Not bad… I cant do that… Yea, i can do faster than that, but i cant do whatou were doing that fast. Now, theres a difference between naturally going fast and really pushing it. It seemed clear that you were pushingit to go fast instead of going faster naturally, just looks better hat way… Looks kind of awkwrd whenyou really push it.
People who play ultra fast are pushing it to go fast. That’s not all momentum. The really experienced ones make it look seamless (although not always “effortless”… seeing a player “work for it” can be entertaining!). Nothing wrong with practicing to “push it” because that’s the only way to actually go at those blazing speeds. The trick is making it look effortless.
Reminds me of nutty fast musicians. If they can play a flurry of notes and make it look like a warm-up exercise, they’ve got my attention. But just as in yoyo, it shouldn’t all be about speed. Shred-only guitarists and pianists are never the ones at the upper level of worldwide fame, even if they’re famous in their small circles.
But being fast enough to CHOOSE whether to play fast or not (yoyo or music) is a pretty awesome thing to have at your disposal.
So Maddog… it might look like you’re “forcing” it a little bit, but in my opinion that’s just the first step in fast play. KEEP forcing it until one day it’s seamless.
I have a super fast style, but that’s just the way I blend stuff. I can play relaxed too and I actually prefer it. It’s more fun and hurts my shoulders less. Like in my opinion Zach Gormley is more fun to watch than Mickey, just because he’s so relaxed and awesome. So basically he means don’t TRY to go fast, just do what feels natural and lets you blend well.
I totally dig that perspective, and it’s the one I use for my own throwing. But I do appreciate pushing boundaries if that’s the goal you want to achieve. The best way to get faster is to try to play faster.
You will get faster naturally over time with more skill and precision, which is the route I tend to choose as well. But if your goal is to “be fast”, you will need to push yourself. Again using the guitar analogy, I’m totally happy with my bluesy licks… but when I decide I need to learn a “shreddy” passage, I really have to buckle down and get to it.
Even if we’re not talking about pure “speed”, but simply the concept of reaching another level: I had a bit of a breakthrough a bit over a week ago… I recognized that to REALLY string a combo together, I needed to have fewer pauses. I like to have pauses for drama from time to time, but I was pausing ALL THE TIME. I decided, “Let’s see what happens if I just hop right into the next element without pausing and thinking.” I found I actually didn’t screw up too much! Within a few days, I was MUCH better at going from one trick to the next and putting them into a combo.
But I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t “push” my skills beyond my comfort zone a little bit.