How fast should a competent bass player be able to play sixteenth notes

[Mr.Ace]

This might be too fast for any actual use.

Wow! That’s a weird look corvette

 

[jeepsk8]

I have a song at church coming up, the whole song is 16th's at 100 bpm. I just cannot hang with that. Bought a delay and play 1/8th's and it passes for 16th's. If it was just 4 bars I could get along with it, but no, the whole song!

 

[Alfonso Alba]

124 bpm, I think.... with a pick, though:

 

[pbass74]

As Groove Doctor suggests, try it with a pick.

 

[ole Jason]

Keep in mind playing with a pick introduces a whole different can of worms when you get into moving between the strings. Guitarists obsess over picking direction, economy picking, etc. for very good reason. It isn't easy to just grab a pick and start knocking out fast runs.

Your question is something that people on here often bristle about. It's hard to say why, speed for no reason other than speed can still be an effective musical tool. Some genres necessitate fast playing and we shouldn't be so quick to judge people who want to push the limits of their chops.

All that said, yeah 100-115bpm will almost certainly get it done unless you're gigging certain types of jazz or genres of metal. As several people have alluded to, being able to play those speeds over the course of an entire song is a different matter than doing a quick flourish here and there.

 

[Bassbeater]

Just pluck one long single note, then move your fingers in a blur above the strings and the guitar player will leave you alone.

 

[CryingBass]

To answer more directly:
"What is Hip " is variously reported at 105 -110 bpm, and Rocco Prestia is arguably competent.

Rocco is probably one of the best performances on that video, and the camera guys didn't get it!

 

[Frampton]

I’d say about half the duration of an eighth note

 

[CryingBass]

If they are money notes, play really fast

 

[HolmeBass]

I may not be competent, but I can only go continuous 16ths at around 100 to 108 bpm depending on how intricate the line. Funny enough, I am a bit faster changing notes than just playing the same note, so I think the hammer-on/pull-off aspect of note changing helps me even though I am trying to pluck every note.

If I had a part with strings of endless 16ths I'd probably finally start working on my pick technique for real, and hope the part doesn't have too much string skipping.

The plucking speedsters, Mr. World Record holder excepted perhaps, use either a 3-finger or 4-finger plucking technique. That world record thing sounded terrible. It wasn't just the playing, which seemed pointless, it was even more the recording, which was atrocious.

 

[stigbeve]

I've also noticed that often times fast, repeated 16th notes get lost into one big muddy mess on bass.

Especially when matching the guitar(s). You cancel yourself out.

 

[CryingBass]

I have never heard any "thick" 16th notes over the years. Except maybe on upright.

But then again, I don't think any of the metal guys have chimed in yet

 

[40Hz]

As fast as necessary for the song.

Bingo!

At the speed called for in the tempo
of the song. Not a nanosecond faster or slower.

 

[Bassquest]

With a razor sharp pick?

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

i can play a sixteenth note at any tempo, no matter how fast. As long as I only have to play just one.

 

[MDBass]

So heres an oddball question - how fast should a competent bass player be able to play sixteenth notes. The context is rock, pop, funk and jazz and not any extreme forms of metal.
Is 100bpm a good measure, or can an accomplished bassists hit 120bpm or higher?

Depends entirely on context.

For a measure, for the entire song with no breaks, or somewhere in between?

Every note plucked, or using hammer ons and pull offs?

There's also a pretty significant difference between being able to just barely pull off a part and playing it with feeling and dynamics.

What Is Hip? is a pretty solid bar to aim for though

 

[IamGroot]

Normally 120 will get you in the door. Barracuda is 135 with a gallop 16th.
I had a 140 bpm 16th cross string part on a contemporary christian solo that i couldnt nail and they had to bring in somebody else for the performance. I lost work after that partly for that reason. Worse, i crippled myself for several weeks and swung over to a pick.

 

[mikewalker]

Did somebody say SIXTEENTH NOTES??? Speaking of the subdivision of the beat, I have always maintained that it is not how fast you play a continuous string of notes that matters, but rather how fast you can precisely TIME them.

In theory, your consciousness operates at something close to the speed of light. So at any given BPM, you should be able to MENTALLY subdivide the beat damn-near out to INFINITY, right.

So if you and the drummer can agree to play only the 1st, 37th, 191st, 241st, and 163rd two-hundred-fifty-sixth notes in every bar... you should sound PRETTY FRICKN TIGHT, don't ya think? Maybe it's awkward to consciously COUNT OUT LOUD that fast, but I'm pretty sure that the really good musicians among us can "feel" the subtleties of near-infinite-beat-division, and sometimes the planets align to the point that we can 'lock in' to agree on them during a performance...

 

[IamGroot]

Go get a metronome and practice "What is Hip" 5min x 2/day at a speed that you play absolutely correct. Then bump the tempo 1 to 2 bpm each day. Ditto for River People and Kuru by Jaco. One more tune, maybe "Insanity" by a metal group. Need to dig the part out.

 

[HolmeBass]

Normally 120 will get you in the door. Barracuda is 135 with a gallop 16th.
I had a 140 bpm 16th cross string part on a contemporary christian solo that i couldnt nail and they had to bring in somebody else for the performance. I lost work after that partly for that reason. Worse, i crippled myself for several weeks and swung over to a pick.

I always figured Barracuda was a picked bass part. But some guys can gallop really fast with their fingers, so I guess it could be plucked.