How many notes-per-second qualifies you as a real guitar player?

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I read on a messageboard somebody claiming they could 23 notes per second, is that possible? I'm talking every note picked individually, not hammered. I'm too ashamed to publicise my miniscule n.p/s here, but what's the competency standard?

― dave q, Saturday, 11 January 2003 10:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I've just recorded the LONGEST gtr solo ever (OK maybe 2nd longest after 'Mountain Jam', but it's def longer than 'Dark Star'), anybody wants a copy can email me - would v. v. much appreciate brutal & rigorous technical appraisals from gearheads out there

― dave q, Saturday, 11 January 2003 10:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, but how does it *SOUND*? Hitting 23 notes in a minute probably sounds like swarm of angry mosquitoes. Impressive on a technical level, conceivably, but who wants to listen to it? (outside of Guy Mann Dude fans?)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 11 January 2003 10:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Wasps. Maybe cats. I've always been under the impression that cats are into lightning speed jazz.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Saturday, 11 January 2003 14:30 (twenty-three years ago)

It's harder to play really slow. If you can play 1 sustained note every 6 seconds at a steady tempo, then you're a real guitarist. Seriously though, speed by itself isn't a good indicator of technical ability. Beard length is, though.

― James Annett (jlannett), Saturday, 11 January 2003 16:44 (twenty-three years ago)

The reason these fuXors play so many notes is because they cannot find the RIGHT ones.

Speed != technique when it comes to guitar. That's patently fucking stupid. Would you say that the person who can paint the most paintings in an hour is the best painter? Fuck no.

― kate, Saturday, 11 January 2003 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Would you say that the person who can paint the most paintings in an hour is the best painter?

We now have an objective system whereby to judge painters!!!

― Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 11 January 2003 17:12 (twenty-three years ago)

You really think that Rolf Harris is better than Millais? UNLEASH THE FOOKING FURY, MAAAAAN!!!

― kate, Saturday, 11 January 2003 17:43 (twenty-three years ago)

outside of Guy Mann Dude fans?

The master!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 11 January 2003 17:47 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I could do about 10, but it'd sound rubbish.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 11 January 2003 19:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Straightforward enough question! I'm not asking if anybody thinks it's 'good', I just want to know about speed!

― dave q, Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Michael Angelo > Guy Mann-Dude

― dave q, Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Just timed myself it was 7.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:06 (twenty-three years ago)

'The reason these fuXors play so many notes is because they cannot find the RIGHT ones'

But what if there just happen to be a LOT of right ones in a short space of time? 'Right ones for the piece', anything else wouldn't work as good?

― dave q, Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:06 (twenty-three years ago)

UNLEASH THE FOOKING FURY, MAAAAAN!!!

He said released.

― , Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:09 (twenty-three years ago)

How many notes-per-second qualifies you as a real guitar player?
12,635. A single note less and you get relegated to gulag for herbal-tea-drinkin'-slowcore-sleep-farming-yawnmeisters.

― Lord Custos Omega (Lord Custos Omega), Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Any more than about 3 notes per second qualifies as WIBBLE and I am having none of it. I've never timed how many notes I can play per second because I DO NOT FUCKING CARE. This school of thought re:guitar playing is the number one reason I think all Guitarists should be rounded up and shot. Oh, and laptopists, too. Just cause you *can* write music at 260 BPM doesn't mean you *should*.

― kate, Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think that picking notes at lightning speed is necessarily a good thing, but I don't really agree with kate. Sometimes fast guitar playing is pleasant--it all depends on the context of the song. Besides, a second is a LONG time in music. If you pick eighth notes at 120 BPM, that's more than 3 notes per second.

― Curtis Stephens, Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:33 (twenty-three years ago)

But what if some people hear faster?

― dave q, Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Like dogs and bats? Oh, no wait...

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, just because a guitarist CAN play fast doesn't mean he/she WILL. It's probably useful to be able to play that fast; it shows that they've mastered their technique at slower speeds.

― Curtis Stephens, Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, what about those situations where the song lives and dies by the harmonic movement and there need to be a load of modulations but none of the chords have anything in common with the immediately surrounding ones so the notes unique to each mode have to be played because if you hold one note over two subsequent chords it'll be discordant and for some reason you'd rather it didn't?

― dave q, Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:39 (twenty-three years ago)

OK, I'm being excessive, saying that all speed-playing is bad, but juding technical ability solely by speed is still even more painfully narrow-minded than the pose I am adopting.

Anyway, I'm staying off this thread because it makes me so genuinely cross.

*I'VE* been in Guitar Magazine, YOU lot haven't, so I am right, end of story.

― kate, Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Why were you in guitar magazine, Kate?

― Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Didn't you just answer your own question then dave? The "competency standard" then being capable of doing whatever it was you intended.

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Even if you're better than most, in a sense you're incompetant if you can't fulfill your own vision. A subjective measurement, but most likely the only one that's really useful.

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:57 (twenty-three years ago)

23 notes per second = impulses at 23 Hz, which is an audio-range frequency => sounds like one (noisy) note.

Do not critique my fragile reasoning here -- that's not the point!

