| I don't know if I can tell you anything you don't alreay know, but here's some things that have helped me get comfortable on up tempo tunes. First try to stay relaxed as much as possible--you don't have to tug too hard. Another thing that I think keeps people from relaxing is worrying too much about what they are playing in the left hand. The more comfortable you are improvising lines (or playing some memorized lines) quickly, the easier it is to relax. I also know that I play some total garbage sometimes on fast tunes, but that's better than letting the tune fall apart. Ray Brown repeats a lot of notes and uses lots of open strings when he plays fast tunes.
If you start to get tired, then you should attack the string differently. If you're trying to use one finger, then maybe you could switch to another finger, use both fingers at once, or alternate for a little while. I don't know what kind of motion you use with your right hand, but I tend to use more wrist on high tempos. It's kind of an elliptical motion with my finger coming up out of the string instead of across it. It feels like my hand is rocking back and forth.
Probably the thing that has helped me the most is just doing it a lot. Doing open string exercises is good, but why not just practice playing tunes fast? You're going to have to coordinate both hands anyway. Practice playing fast with the metronome and always try to do a few burning tunes on each gig.
Oh yeah--make sure that you are always plenty warmed up before you start some tune at warp speed.
Last edited by TomSauter : 12-23-2005 at 10:05 PM.
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