Perception of speed/tempo

Playing Technique
#1

Hi peeps, given all the discussion of ‘starting with fast’ and recent threads and critique posts with people trying to do so, made me think of some of the potential reasons why some struggle more than others and was reminded of something in my own recent experience to do with how I percieve ‘fast’. I know that I am knocking on the door of 200bpm 16ths played clean for simple scalar lines on a good day. I’m very happy about this, but plenty of work still to be done to perfect. I know that I can tremolo on the high e string at 200bpm, pretty reliably for a number of bars.

After warm-up I will get my tremolo going as fast as I can. It feels good, smooth and sounds really fast. I then check against the metronome to find that I was only playing between 160 and 170 bpm. I would then bump the metronome up to 190 or 200 and play it fine and in time.

Its like my mind and body are calibrated to play up to the 160-170 mark in the absence of external stimulus ie. a beat/metronome. For the remainder of a practice session, I could play near enough at 200bpm tremolo without the metronome as a guide, like I was re-calibrated, temporarily at least.

I distinctly remember when working on my tremolo, that I relied on my metronome, but ensured that it was bumped way outside the stringhopping zone and my capabilities at the time.

Does anyone have a similar experience? Or can you hit your top speed every time?
Do you hear music thinking its in speed ballpark A, when in fact its ball park B?

I’m keeping an eye on whether this changes over time as I improve.

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#2

I actually have the opposite problem!

When I wake up, I can tremolo 16ths at 200 pretty effortlessly (with a bit of garage spikes here and there), and that’s the tempo that I default to if I just sit down and bang on a single note. The most important warm-up exercise for me seems to be to try to translate the same motion down to 150-160.

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#3

Holy crap! You really did start with speed! Interesting. Do you always hit the same tempo and is always relatively instant?

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#4

I think we might disagree about the definition of “problem” :smiley:

I’m like @PickingApprentice, if I just sit down for some un-metered noodling I end up doing fast picked runs in the 160-170 range (guesstimate).

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#5

Interesting. If you were to pick up the guitar and maybe warm up and floor it on a tremolo (or even licks) as fast as you can, would you go past that and actually reach your highest known tempo?

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#6

Yes that is more or less what I did here, no metronome and just tried to play as fast as I could. I fear I may have misunderstood the question though :slight_smile:

Edit: and these are the attempts on guitar

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#7

more or less. The problem is that while it’s (almost) definitely a wrist motion, it becomes uncontrolled and “flip floppy” at lower speeds. Trying to do the same thing at 150 gives me huge trouble at first. This is why I’m trying to make sure my “first of the day” warmups involve playing things in that lower speed range.

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#8

Quick example. Excuse the messy room. The initial downpicking is to a metronome at 200 in my headphones. This becomes difficult to use on higher strings (without the thumb heel anchor, I have smol hands) or at medium tempos.

I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I think it’s at least partly on-topic :slight_smile:

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#9

Haha no worries, its always good to get a video in!

No I don’t think you did and that was a mean bass trem!!!
So you don’t seem to have any “false ceiling” as it were - you went full beans.

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#10

I’ve always been curious as to how musical preferences influence this. Old Metallica got me into guitar (specifically the thrash / high BPM side), and from there I kinda stayed in genres that are pretty “fast” by comparison, like hardcore punk. Most songs push into the low to mid 200 BPM range, so when I pick up a guitar, that’s pretty much the speed I default to.

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#11

Interesting, I can see how massive exposure to similar tempos might influence it, sure. Cheers for the insight

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#12

I’m gonna have to try this on a guitar myself, but here’s a somewhat related thing that definitely does happen to me: If I listen to familiar music immediately after waking up in the morning, the tempo often sounds faster than I remember it being. It catches me by surprise a lot of times, but I’m used to the sensation by now and it’s easy to recognize. After a few minutes of listening, the feeling goes away.

It doesn’t really happen any other time of the day, even if I’m sleepy in the evening for example.

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#13

That’s strange man, but cool. I often hear songs at different tempos, depending on the song played before it (only if I know the song well). You get used to the feeling of hearing the song as part of an album, e.g. where a medium tempo song sounds way more pumped after a slow one on the album, but if you hear it as part of a random compilation and after an up-tempo one, it drags like hell!

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