How To Play FAST on Guitar (300bpm and beyond!)

[@beneunson]

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[@jackcarrolton12]

I will try this! Thanks Ben

[@beneunson]

Thanks Jack!

[@nylonsteel]

Your Brain works at 301bpm hands at 300bpm ;) Amazing improviser

[@beneunson]

thanks so much for watching!

[@bobjanetmart506]

great stuff mate. Love it.

[@beneunson]

Thanks!

[@markowalski1]

Love the middle position mini humbucker

[@andreasjonsson5823]

Very useful tips! Thanks Ben!

[@beneunson]

Thanks Andreas!

[@bazza852]

Great. Simple and useful!!

[@beneunson]

Glad you liked it!

[@fingerstyling]

Well I think that playing material as two notes/ string, as you often do, greatly helps to facilitate quicker tempos, because of the available pull off/ hammer ons.

[@beneunson]

Thanks Lucas, I think you're right - I find that that approach helps me a lot!

[@andrewkratz226]

Great vid and playing as always. Thanks for sharing Also always love your tone.

[@beneunson]

Thanks Andrew!

[@RonZabrocki]

Always great advice!

[@beneunson]

Thanks for watching, Ron!

[@Landitty]

I like the super even tempo of your speaking Ben 👍 very encouraging video! I have been using pretty much an identifiable approach to increasing my own tempo. I love listening to your legato play style! It lens itself to being pretty flexible when it comes to fingerings at high tempos because the left hand can do more of the work. As a more staccato George Benson type player myself who likes to pick most of my notes, I find that as the tempo increases, I have to be more careful about doing more even numbers of notes per string to setup sweeps and such and get more notes per string with slides and such.

[@beneunson]

Thank you so much for watching!

[@geraldthompson5034]

Whoa, Killing!

[@beneunson]

Thanks for watching!

[@marialouis324]

Thank You Master!

[@beneunson]

Thanks for watching!

[@syazrain4656]

Too good to be true....

[@pickinstone]

How about a click on the downbeat of each measure, or a click on the downbeat of every 2 measures? You can also do a click every 4 measures. Just divide the tempo by the amount of beats you want. 2 measures is 8 quarter notes in 4/4. So if you wanna play at 240, just divide by 8 and you get 30bpm for 2 bar clicks. Divide 240 by 16 and you get 15 bpm (you can get these SLOW metronome clicks by searching on KZbin). SLOW metronome practice helps you get a sense of the larger measure and helps you internalize the subdivision yerself. I am sure that Ben knows all this, but slow metronome work helped me on my journey to play at uptempos (still a work in progress with the technique required).

[@evanwood1752]

Awesome video and insight Ben. All too often though I feel people overlook comping at fast tempos. Could you possibly make a partnering video on fast tempo comping??

[@beneunson]

That’s a great idea Evan! You’re right, it is often overlooked. Let me see what I can do

[@evanwood1752]

@@beneunson Awesome, can't wait. Thank you

[@pickinstone]

@@evanwood1752 Try comping on 1 and 3 or just the 1 to really get a feel for fast tempos. Red Garland and Wynton Kelly knew the power of comping on the 1 and 3 as well as the offbeats and syncopations. Especially when the tempo gets fast, comping on the 1 and 3 or just one solid hit per bar makes the improvising easier for the soloist. Helps you think like a bassist. Too many hits at a fast tempo provides too much rhythmic information and can tense up the soloist. Try that by recording your uptempo comp with hits on 1 or 1 and 3--see how it feels different than defaulting to busier comping patterns.

[@adeladnani3713]

Nice

[@beneunson]

thanks!

[@fabiencourtoistapping]

EXELLENT impro !!

[@g-love6507]

@Ben Eunson .... Hey Ben, could you do a lesson on this Jean Luc Ponty's intro to "Imaginary Voyage" ? The section I'm talking about starts about 10 seconds in and again @1:38 mark.. Looking for the best way to finger it or should I use altered tuning ! Thanks

[@chumbo]

What are the chord changes your playing to?

[@gitarmats]

Interesting that you decide against the metronome on 2 and 4 at the higher tempos. I always found it hard to feel them as 2 and 4 when the tempo gets too high and my brain starts interpreting them as 1 and 3 automatically, so it was a struggle to play like that. Has that been the case for you too, or maybe I just need to get more used to it with even more practice?

[@beneunson]

It's interesting because I've tried practicing with the metronome in a lot of different places at faster and slower tempos. At fast tempos, I've found that if you lose track of beat 1, the whole thing falls apart. 2 & 4 is great for encouraging/cultivating a swing feel, but ultimately beat 1 is the most important at almost any tempo. This has been the case for me, anyway! 😃

[@TheRealCharlieDays]

Well, your material is incredible! a question, what camera do you use for your videos? It looks incredible!

[@SatnamSingh-pd3yh]

excellent video ben, out of curiosity what guitar are you playing in this video?

[@beneunson]

Thanks so much! It’s a Frank Brothers “Signature Model” - I discuss it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h33KaI2Ag9x2atE

[@joonajaakkola3865]

Hey Ben! How high's your usual string action when playing at a high tempo like this? 1mm etc. ?

[@LowKeyTired-q7d]

I guess you would just practise at slower bpm and then increase gradually ...

[@beneunson]

Yes! 😀

[@jaxone1259]

Nice but I never liked Jazz because it sounds like their just searching for the right notes to play and Never really finding them. ...just Sequences and Patterns of notes. .. I can more or less always predict what the next note will be ...it's never really a surprise anymore JMO. THANKS GREAT VIDEO

[@beneunson]

Thanks for watching!

[@Esotericboi]

That “outside” playing style doesn’t sound like any melody i would ever imagine in my mind before playing. But apparently this is how u have to sound nowadays to be considered “good” lol.