Learning Tool - NPS Chart

I know that metronomes aren’t all they are cracked up to be, but others may have run into the same issue I have, which is as follows:

As well as actual practice sessions, I also like to spend maybe 30 minutes jamming to backing tracks, mostly found on youtube. I want to be putting what speed I have into action in a musical sense, but I often find I have “BPM Deserts” where I avoid certain speeds because (using common subdivisions) it is either too slow to be fun, or too fast for me to play.

An example of this would be at 120bpm. It’s a nice, lively tempo for a track, but 8th notes are slow (4NPS), 16 notes are slow (8NPS), yet 16th note triplets (12NPS) are too fast. This leaves all tracks at 120 unsuitable for putting my speedy licks into action.

Going (slowly) through the synchronicity course reminded me of this chart I made a few years ago, showing the common subdivisions as well as some extra ones so that, in theory, and assuming that I practice chunking properly for 5s and 7s, I should be able to play some speedy licks at any tempo at a glance, without having to do maths.

Please let me know if this is of any use to you all :slight_smile:

N.B. There is much merit in playing without speedy licks, but that is obviously not the focus of this.

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