I'm asked quite often how to play fast. I'm sure most people who ask that question know that it won't be a simple answer. They are just hoping that maybe I can put them on the path. We are going to talk about playing fast but only focusing somewhat on physical technique.
The first instinct when trying to play fast is to hit the strings hard. What happens here though? It takes more back swing on our plucking fingers. We are also challenged with strings that are hit harder therefore vibrate in a larger way. The downfall is getting more of a percussive tone from the largely vibrating string ricocheting off the fingerboard. Another angle I find is greatly missed is, playing an instrument much of the time is about efficiency. If you get a big 'ol back swing going on with your plucking finger so you can play harder to play faster, how much longer will it take to get back to the string compared to if you were just using your moderate plucking strength. So in the end are we gaining anything by striking the strings harder? I think we're just giving ourselves a sense of dominance so we can will the bass into sounding fast. If you want it to be in time and articulate, it ain't that easy.
Allow me to retract my last sentence in the last paragraph. It is easy, as long as you don't make it difficult on yourself.
Don't get me wrong, there's moments when the bass sounds great when were beating the hell out of it. Yes, sometimes I hear a track I need to play on and I tell myself, "I think if I could pick out a bass that sounds great when I beat the hell out of it, I'll be happy with the sound." I'm not implying that you just need to feather or just scratch over the top of the strings to play fast. Pluck! Pluck but look for any points where the string resists you too much. Ask yourself if the movements on your right hand could be smaller or less exaggerated. Does your tone not sound as good as when you were playing a big open groove? Can you only get a good rolling sound when your right hand is based off the bridge pick-up because it has more tension? It shouldn't have to be that way. For some passages, I find the tone can get thin with that approach.
I'm sure a few of you have noticed that I haven't mentioned the left hand technique yet. I could write many blogs on left hand technique. To be simple, I'll leave it at a few points. Keep your thumb behind the neck and don't let it creep up over the top of it unless it's for a special technique.
The left hand does need to develop speed as well. There's two very simple ways. Firstly, focus on making the most efficient movements you can. Secondly, the strength you need to hold down your strings is dictated by how hard you are plucking with your right hand. Experiment with holding down a fret on the low "E" string. Use your everyday strength. Now pluck with your right hand lightly, then pluck progressively harder. Meanwhile, keep that left hand strength the same. You'll notice how for a lot of the right hand plucking, the note fired off just fine. As you started to pluck the string with more force, the note you were trying to hold down started to buzz. Hey! Some folks make a living with that sound.
If your right hand plucks lighter in an effort to play fast, your left hand doesn't have to hold the strings down as tight. In turn, they can move around faster as they don't have to exert as much energy.
We should touch on practicing speed or fast passages in general. Probably the most common way to develop speed is to plow through the part at full speed and let the clean and rhythmic accuracy appear over time. This is the worst, long standing, widely used practicing habit I see. Don't let your patience beat you! It IS the long way.
Let's say you have a passage in a tune that's at 160bpm. Chalk full of 8th notes and faster. Play it at the absolutely slowest you need to to play to be intelligible and clean. Make sure at that speed you can still think strait and your not just using "The Force". Find that speed your comfy with and practice with a metronome. Let's say your speed is 80bpm. Two days later, crank the metronome up only 5bpm more. At first, you'll find 5bpm fairly seamless. After a while at higher speeds you may find you need to spend a few extra days on one tempo. Even if your tempo is easy, stay there for a few days. If your already good at it, get better. In a week your speed can be up to 94bpm. You can get there with ease and you can get there playing just as clean as when you were playing slow. In a month, you can reach your goal. Two months, maybe even faster. If you are honest with your progress, these are much better results than the standard approach to gaining speed. I see a lot of people waste years just moving their hands fast thinking that over time their notes will make sense.
Speed can get frustrating and comes in different forms in music. You may work up a rhythm at one tempo, but it may not work out at the same tempo with a different rhythm. It's good to get into practicing various rhythm groupings with the metronome. It doesn't have to be a part of a song, it can just be an open string or one fretted note. If your at a lack for rhythmic exercises, ask a drummer friend, or pick up a drum rudiment book.
In this blog, I'm not diving too much into the subject matter of which direction your fingers should pluck at faster speeds. There's a lot of ways that work for many great players. I'd like to eventually spend time talking about various right hand techniques.
For myself, I use three fingers on my right hand for the really fast stuff. 1,3,2,1,3,2,1,3 etc. I always attack with my index finger as long as it's logical for the phrase I'm playing and my plucking pattern always stays in the same direction despite any variations in the rhythm. My fingers are always crawling in the same direction while using three finger technique. As of the last years, I've used two finger technique for as much as I can until I've reached my limit in speed. Tonally, I prefer it. It's also fair to mention I don't exclusively use but favor the "floating thumb" technique on my plucking hand. For those of you that don't know about "floating thumb", look into it! I will for sure do a little blog on it in the near future.
I'd love to hear from some of you who might try out some of my techniques from this blog. Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Thanks for reading and don't forget to warm up!
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