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:58 (twenty-three years ago)

::magically delurks:: For playing guitar. Why else would I be in Guitar Magazine? ::flounces off again dramatically::

― kate, Saturday, 11 January 2003 21:19 (twenty-three years ago)

speed kills!

― kephm, Saturday, 11 January 2003 22:35 (twenty-three years ago)

No, but Kate the Saint, why?

― Cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 11 January 2003 22:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Why? I don't know why. I'm imaginging Because some contributing editor listened to my album, thought I was a decent guitarist and decided to interview me about it.

― kate (suzy), Saturday, 11 January 2003 22:57 (twenty-three years ago)

i can play about 2 notes per second, tops. i'm really a rhythm guitarist. in my little universe where i make all the rules about everything, rhythm guitar is the only real guitaring anyway.

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 12 January 2003 00:04 (twenty-three years ago)

~"Also, just because a guitarist CAN play fast doesn't mean he/she WILL."~

Buckethead ownz this statement.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Sunday, 12 January 2003 16:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Would you say that the person who can paint the most paintings in an hour is the best painter?
We now have an objective system whereby to judge painters!!!

I guess that would make Thomas Kinkaid the greatest painter ever?

― Dave Beckhouse (Dave Beckhouse), Sunday, 12 January 2003 21:37 (twenty-three years ago)

So then who's the Thomas Kinkade of the guitar world?

Test: you have to be able to fill in the blank

"__________ : Guitarist of light")

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 12 January 2003 22:10 (twenty-three years ago)

How about how few per minute?

speed's great, but I don't think that's what qualifies one as a "real" guitar player.

I maintain that a real musician is one who uses the least notes necessary to convey the mood or meaning.

― nick ring (nick ring), Monday, 13 January 2003 05:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Would you say that the person who can paint the most paintings in an hour is the best painter?

Visual art doesn't have anything to do with time, necessarily. Music does.

― gabbneb, Monday, 13 January 2003 05:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Nick r - assuming 'mood'and 'meaning' aren't just pointless abstractions, what if the 'mood' is ultra-hyperactivity and the 'meaning' is 'info-overload'/'technique-uberlord'/'excess>salvation?'

― dave q, Monday, 13 January 2003 07:58 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

23 notes per second aint Hard to play, i can do 20 a sec and that came after countless hours studyign my technique. its all alternate picked too but i wouldnt use that kind of speed in any of my solos. the fast id prob play in a solo is 15-18 notes a second ill rarely use 20 notes a sec. its good to learn it cause then uv got it in ur arsenal of things u can use in a solo. 23 aint overly fast, Rusty Cooley can play 37 Nps and Paul gilbert can hit higher than 28Nps. Vai plays around 28Nps and Michael Angelo Batio PLays 50 a sec.

― Mathew K., Thursday, 26 January 2006 09:57 (twenty years ago)

i can't even figure what 50 notes/sec can sound like (and about the thread in general, i agree that i don't care about speed as a criteria to evaluate a guitar player. actually i don't care about technic and may well be the guitar player with the less technical knowledge ever to plug a jack in an amp !).

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 26 January 2006 11:25 (twenty years ago)

Thank god I don't listen to guitar music! Even in jazz I prefer the slow soloists who build on a few notes rather than excessive amount of them, like Monk or Joe Sample of The Crusaders. I guess this is why I've never really turned to Charlie Parker.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 26 January 2006 13:45 (twenty years ago)

dude there are eighty billion guitarists who build on a few notes rather than excessive amounts of them

― ZR (teenagequiet), Thursday, 26 January 2006 14:43 (twenty years ago)

worst thread ever.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 26 January 2006 16:09 (twenty years ago)

BiddlebedebedebedebedebedebedebedebedebedebedebadEW!

...awesome.

― D.I.Y. C.R.E.E.P. (dave225.3), Thursday, 26 January 2006 16:16 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

I can play about 15 - 18 notes a second with hammering.

I think feel is more important than just speed.

― Michael Clancy, Sunday, 19 February 2006 15:16 (twenty years ago)

I think PLAYING A GOOD FUCKING SONG just tops "feel".

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Sunday, 19 February 2006 15:30 (twenty years ago)

I think therefore I jam

― Seeing Guy Mann-Dude mentioned on ILM made me laugh øut loud! (Øystein), Sunday, 19 February 2006 15:37 (twenty years ago)

so,for 2006, who is the best guitarist, in a rock band?

― ggggggg, Sunday, 19 February 2006 15:43 (twenty years ago)

"I think PLAYING A GOOD FUCKING SONG just tops "feel""

I think a good song is more appropriate, and "feel" as you call it in that way, MAKES a good song

― Michael Clancy, Sunday, 19 February 2006 19:15 (twenty years ago)

don't get me wrong, speed is bloody impressive

― Michael Clancy, Sunday, 19 February 2006 19:16 (twenty years ago)

*The reason these fuXors play so many notes is because they cannot find the RIGHT ones*

they're playing all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order

― Eric Morecambe, Monday, 20 February 2006 14:48 (twenty years ago)

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