I Wanna Play Faster.

[theroan]

I'm not afraid of some hard work and I know I should play with a metronome, I just know WHAT to play! Can anyone recommend some songs, artists, educational resources or exercises I could do so that I can increase the speed of solo bass parts in finger style?

I know people think Christian music is lame but there is song by Hillsong United called Salvation Is Here and towards the end there is a really fast bass part, that is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Fast and intricate.

[tZer]

To play faster, practice slower and use that metronome. As for what to play? Use that very part you are trying to get under you fingers to start.

but there is song by Hillsong United called Salvation Is Here

Nothing like having an actual, real-world goal to make your practice that much more productive!

Finally, be patient and focus on accuracy and connecting with the metronome when you practice. Don't permit yourself to speed up the beat until you've gotten the part absolutely perfect. That means not permitting the "OK, yeah... I missed that one note, but the rest was OK" CLICK - Nope... Perfect means perfect and you know better than anyone if you are taking shortcuts.

Set the metronome painfully slow and learn to LOVE getting the notes exactly where they belong with the correct feeling - even at that painfully slow pace. If you are playing the part slow but with an attitude of "this sucks... I wanna be faster!" then you're missing the point. Learn to revel in getting it dead on perfect at the really slow paces, then slowly increase the speed. With each increase follow the same protocol - do not allow yourself to up the tempo until this tempo has been conquered.

Before you know it, you'll have whatever part you're working on up to speed. But better yet - you'll have it up to speed and under control - which is the point. Speed for speed's sake is for losers. LOL

[JimmyM]

+1 for tZer. Start painfully slow and gradually increase speed but not until you've perfected it at each previous speed.

[cnltb]

What they said.

[UncleBalsamic]

What everyone else said.

[theroan]

Ok any actual bass parts?

[unclekebm]

Originally Posted by theroan

Ok any actual bass parts?

make up your own

+what everyone else said

[JimmyM]

Want us to play the bass for you, too?

Make up your own or go find some. They're all over the place.

[Pacman]

In Bass, as in combat, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

[Correlli]

I don't get the "smooth is fast" bit sorry. But yeah, start slow

[tswd]

Originally Posted by theroan

Ok any actual bass parts?

You can play anything faster or slower. Take slow songs, perfect them at their normal speed, then start speeding them up. For example, try to get Silent Night up to 180 bpm and see how it goes.

[needmoney]

Do what others have said with the metronome. As for what to play, chromatic permutations, scales, sequences, transcriptions, anything. Just keep it slow and work your way up with the bpm.

[cnltb]

...what we've said...

[soontobedead]

Originally Posted by Pacman

In Bass, as in combat, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

QUOTED.

[Ric5]

I find a pick helps me play fast and clean, Sometimes I play fingerstyle to slow my playing down. The reason I am so fast with a pick is I practiced playing really fast and clean over and over again.

[Stumbo]

Get some "slow-downer" software so you can play the song at the slow speed and learn it perfectly. Then speed up the tempo, then rinse and repeat...until you're at speed.

[Liberty Citizen]

I'd suggest the Hanon piano book. Look for it in the Janek Gwizdala forum. It is very "un-bassistic" at times and will force you to use fingerings and learn patterns that will question your understanding of fingerboard geometry. If you have problems muting unused strings, barring or crossing strings, it will be painfully evident. The Gary Willis video can help with visual and aural examples of economy of motion.

[Pacman]

Originally Posted by soontobedead

QUOTED.

Sweet! I believe that's my first.

[Hemispheres85]

Playing fast doesn't mean you're a great musician just to let you know. Everything you play and can do technically must be for some musical purpose or it's pointless, just to impress.

If you want to improve your ability to play fast passages accurately, play all 2 octave major scales. Part to make sure you have an efficient hand position and to part because they're good for speed if you start slow and work the metronome up slowly

[soontobedead]

Originally Posted by Pacman

Sweet! I believe that's my first.

T'was really yoda-like