100%, But not #1... Where's the Extra Points?

[gdBOOM]

Let me try this again. I am ranked #1 on the DRUM leaderboards for five songs. The first is, of course, Her Majesty, which EVERYBODY is ranked #1 on. (side note - even though the drum part is only worth 75 points, I'm annoyed that it doesn't give gold stars on Expert). The other songs are Michelle (score: 79,275 - total at #1: 1958); Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Score: 94,875 - total at #1: 265); Norwegian Wood (Score: 19,625 - 712 ranked #1); and In My Life (score: 55,575 - 620 ranked #1).

There's 8 songs on which I consistently hit 100% of the notes, but can't seem to get all the points needed to join the #1 ranking. The one I've been working on the longest is Hard Day's Night. The best score I can manage is 126,675. The top score is 127,075. The difference is 400 points, but I just can't figure out how to get those extra 400 points. When I build my energy, I actually wind up with a lower score at song's end, because each time you let the trigger pass, you miss out on the value of the notes that the trigger replaced. My rank is 419, but nobody has a score BETWEEN 126,675 and 127,075. There's 418 people ranked #1 on that song. If any of them could tell me the secret to getting the extra points, it would be most appreciated.

The other songs I've been scoring 100% on, and the point difference between my score and the top score are as follows:
Yellow Submarine - 400 point difference
Getting Better - 200 points
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - 4,000 points
Drive My Car - 100 point difference
Do You Want To Know A Secret - 100 point difference
Girl - 500 point difference
If I Needed Someone - 2,900 point difference

Any ideas?

[nascarfan19]

I think it just comes to a lot of testing with overdrive. Overdrive is the only way people with 100% get higher or lower on the leaderboards, so if there's a part with more notes, that's a good place to use overdrive.

Some songs like the ones you mentioned are some that overdrive patterns don't make a difference. You could basically just hit overdrive at first allowance and get top score.

[ricecake]

It's probably due to squeezing. I'm not sure if front-end squeezing works on TB:RB, but I'm pretty sure back-end squeezing still does.

Front-end squeezing is hitting the hidden note(s) under a Beatlemania-activating green hit. For example, suppose that in the regular song (like if you played in practice mode, or if you didn't have enough Beatlemania to activate at that point), there is a green+bass charted. Now let's say that you are playing normally, and that green+bass note is instead covered by a Beatlemania activation note. To front-end squeeze, you would hit the green to activate Beatlemania slightly early, at which point the hidden green+bass get uncovered. It's tricky, but you can then hit the green+bass once they are exposed. Like I said, I'm not sure if this method works on the Beatles game, since it no longer works in RB3.

Back-end squeezing is almost the opposite. Basically, you activate Beatlemania slightly late. Then at the very end when Beatlemania is just about to run out, sometimes you can hit the last note slightly early in order to "squeeze" it in to the double-points time.

[gdBOOM]

Wow, now that's some advice I think I can use! Thanks! I've never heard of squeezing before, so I'll give these a try and see what I can come up with.

Update: Oct 4, 2011 - Okay, I've been trying this "squeezing" thing, both front- and back-end, and have been completely unsuccessful with it. I haven't even seen any indication that it even could work. I wish someone would make a video demonstrating this technique, if it's real!

I've also noticed that, at least on A Hard Day's Night, I can play it exactly the same way twice, not miss any notes and never lose my score multiplier, and yet I'll sometimes still end up with a slightly LOWER score on one of them.