I practice with a metronome so I know that I cannot play sustained 16th note lines any faster than 108 BPM. You should try it with a ‘nome, you might be unpleasantly surprised.
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How fast can you play 16th notes?
- Thread starter IamGroot
- Start date
I can't say that I know my max speed in BPM. I don't consider myself exceptionally fast, but I've been able to play the parts to the songs my band chooses to learn. Maybe they know my limits better than I...
Let's do a challenge. Everyone who votes >140 has to post video proof of 4 notes per click.
Why would I feel surprise or any emotion whatsoever?
Do I win a gold medal or something if I can do it?
I can do 130-140 bpm with my two fingers quite comfortably. I practiced by playing "Jesus Christ Pose" and "Parallel Universe" until I could play it evenly a tempo. A good trick for those with different length fingers - angle your wrist to the left a little (towards the neck). This will set your fingers at a slight angle but will set the middle finger fingertip a little farther from the string than the index, thus having both fingertips an even distance from the string.
Because I know that certain songs require certain speed to be done correctly and I know what that speed is because I've set a metronome by the actual tempo of the song in order to work up to that speed. If you want to play something correctly, you first need to know what qualifies as correct, and correct tempo is part of that.
Just tested with a metronome, going in cold without having touched an instrument yet today. Got up to 120 bpm very comfortably using index & middle fingers only, 130 was slightly fatiguing. At 140+ I need to switch to thumb & index, and can probably get up to about 160-ish before my timing starts to fall off. Ever since I started using thumb & index on a fairly regular basis, I have had a much more comfortable time playing gigs, maybe this is part of the reason why!
Nice that you're interested in examining this. Most folks will have different numbers depending on string played and finger, if they examine closely enough.
ie. on bass guitar, keeping quality of sound and performance similar:
playing i - m on the D - G strings will give one top speed.
playing i - m on the G - D strings will give a slower top speed.
With bass guitar, our i - m combinations are better when the i plays the fatter string and the m plays the thinner string, regardless of which starts first. (On upright bass, it's the reverse.)
Also, the fatter strings are progressively less responsive than the thinner strings and will yield a lower top speed before losing sound and musical quality.
The key to this discussion is stamina, stamina means consistent flow rate.
16th notes at 200 BPM...or is that 32nd notes at 100 BPM....maybe its 8th notes at 400 BPM....the tempo is one thing, the sub-division within a tempo is another matter.
Changing sub-division with in a tempo is where players either speeds up or slows down as they change between passages of whole notes to 16th notes, rather than a consistent flow rate which is just a technique issue, where as change within a tempo is also technique but it is feel as well as a counting exercise.
As for myself....never really tried to count what I do....but it always is there when I need it
16th notes at 200 BPM...or is that 32nd notes at 100 BPM....maybe its 8th notes at 400 BPM....the tempo is one thing, the sub-division within a tempo is another matter.
Changing sub-division with in a tempo is where players either speeds up or slows down as they change between passages of whole notes to 16th notes, rather than a consistent flow rate which is just a technique issue, where as change within a tempo is also technique but it is feel as well as a counting exercise.
As for myself....never really tried to count what I do....but it always is there when I need it
My apologies for not including a carrots/I don't care option for the poll.
For those that do care, here is an example of a good daily workout to build stamina and accuracy. You can find the bass transcription using Google.
Edit....The tab may not be the best fingering for some.
For those that do care, here is an example of a good daily workout to build stamina and accuracy. You can find the bass transcription using Google.
Edit....The tab may not be the best fingering for some.
Last edited:
No, a hammer-on or pull-off does not count in this context. Looking for plucks per minute (PPM) .
