With pick and fingers? I know that you put taste and groove ahead of speed anyday, but im just really curious!
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Whats your fastest bpm for straight 16th notes?
- Thread starter BrandonBass
- Start date
Id be very surprised to find out that he sits with a Metronome trying to play as fast as he can trying to beat some score.
this is up there with questions about how you think double-thumb slap sounds from an active boutique ibanez 6 string electronics compare conklin's bill dickens 7 sting when played in a temperate climate, outside, under a full moon, on a tuesdays in july, when played through a markbass jeff berlin combo.
Interesting question.......
IMO, this is impossible to answer because unique playing situations tend to expose unique physical limitations.
Let's say Bassist no. 1 walks in and boasts, "I can do 16ths at 200 BPM!"
I ask, well, what the heck does that even mean?
Playing outdoors vs. indoors, at a dive bar gig or on a big audition, at loud volumes or soft, hammering one note or playing lines, listening to the rest of the band very carefully or focusing on your part alone, how deeply you have internalized the music........There are so many things that will affect your ability to play those 16ths at 200.
And then there's the actual playing! How
much dynamic control do you have? Can you think "long meter" and not **** up (i.e. count 1, 2, 3, 4 at the beginning of each measure or every 4 bars)? Can you play a variety if styles at that tempo? Can you improvise a part? How about sight reading?
Bassist no. 2 is thinking about all of these things and more...his internal setting conditions, those of the music, the band, the venue, and the gig itself.....He can probably play a hell of a lot more "impressively" than he generally does....But he knows that those 16ths at 200 (which he can probably execute better than bassist no.1) sound a bit uneven compared to the lines he's playing right now....And sturdy, simple parts are better for the band. He anticipates when the drummer might hurry or slow down a bit, takes a breath and listens intently before the vocalist sings, creating a nice soft pocket around him....He hears the guitarist play a II chord rather than a V...and meets him halfway with a dominant pedal...all the while he is aware of the delicate balance neccessary in the frequency spectrum and the rhythmic hierarchy to make it all sound "grooving" and makes subtle adjustments here and there mostly by instinct......
Bassist no. 1 probably doesn't think much of bassist no. 2.
But by now, no. 2 has made his peace with the fact that his work is mostly anonymous....yet richly rewarding.
Bassist no. 2 probably has a gig.
IMO, this is impossible to answer because unique playing situations tend to expose unique physical limitations.
Let's say Bassist no. 1 walks in and boasts, "I can do 16ths at 200 BPM!"
I ask, well, what the heck does that even mean?
Playing outdoors vs. indoors, at a dive bar gig or on a big audition, at loud volumes or soft, hammering one note or playing lines, listening to the rest of the band very carefully or focusing on your part alone, how deeply you have internalized the music........There are so many things that will affect your ability to play those 16ths at 200.
And then there's the actual playing! How
much dynamic control do you have? Can you think "long meter" and not **** up (i.e. count 1, 2, 3, 4 at the beginning of each measure or every 4 bars)? Can you play a variety if styles at that tempo? Can you improvise a part? How about sight reading?
Bassist no. 2 is thinking about all of these things and more...his internal setting conditions, those of the music, the band, the venue, and the gig itself.....He can probably play a hell of a lot more "impressively" than he generally does....But he knows that those 16ths at 200 (which he can probably execute better than bassist no.1) sound a bit uneven compared to the lines he's playing right now....And sturdy, simple parts are better for the band. He anticipates when the drummer might hurry or slow down a bit, takes a breath and listens intently before the vocalist sings, creating a nice soft pocket around him....He hears the guitarist play a II chord rather than a V...and meets him halfway with a dominant pedal...all the while he is aware of the delicate balance neccessary in the frequency spectrum and the rhythmic hierarchy to make it all sound "grooving" and makes subtle adjustments here and there mostly by instinct......
Bassist no. 1 probably doesn't think much of bassist no. 2.
But by now, no. 2 has made his peace with the fact that his work is mostly anonymous....yet richly rewarding.
Bassist no. 2 probably has a gig.
I mean I don't want to answer for Justin and all, but if I had to guess, the answer would probably be "blue".
Interesting question.......
IMO, this is impossible to answer because unique playing situations tend to expose unique physical limitations.
Let's say Bassist no. 1 walks in and boasts, "I can do 16ths at 200 BPM!"
I ask, well, what the heck does that even mean?
Playing outdoors vs. indoors, at a dive bar gig or on a big audition, at loud volumes or soft, hammering one note or playing lines, listening to the rest of the band very carefully or focusing on your part alone, how deeply you have internalized the music........There are so many things that will affect your ability to play those 16ths at 200.
And then there's the actual playing! How
much dynamic control do you have? Can you think "long meter" and not **** up (i.e. count 1, 2, 3, 4 at the beginning of each measure or every 4 bars)? Can you play a variety if styles at that tempo? Can you improvise a part? How about sight reading?
Bassist no. 2 is thinking about all of these things and more...his internal setting conditions, those of the music, the band, the venue, and the gig itself.....He can probably play a hell of a lot more "impressively" than he generally does....But he knows that those 16ths at 200 (which he can probably execute better than bassist no.1) sound a bit uneven compared to the lines he's playing right now....And sturdy, simple parts are better for the band. He anticipates when the drummer might hurry or slow down a bit, takes a breath and listens intently before the vocalist sings, creating a nice soft pocket around him....He hears the guitarist play a II chord rather than a V...and meets him halfway with a dominant pedal...all the while he is aware of the delicate balance neccessary in the frequency spectrum and the rhythmic hierarchy to make it all sound "grooving" and makes subtle adjustments here and there mostly by instinct......
Bassist no. 1 probably doesn't think much of bassist no. 2.
But by now, no. 2 has made his peace with the fact that his work is mostly anonymous....yet richly rewarding.
Bassist no. 2 probably has a gig.
thanks for the interesting story...tho i didnt manage to read everything. But i think i get your point. Like I said, I know justin is someone who puts groove ahead of chops, and id much listen to bassplayers like that than the 400bpm people. Jus curious how fast he can go at full throttle
- Oct 29, 2005
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- Oct 7, 2000
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- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,939
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
I can play so fast that it distorts the time-space continuum around my bass, interfering with the normal operation of metronomes/clocks/timers/stopwatches/hourglasses so I couldn't tell you with any degree of accuracy. I can state confidently that you'd need scientific notation to express it numerically.
