Processing Faster Tempos, Endurance

Playing Technique
#1

TLDR: is it a matter of building up endurance, or does it take your brain a while to get used to playing at faster tempos than what you’re used to? Both?

Hello everyone. I’ve been working on alternate picking 3NPS scale patterns. I had a breakthrough a few days ago when I realized descending seemed like a breeze and was fluent every time, but ascending seemed to get me tripped up. After messing with pick angle, depth, escape, etc., I managed to find a way to make the ascending pattern feel as smooth and dependable as the descending pattern. I’ve been able to top out at 180 BPM doing 16th note 3NPS patterns from string 5 to string 1 back to string 5, but it seems that:

A. I can only get one in 5 or so cycles in while fully keeping in time (when I get one full cycle in, I can generally do multiple loops before I break tempo).

AND

B. When I’ve recorded some of these sessions, some of the parts that “felt” like they were in time…weren’t.

Does it just take time for a person’s brain to adjust to playing at faster tempos than what they’re used to, or is it an endurance thing that takes time to build up? Both?

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#2

Hey there. Good observations. My take:

It is mostly your brain and nervous system. At higher speeds “chunking” is important. If you’ve not heard that term yet let me know and I’ll link to one of the CtC videos.

“Endurance” usually means that your body is still sorting things out, that things haven’t quite gelled at that tempo. When things are balanced, all your nerves fire at precise times, and antagonistic muscles aren’t opposing each other. If something is off, your body will tense up as it tries to adjust and meet the requirements of fast motion. Does that make sense?

Now, I do feel that there is a small muscle component involved! Your muscles need to respond quickly and accurately to the nerve impulses. But those are tiny muscles, not big ones. And they get can tire pretty quickly, so keep at it.

Recording yourself is super, keep that up!

1 Like
#3

I really appreciate your feedback, thank you!