marrkus
10-04-2006, 09:42 PM
I have a question about speed as a rhythm player. I'm not even sure how to phrase it because I know it's purely a matter of opinion, but I'll try.
When I am just improvising or jamming, I tend to play much faster than most of the music I listen to. When I am playing heavier stuff like single note riffs, power chords, octaves, etc I like to play around the 130-170bmp range (8th notes not 16ths). When I sit down to learn a piece of music, I find the tempos are more in the 70-120bmp range. I think this is because of the challenge -- not so much because I prefer the sound at fast speeds. I don't practice them as slower speeds because I feel I've got the technique down cold at slower tempos.
So the question is do I continue practicing -- striving for speed that I'll probably not use in a musical context or just say "I can downpick 8th notes up to 180bmp. That's good enough for me."
I realize tempo varies with different styles of music and I certainly don't think my rhythm playing is fast but I am not sure if I should continue to push my speed on these techniques if I'm not really into shred, metal and other generally fast paced music. I'm a big fan of metal guitar riffs, but don't really listen to a lot of metal as a whole.
Here's an example. I started practicing my galloping technique -- about 5 months ago, I started at about 70bmp. Since then I've worked my way up to 150 and when warmed up properly I can get to about 170 before it really falls apart. Should I continue pushing this or just say 150-170 is probably more than I'll actually play gallops (my original goal was 130) and move onto something else?
Are there certain tempos most of you play at? I set goals for myself and when I meet them I almost always keep pushing beyond it, but I wonder if it's worthwhile or if I'm obsessing over one technique when I could be learning others.
I don't want to become one of those "speed is everything" type players.
When I am just improvising or jamming, I tend to play much faster than most of the music I listen to. When I am playing heavier stuff like single note riffs, power chords, octaves, etc I like to play around the 130-170bmp range (8th notes not 16ths). When I sit down to learn a piece of music, I find the tempos are more in the 70-120bmp range. I think this is because of the challenge -- not so much because I prefer the sound at fast speeds. I don't practice them as slower speeds because I feel I've got the technique down cold at slower tempos.
So the question is do I continue practicing -- striving for speed that I'll probably not use in a musical context or just say "I can downpick 8th notes up to 180bmp. That's good enough for me."
I realize tempo varies with different styles of music and I certainly don't think my rhythm playing is fast but I am not sure if I should continue to push my speed on these techniques if I'm not really into shred, metal and other generally fast paced music. I'm a big fan of metal guitar riffs, but don't really listen to a lot of metal as a whole.
Here's an example. I started practicing my galloping technique -- about 5 months ago, I started at about 70bmp. Since then I've worked my way up to 150 and when warmed up properly I can get to about 170 before it really falls apart. Should I continue pushing this or just say 150-170 is probably more than I'll actually play gallops (my original goal was 130) and move onto something else?
Are there certain tempos most of you play at? I set goals for myself and when I meet them I almost always keep pushing beyond it, but I wonder if it's worthwhile or if I'm obsessing over one technique when I could be learning others.
I don't want to become one of those "speed is everything" type players.