How fast can you play 16th notes?

[Tom Baker]

pick = pretty fast
thumb = kinda fast
fingers = sorta fast
Bow = not fast enough

YMMV

 

[eJake]

How fast can you pluck and how do you do it.

For example, i can play sustained 16th notes at 95 BPM, with bursts to 120. Doesnt matter if its single note or scale. My plucking hand is my constraint in playing fast.
I use index and middle finger.

I bet 75% of non pick replies could not crisply run 2 oct scales at 90-100bpm for two minutes.

That's Joe Dart land.

 

[waynobass]

560 bpm with one finger.

 

[Nashrakh]

With my pick, how fast do you need me to go?

Let's say 180. Assume you play Death Metal and have to play at that speed for a whole gig.

Blows my mind every time. You could technically get away with 8ths but that's not what the serious players did.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

No idea. I play at whatever tempo is called for. To be fair, nobody has ever asked me to play any speed metal.

 

[Diamond_Dave]

I bet 75% of non pick replies could not crisply run 2 oct scales at 90-100bpm for two minutes.

That's Joe Dart land.

I can run two octave scales crisply at 90 bpm because I was literally just doing it with a metronome out of curiosity. But it’s not natural or enjoyable and I have no use for it.

 

[Watchootognbout]

Not me.
But looking for a good reason to post this.
My God!My right wrist cramps up just looking at this!

 

[seanm]

I bet 75% of non pick replies could not crisply run 2 oct scales at 90-100bpm for two minutes.

That's Joe Dart land.

I was able to do 88 BPM just playing an open E.

I doubt I could play even a very simple 16th note line at 88 BPM. Luckily, I am never asked to do that

A couple of thoughts though:

• I can't think of any song I play with 16th notes, so I don't practice fast 16th notes. Practice might help.
  
• As others have mentioned, I might switch to a pick for really fast lines.
• I wonder if strings matter? Possibly harder to move a big flat E string than a thin round wound E string?

 

[dr doofie]

Not me.
But looking for a good reason to post this.
My God!My right wrist cramps up just looking at this!

Oh pshaw he’s in a laundry room!! Anyone could play that fast in a laundry room!

 

[2112]

How fast can I play 16th notes?

Twice as fast as I can play 8th notes, but only half as fast as I can play 32nd notes.

 

[dr doofie]

I was able to do 88 BPM just playing an open E.

I doubt I could play even a very simple 16th note line at 88 BPM. Luckily, I am never asked to do that

A couple of thoughts though:

• I can't think of any song I play with 16th notes, so I don't practice fast 16th notes. Practice might help.
  
• As others have mentioned, I might switch to a pick for really fast lines.
• I wonder if strings matter? Possibly harder to move a big flat E string than a thin round wound E string?

I also can’t really think of any song I would play of two octave scales, especially at that speed. Unless you play a death metal version of the “The Sound of Music” Do Re Me song...
And in my experience strings do matter... the low E is much easier to blast out fast notes, but probably just “duh-duh-duh” single note 16ths

 

[dbsfgyd1]

How fast can you pluck and how do you do it.

For example, i can play sustained 16th notes at 95 BPM, with bursts to 120. Doesnt matter if its single note or scale. My plucking hand is my constraint in playing fast.
I use index and middle finger.

That’s fairly quick. I really never time myself, but even at soon to be 67, I seem to be able to hit all the note as fast as I need them. Being perfectly honest, I don’t play a lot of songs that require that much speed, and if I did with the EQ required for the bands I play, 95 plus would tend to blur.

 

[Eidolon0274]

Faster than anybody here. That's why I'm a number one session bassist. Speed. Oh and notes. Lots.

But really, I can play them faster than I've ever needed to. Not really an accomplishment but if I can play that fast my hands dont get tired on normal stuff

 

[LBS-bass]

I learned my current limits trying to duplicate JPJ in the Immigrant Song. Can't do it. I can approach it, but it will likely take me months of work to get up to that speed which, IIRC, is 115. So I put 80-100.

However, we played this song in rehearsal the other night and I faked that part. No one noticed.

 

[kevindahl]

I learned my current limits trying to duplicate JPJ in the Immigrant Song. Can't do it. I can approach it, but it will likely take me months of work to get up to that speed which, IIRC, is 115. So I put 80-100.

However, we played this song in rehearsal the other night and I faked that part. No one noticed.

That song is a good measure for sure. I assume the OP is asking for steady 16ths for longer durations like Immigrant song. YYZ is at 144 bpm I believe and it's doable but the phrases are much shorter.

 

[LBS-bass]

That song is a good measure for sure. I assume the OP is asking for steady 16ths for longer durations like Immigrant song. YYZ is at 144 bpm I believe and it's doable but the phrases are much shorter.

Yeah, that's my measure of success. If I can't sustain it through an entire passage, I can't really "do" it.

 

[SactoBass]

Excellent! I'm gonna try that next time our band plays "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor.

 

[Watchootognbout]

Excellent! I'm gonna try that next time our band plays "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor.

There's a Meshuggah version?

 

[dr doofie]

I can run two octave scales crisply at 90 bpm because I was literally just doing it with a metronome out of curiosity. But it’s not natural or enjoyable and I have no use for it.

And if it ain’t natural or enjoyable it IS useless!!

 

[Element Zero]

I’ve got no clue. Fast enough. And if not, I’ll grab a pick.