~ + 19.16 ms
Unstable rate: 292.70

Kola Kid - good old times[hard] again, now played with Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster on the background
-31.75 ms ~ + 19.96 ms
Unstable rate: 300.26


Conclusions: I'm better at playing a 270 bpm insane then I'm at matching a metronome sound. Difficulty of map seems to make a difference, but the differences fit within the error margins of the attempts on peppys test. The music played does not seem to make a difference. Bad across the board. Changing universal offset probably won't do a thing.

You seem to consider Nuclear Fusion [Tritium] a normal map, but that's far from the lowest difficulty in this mapset.
How's your accuracy rating on the [Protium] and [Deuterium] difficulties?
If you even can't play these well with hidden, I'd suggest starting there and working your way up.

Well usually I don't play those because they are so slow, the low AR makes accuracy much harder for me.
But here's an attempt:

Protium, no mods
Accuracy: 86.08%
-63.20 ms ~ + 39.75 ms
Unstable rating: 539.70

Protium, hidden and nofail ( )
Accuracy 35.84%
-111.65 ms ~ +37.00 ms
Unstable rating: 629.11

Tritium, hidden and nofail
Accuracy 70.05%
-51.98 ms ~ 25.31 ma
Unstable rating 458.11


Both are still quite high because of the large amounts of sliders, and tritium especially higher because I've played it so often. Here's a map with comparatively few sliders:

Steel angels - Kiss kara hajimaru miracle [hard], hidden and nofail
Accuracy 12.69%
-88.63 ms ~ +55.20 ms
Unstable rating 617.71


I'm better at WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BLACK than this...

edit:

The quick brown fox - The Big Black [WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BLACK], hidden and nofail
Accuracy 17.61%!
-31.29 ms ~ + 55.70 ms
Unstable rating 467.63

winber1 wrote:

play piano

I would recommend an instrument more traditionally a part of a rhythm section for the sake of learning rhythm alone.

Jarby wrote:

winber1 wrote:

play piano

I would recommend an instrument more traditionally a part of a rhythm section for the sake of learning rhythm alone.

bass drum big big yeah!!!

play the song in taiko mode or atleast watch the song being played in taiko mode. it should point out the rhythm by the hitsounds. As far as beat goes check the indicated BPM so you have an estimate or if you are still unsure on some parts double check those in the editor if you want

I kinda had the same problem when I started. Now, 27k plays later, I still can't really keep a rythm or play hidden. But it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. So basically, just play more and don't try to play stuff that's too hard (not getting an A is fine, but don't play stuff where you can't even get a C).

Hanyuu wrote:

play the song in taiko mode or atleast watch the song being played in taiko mode. it should point out the rhythm by the hitsounds. As far as beat goes check the indicated BPM so you have an estimate or if you are still unsure on some parts double check those in the editor if you want

I've tried this, but found myself completely unable to comprehend what was going on. Somehow I couldn't match the taiko hit circles to anything that was going on in the song nor was I able to match them to some sort of inner rhythm sense. I think I've yet to do a taiko and get more than 30% accuracy. BPM only gives me an indication whether the song is supposed to be fast, but again am unable to link it to anything in the song. I've even tried playing metronomes in the background at the same bpm, and was completely unable to find a link between the music and the beats of the metronome. Couldn't even tell whether they were actually synchronized.

I kinda had the same problem when I started. Now, 27k plays later, I still can't really keep a rythm or play hidden. But it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. So basically, just play more and don't try to play stuff that's too hard (not getting an A is fine, but don't play stuff where you can't even get a C).

Well, that's good to hear. I'll just keep trying, and maybe pick up an instrument on the way there.

For trouble reading the rhythms try practicing slower stuff like people have said. I wouldn't go too slow, because then you run into maps that have so few notes the rhythms aren't natural. Hards would be a good place to practice this. Start at low BPMs and work your way up.

For improving accuracy once you know the rhythms, really tight, really loud hitsounds are the key.

Jarby wrote:

winber1 wrote:

play piano

I would recommend an instrument more traditionally a part of a rhythm section for the sake of learning rhythm alone.

play the triangle