Notes start sounding weird played at high speeds

I’ve been trying to push a speed burst exercise (simple tremolo) to 280bpm and I started noticing something weird. When I try playing four sixteenth I feel that I’m playing sixteenth notes but it sounds to me kinda like a triplet, if I try playing triplets I feel the triplets but it kinda sound like eight notes and so on. Has anyone experienced something similar?

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I think this is what we in the business call a “humblebrag”. :slight_smile:

Nice work! Few players, probably me included, will ever get anywhere near that kind of speed. Why do things sound weird? Probably because you’re playing super, stupid fast!

If you really would like to know, film yourself in 240fps with a lot of light and see what happens. Otherwise, you’re just guessing as to what’s going on.

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I’ll try filming it as soon as I find a half-decent phone, I tried recording it with my potato camera and the results weren’t great. Playing that fast doesn’t really sound any good if I’m being honest, I can’t really play intricate lines or anything musical at that speed. I’m trying to experiment with an idea John Petrucci mentioned in Rock Discipline.

I am of the opinion that there is such a thing as an awesome sounding tremolo - smooth, fast, even attack. It’s a thing of beauty. I’ve mentioned this before but @Brendan on our team is not officially a guitar player but occasionally experiments with the hyperpicking movement for fun. He can hit speeds well beyond what I can, and it sounds really cool.

Accept nothing less than smoothness!

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Would love to see video of that :slight_smile:

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