notes per second - the fastest

[Death55]

1- steve vai (nps: 20.8)
2- george lynch (nps: 19.8)
3- kirk hammett (nps: 19)
4- paul gilbert (nps:18.8)
5- eddie van halen (nps: 18.7)
6- joe satriani (nps: 17.6)
7- nuno bettencourt (nps: 17)
8- yngwie malmsteen (nps:16.8)
9- marty friedman (nps:15)
10- stevemorse (nps:14)

A list someone put up on the harmony central forums. It just makes me laugh when i see this list.
Kirk hammet.. well 19 nps thats just a load of ****. Also i dont think the 10th fastest guitarist in the world can only play 14 nps. Even i can play that fast.
I just had to talk about this list and how retarded it is !


[Edited by schmange on 02-17-2004 at 09:33 PM]

[Inisfail]

Well, Petrucci plays (in his Rock Discipline) 208 bpm, four notes/beat = 13,73333.. notes/sec (All played cromaticly, so no repeated tones if you get what I mean..)

He also tries 216 bpm (4 notes/beat) in the same scale and he manage to play it for like 2,5 seconds. That's 14.4 notes/sec

However, I don't think I ever heard something that fast before in my whole life. Perhaps somekind of tremolo, but I suppose it doesn't count in this case..

[Crux]

Well, those are from how fast they have played on albums. They probably can play faster if they want to and i bet they have done so also.


I've seen that list b4 and that time they showed on what song they played that fast.
Kirk's plays at 19 nps on Damage Inc.
Marty Friedman plays at that speed on Ashes In Your Mouth if i dont remember it wrong.

[noticingthemistake]

Dewd that isn't right. Kirk and eddie are not in the top five. Also on Trilogy yngwie plays 5 notes a sec at about 230 (something near that) in one part. That's about 20 notes per second. That is extremely fast, and way faster that anything I've heard kirk or eddie play. Flight of the bumble played at actual speed. Which is around 150-160 bpm and it's 5 notes per second. That's 15 notes per second, I can play it that fast (for about a second..haha) and I don't even consider myself fast.

[Crux]

They used some kind of a machine to look those players speeds up and it showed that thay played at those speeds so I believe it.
But I agree that Yngwie should be up there in the top 3 or something.

[Death55]

I should be up there too. I can play 16 notes per second at the most so far. I've heard people like danny joe carter play way faster though.. i'm can play sure he can play faster than 20 notes a second. Also depends on if they are talking about alternate picking or tapping ! I heard that when vai taps the amp is producing about 23 notes per second sometimes. What about someone like marcus paus though, he beats them all with 46 notes a second.

[TheWizard]

46 notes, insane

how do you even go about figuring out how many notes per second

and I refuse to believe Yngwie is slower than kirk hammet

[Death55]

Originally posted by TheWizard
46 notes, insane

how do you even go about figuring out how many notes per second

and I refuse to believe Yngwie is slower than kirk hammet

I didnt work it out myself. I've just been told that by lots of people.
I also agree that yngwie cant be slower that hammet. Its just stupid.

[Yngtchie Blacksteen]

Originally posted by TheWizard
46 notes, insane
Yeah, but it sounds pretty cool when he's shredding away at those speeds.

[Karma In The South]

This is from Total Guitar magazine(UK), from an issue 2 years or so ago. They used a computer program to slow down the tracks on albums by these guitarists, I dunno how extensive the survey was, and pinpointed the exact moments where these speeds were reached.

[The Ace]

I was waitin for someone to bring up Marcus Paus....
Hey Aiwass where are you?
You even got him in ur signature dude!

[aiwass]

Marcus Paus' official record was 46.667 notes per second, alternate picking an A minor scale sequence. However, it is EXTREMELY likely that the computer recorded a lot of slop and noise as notes. Marcus Paus was outrageously fast, but not THAT fast.

Btw, that list is total bull. It's true that they're doing those speeds in those songs, but that's including techniques like tapping and legato - not to mention out-of-control tremolo picking - and in some cases only for extremely short bursts. I can easily do 25-30 notes per second using various tapping/legato combos, but apart from burst speed, I can't alternate (or in my case, economy) pick much above 15-16 notes per second.

[TheWizard]

aiwass, just a question did you start out economy picking or alternate, and if you started out alternate, was it hard to switch to economy?

I ask because im just remembering that recording you posted a few months back and the picking sections were so smooth and well played

thats kind of the sound ive been goin for lately but since I grew up on Jimmy Page I have the speed but I am somewhat sloppy, ive been trying the economy picking and its hard to get used to

[aiwass]

All the picking in that clip was alternate. I only converted a couple of months ago, and the transition seems to be going fairly well.

[Yngtchie Blacksteen]

Originally posted by aiwass
Marcus Paus' official record was 46.667 notes per second, alternate picking an A minor scale sequence. However, it is EXTREMELY likely that the computer recorded a lot of slop and noise as notes. Marcus Paus was outrageously fast, but not THAT fast.
He's that fast today, remember?

