RB3: "Free Bird" Expert Pro Keys FC (Disc)

One of the core tenets of the five-fret genre: you always have another "Free Bird" FC to do somewhere. "Llama" is harder, but this chart is probably more annoying to FC. "Free Bird" lasting nearly ten minutes is always gonna make things more of a headache than necessary -- doubly so that the second half is the more problematic part. This pro keys chart is essentially 50% chord sustains and arpeggios, 50% chord riffs with fast repeated notes. Neither of these patterns are entirely free, but the latter is of course a lot more missable. The slow section has the occasional glissando or fill to watch out for, but it's mainly a matter of learning the arpeggios and then not stumbling on a nothingburger somewhere. This chart has one subtle troll waiting to ruin everyone's day at 4:48. That unison sucks and the part right after it is even worse. Those grace notes like to drop, and overhitting that glissando after the lone D happens constantly. It's kind of like "Centerfold" where the first and last notes are outside the glissando, making the timing super precise. I had a bunch of runs die in that transition, which is of course super upsetting because you've now wasted five minutes getting to the solo only to lose the FC right off the bat. The fast part has a few recurring chord riffs to watch out for. The lower chord shapes are pretty easy to get down, but the recurring chord fills like at 5:04 and 7:12 are pretty annoying, especially when they transition directly into the weird C#/D chord parts. Those high chord sections caused me a bit more trouble not only because of the awkward C#/D shapes but also with the addition of more grace notes to worry about. At 6:47, the chart teases the next problem to worry about with these strumming-type repeated-note riffs. This first iteration isn't too bad, only really riding G notes, but it gets a lot worse during the drum roll section (7:33). Not technically that complicated or difficult, but certainly annoying to play and very missable eight minutes into a song you probably don't really want to be playing in the first place. Oh yeah, and that bit ends with another picky glissando (8:24), which I did choke once on that leftover A. Luckily, the final minute is pretty simple, but getting there is a major pain. Is this the third-hardest pro keys FC on the disc? Maybe. It was the third-last one I needed to do, but I also put off learning it for ages because I knew it would suck to grind. At the very least, I think "Smoke on the Water" is technically harder, but learning that one feels way more rewarding. You could probably argue for a couple others to at least be on par with "Free Bird" in terms of raw difficulty, but it is just super unappealing (as usual) to sit through this one, especially when you can't even rely on it being a one-and-done.