How Fast Can You Play?

[SSINTENSE]

I really can't play abnormally fast and I am fine with it.

So let's change the progression of this thread a little...how DO you play fast if you only play with your index and middle?

 

[SSINTENSE]

The best I can probably do is about 16ths at 120...and that's probably not completely clean either.

 

[jaywa]

There's also the whole deal of, are those 16th notes at 120 all the same note, or are you playing 16th note patterns across three, four or five strings at that tempo? The second scenario is infinitely more challenging than the 1st.

 

[Kobaia]

16th at 200bpm no sweat. 225bpm i lose the consistency and cleanlyness

 

[GeneralElectric]

I can play Donna Lee a little faster than it was recorded. I'm working on Flight of the Bumble Bee right now, but I never play that fast with others, there isn't a point to it. I'm just trying to keep my fingers limber.

 

[vin*tone]

Yep. It sounds like a bunch of wankery. Too much emphasis on speed, nothing said about accuracy.:scowl:

agreed.
Rubbish fast = Rubbish slow.

 

[ZonGuy]

16ths LINES at 120bpm (not just the same note) and clean. Faster bursts. In any case, more than fast enough for my playing and soloing.

 

[emor]

It's well-known in Jazz, that it's much harder to play convincingly on a really slow ballad, than it is to play fast - where the detail is blurred and it is easier to get away with bum notes and the limits of your technique are not laid as bare for close scrutiny...

Anyone ever posted a "How Slow Can You Play" thread?

Listen to the drummer and bass player hang together in Drown In My Own Tears by Ray Charles.

 

[totallyfrozen]

Yep. It sounds like a bunch of wankery. Too much emphasis on speed, nothing said about accuracy.:scowl:

HA! HA!
+10
This is the dumbest thread ever...but you get bonus points for using the word "wankery"...that's just friggin hilarious!

That word is just SO incredibly British that I can't help but break a rib when I read that!

Who cares how fast you can play. I don't think Johnny Cash's bass player EVER played 2 notes fast...but people like to dance to that music (and I'm NOT a Country music fan by any stretch). The FEEL is ALL THAT MATTERS.

 

[Metal Mitch]

To give some proof here is a video of another TBer named Erlend Caspersen playing 16th notes @ 250 bpm.

that's an old one... it's sloppy as hell and it ain't 16ths. its triplets.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

feh.

Fast bass playing is for prog rock / metal. It's like double-bass drum playing. It's for kids.

The *ability* to play a fast run is another thing altogether... But just playing fast... Well, if you can play a fast run, you can play plenty fast. 16th notes at about 180bpm is the most you should ever have to manage - after that it's just noise.

 

[Rocky McDougall]

I have played for over 40 years and I have never had any need for speed. I am the rhythm, I am the beat, I am the groove. If I needed to play fast, I would play the guitar.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

I have played for over 40 years and I have never had any need for speed. I am the rhythm, I am the beat, I am the groove. If I needed to play fast, I would play the guitar.

WAY +1

 

[Sonicfrog]

Play fast? I do ok, but my version of fast is probably medium at best to others. Never timed it anyhow.

Besides, you know how they call Eric Clapton slow hand? I'm so slow, they call me dead hand!!!

One interesting thing I do when playing my version of fast, instead of using index and middle fingers, I use the third finger instead of middle. It seems to produce a more even and articulate set of notes than with index and middle.

 

[Metal Mitch]

feh.

Fast bass playing is for prog rock / metal. It's like double-bass drum playing. It's for kids.

It's a musical idea. You don't like it, that's your business and nobody else's. It's not any less valid of a musical idea.

This thread is about fast playing. Why did you bother posting.

 

[Implosion]

that's an old one... it's sloppy as hell and it ain't 16ths. its triplets.

An old one for sure. But if it were 8th note triplets at 250 bpm, wouldn't it be the same as 16th notes at 187.5 bpm? Sounds faster than that to me. The playing might be floating at that speed, but my point originally was just to show that there are people even on this forum who can play fast.

feh.

Fast bass playing is for prog rock / metal. It's like double-bass drum playing. It's for kids.

The *ability* to play a fast run is another thing altogether... But just playing fast... Well, if you can play a fast run, you can play plenty fast. 16th notes at about 180bpm is the most you should ever have to manage - after that it's just noise.

Actually I had to look up one of my old posts for this one and it was quite amusing to notice that it was from a thread about metal and I commented on something that BigOldHarry said. It was about metal being for kids and people will eventually grow out of it. I guess it fits here also so I'll just re-post it.

My all-time favourite argument in music conversations is the "you'll grow out of it". Could you give an exact age or an event or an occasion in life when this will happen? Does it happen when you get married/got a kid on the way/get a mortage and move to the suburbs/get your postgraduate degree? No wait...now I got it. It's got to be when you turn 30, because that's the only thing I haven't done and I'm still playing lame angry white teen music.

 

[El Bajo]

Around 130bpm 16ths over a pattern. Some times th guitarist wants me to double osm of his fills so i just legato want I can't play. I've got away with it so far but unfortunatly we have recording coming up so i don't know how I'm going to manage that one. Does anybody have tips on actualy getting faster?

 

[Skeet]

On a good day 2 fingers i can cleanly do 16th Root notes at 140 bpm and 3 fingers, non triplets 16th notes at 160-170 on a good day on warming up, working to hit 200 or so, I can hit 200 I think... or so but very badly and unclean.

 

[Basshammer]

I meet bassists all the time that say they can play 16th notes at incredible tempos, and that's all well and good but I don't really care unless I can hear or see a recording or video of them playing what they claim to be able to play. I just get the feeling that there is some exaggerating going on, or that sometimes people think they're playing faster than they actually are. It becomes hard to count 16ths at fast tempos, and just because you're tapping your foot to the beat and plucking as fast as possible doesn't mean you're playing four even notes per beat.

Anyway, what I'd really like to know is how fast some of the established players out there can play, and what techniques are they using to get there? For example, could any of you give me an estimate as to what Billy Sheehan's top 16th note speed is, or Jeff Berlin's, or Bill Dickens's? That's some info I'd be interested in.

 

[Beginner Bass]

Who gives a crap?!

So what if you can play 4096th notes with 1 finger. No gig you'll ever do would have even the slightest use for that. When gigtime comes around, if you can't keep the beat, the only record you'll be setting is quickest booing off the stage due to one person.

There's a reason guitarists suck at bass. They can be Kirk Hammett or Miley Cyrus, they'll do the same at bass, i.e. sucking. Rythym is more important then speed in bass.