[Death55]

i remember talking about him not long ago and someone said that he is still really fast now even though he doesnt still play. Yngtchie Blacksteen, you have more stuff by him yet ?

[aiwass]

He WAS fast, and I bet he still IS fast - all I'm saying is that his "world record" is way faster than even he could play, cleanly. He also warmed up for about three days straight with next to no sleep prior to the attempt, so it wasn't something he could pull off on any odd day.

[noticingthemistake]

Man, I would have to hear 46 notes per second to ever believe ANYONE could play that fast. I am very skeptikal on that one. It would take sweeping up and down all 6 strings, 4 times a second. That's strumming all the strings to an 8th note rhythm at 240 bpm. Not actually seeing it or hearing, I think that's B.S. If it was done, I can't imagine it being played clean.

[Karma In The South]

Originally posted by aiwass
He WAS fast, and I bet he still IS fast - all I'm saying is that his "world record" is way faster than even he could play, cleanly. He also warmed up for about three days straight with next to no sleep prior to the attempt, so it wasn't something he could pull off on any odd day.

Biggest waste of time ever?

[Axl_Rose]

Kirk hammet aint that fast, his fast runs include hammer ons and tapping, not each note being individually picked.
Using tapping I can do over 20 notes per second, anyone could. You can record it on your pc and slow it down to hear the individual notes :)

[hate_crew_deathroll]

Anyone know how fast Herman Li and Sam Totman play at? They're from Dragonforce, and some of their solos are absolutely unbelievable. And yes I know they use the wah pedal. A LOT.

[aiwass]

The Dragonforce guys aren't that fast. They just do a lot of cheap licks that facilitate speedy playing. They're also pretty sloppy.

[Jamiephofe]

Surely Michael Angelo can manage quite a few a second too, and clean. The solo for "Time Traveller" is sun human to say the least. I can't see how anyone could play that.

[Azrael]

to get a glimpse of what 46 notes a second sound like just program a sequence of notes into a midi-sequencerf and turn it up to speed. then you will know what it sounds like when you have someone play cleanly at that speed. i have never ever heard anyone play this fast on the guitar CLEANLY and i´m pretty sure that its impossible for a human to move any part of his body up and down THAT fast. and if ist not executed cleanly, then it us USELESS and makes no sense at all. that would be like dropping the guitar downstairs and claming it was 5 billion notes a millisecond.

[aiwass]

Originally posted by Jamiephofe
Surely Michael Angelo can manage quite a few a second too, and clean. The solo for "Time Traveller" is sun human to say the least. I can't see how anyone could play that.


That solo really isn't that fast. It sounds faster than it really is, since he uses really wide intervallic leaps. Most of it is 16th notes at around 210 bpm.

[sambob]

Eh, Shawn Lane was known to have played solid 32nd notes, septuplets, etc at around 120 bpm.

Can't beat that ****.

[noticingthemistake]

Originally posted by sambob
Eh, Shawn Lane was known to have played solid 32nd notes, septuplets, etc at around 120 bpm.

Can't beat that ****.

That's still only 28 notes per second (not that this is not extremely fast), but it's hardly 40 or whatever someone said he played.

[aiwass]

I think sambob meant 32nd notes or 16th note seventuplets. Not 32nd note seventuplets. At 120 bpm, that's about 16 notes per second for the straight 32nds, and not that insane. I can do that on a good day, and Shawn could go much faster than that. Think more in the range of 150-160 bpm, perhaps, or maybe more. His speed was just so beyond anybody else, and it wasn't just unmusical exercises, either.

I don't regard Paus' record as the fastest. His playing was just too sloppy for me to take seriously, and the fact that his supposed record speed was so far removed from ANYBODY ELSE'S makes it all the more questionable. In my opinion, guys like Bellas, Cooley and especially Lane are/were much more serious contenders.

[sambob]

No, I didn't mean 32nd septuplets. :P I meant 32nds, and septuplets.

I didn't mean the speed itself was all that impressive (by itself). But when you combine switching the rhythmic groupings, and just WHAT he's playing, I find it impressive as hell.

I'm quite aware of what he was CAPABLE of doing. But quite frankly, I don't want to hear 32nd notes at 150 bpm. I find it abrasive to my ears, and irritating most of the time. I only give the above example because he did it more commonly (solos on songs like Get You Back, Gray Pianos Flying, etc etc).

[DreamRyche2112]

can someone send me a link where i can hear marcus paus... ive never heard him.

[Death55]

Originally posted by hate_crew_deathroll
Anyone know how fast Herman Li and Sam Totman play at? They're from Dragonforce, and some of their solos are absolutely unbelievable. And yes I know they use the wah pedal. A LOT.

Its a wammy pedal thats used not a wah pedal !

[Yngtchie Blacksteen]

Originally posted by DreamRyche2112
can someone send me a link where i can hear marcus paus... ive never heard him.
Just search for his name on Google, you'll probably find some old recording of him there.