Playing fast and getting a big sound

[DivingShrek]

Hi,

How do you play fast, 260 BPM ish, and still maintain that DB big sound. Is it just a question of practice practice practice

Thanks
Ian

[Owen]

[color=#0000ff][u]www.dbspeedhacks.com [/u][/color]

Sadly, there are no short cuts. It is practice o'clock.

[Hector]

Assuming you're talking about pizz? And walking or soloing?

It's a mixture of things. Most of it comes from RELAXING.

Physically, you can't play fast unless you can be very relaxed playing slow. Left hand wise this is really important.

Right hand wise - go for 2 finger approach if you need to. Practise string crossings, as well as playing on a single string. Again, very precise slow technique is the way forwards. If you are using 2 finger, you must try to get an even sound between them. You may find you have to lighten up for attack slightly on the fast tunes.

Mentally, you need to relax as well - people tend to tense up at tempos they find hard, which makes them more difficult so keep an eye on that. Don't try so hard! Some people tend to feel the pulse in entire bars, so if walking try playing 16ths at 65bpm (which works out to quarters at 260) and seeing if that helps you feel more relaxed.

You also need your ears to hear that fast, so if you're walking then make sure you know the tune really well. Have a lot of vocabulary ingrained to help you out. Listen to lots of tunes played at faster tempos.

Playing fast is simple on the one hand because it's just the same as playing slow but a bit faster. On the other hand, it requires lots of aspects of your musicianship to be together.

Keep shedding away at it - it doesn't happen overnight and requires repeated practise to get comfortable at it.

[DivingShrek]

Thanks guys, as suspected lots and lots of practise and hold off on the intravenous coffee

Cheers
Ian

[The Jaywalker]

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Edited November 28, 2017 by The Jaywalker

[DivingShrek]

Thanks for the great advice, it made me realise I should have been more specific from the outset and asked the same question in a different way.
Apologies, should have made the question clearer and appreciate if you could have a little patience with this newbie.

The music is Bluegrass (no drummer) for a Appalachian dance group so what I'm trying to achieve is a nice strong thumpy pizz sound that clearly defines the beat. I can achieve this at slower tempos by bouncing along to the music like a demented "Gus Honeybun" (showing my age there) but as the tempo hits about 220 bpm
the notes become too staccato and a dull thud rather than a nice thump. I did wonder if it was because my left hand was too slow to allow the notes to ring out before moving to the next and have been practising to improve this.

Maybe as The Jaywalker and others suggested I'm trying too hard to get a "prominent and loud front end attack" and the issue is that amount of movement in the right hand at high tempos. So the question should have been, understanding faster will be acoustically quieter what techniques do people use to get a thumpy pizz sound and how to maintain that thump at high tempos.

Thanks again
Ian

Edited November 7, 2017 by DivingShrek

[Bilbo]

I agree with Hector. Nothing can kill your sound better than digging in too deep. I have a vivid memory of playing a tune at a ridiculous tempo and reaching a moment of profound peace when I relaxed and found all the muscles in my arms working efficiently so the tempo became effortless. I now play regularly with people like Simon Spillett and Gilad Atzmon at crazy tempos with no real difficulties. Also, use your amp to do its job and to add volume so you are not fighting yourself.

[The Jaywalker]

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Edited November 28, 2017 by The Jaywalker