Fastest guitarist in the world

Apparantly this dude actually won the official Guiness title as fastest guitarist in the world 2008. He plays Flight of the Bumblebee starting at a respectable 180bpm then replays it a few times untill he is gets up to a blistering 320bpm. It sounds ridiculous (no longer music) but the speed and accuracy is incredible.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1495641/world_record_guitar_speed_2008/

No matter what anyone says, there is a significant difference in speed between this guy and Rusty Cooley and Michael Angelo. The only other guitarist I've seen close to 300bm was the late Shawn Lane, but he was also playing something a hell of a lot more challenging. Interesting though!

ew

most painful pieace of music ive ever heard in my life ever..

i'm sorry.. speed is one thing anyone can work on if they really want to... and it isnt my forte...

True, but the point to this exercise is not to reproduce an emotive piece just to play the fastest. Plus the actual piece he is playing by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is supposed to emulate the droning sound of a bumble bees wings on a gust of wind - it was also an exercise in shredding chromatic runs. I listened to some of that guys other stuff and it is way slower and easier on the ears. Still have to admit 320bpm is an amazing feat though - something like 22 notes per second.

do u think humans will ever reach the speed of one note? as in playing so fast that it sounds like one note blended?

Well, I never knew there was a world record or contest for the fastest player. now that there is I would say next year some guy who has been locked in a cage with a guitar for 20 years will come along and play at 350bpm. Just like any other world record for speed, its there to be beaten... but there has to be a limit that a human can actually go to... if I hadn't seen this vid I wouldnt have believed it possible for a human to play that fast. Will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Wow! He is amazing and really deticated. But practice 16 hours a day and you would have no life.:P
It sounded percussive though. Not meant to be played that fast I guess.

lol imagine if he played 16 hours a day with phrasing instead of blinding speed man a exceptional guitarist he would make.

Actually, the guys regular stuff is nothing like that, much slower and more melodic (plenty of insane shredding too though!). Check him out on youtube.

Yeah, Super is right....That bit was specifically for setting the "official" World Record.
The rest of his original stuff (that I've heard at least) is not nearly that bad. LOL More than the picking, it's his left hand that amazes me...just how minimal and efficient his movements are. Lots of people strive for that...but few are quite that proficient in that area.
Kinda pointless and yet kinda cool. LOL ;)


Don

Bah...he's juicing. ;)

I'm no fan of speedy guitar playing, but that was awesome. He went so fast he surpassed the ****ty shredding sound and reverted back around to coolness.

Couple of problems with this.

One; superhuman was correct... there is no world record for 'fastest guitar player'

Second; I know of someone who slowed it down, and the notes are coming out faster than his fingers are moving :eek: :mad:

The 'fastest' player I know of is Shawn Lane. Unfortunately, he passed away 5 years ago.

This guy is the real deal, his name is Guthrie Govan, check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J503OvHWKko

I awoke from my coma about half way through the intro and found this dude that was doing some remarkable speed drills with his right hand.

Not much there musically but still . . .impressive.

I've seen a lot better - even here on this site.

The guy in Dragon Force was clocked as being the fastest

When and by who and using what standard.

There is a person who has spent the past few years working up the fastest guitarists using 'Strict alternate picking' and Shawn Lane was clocked as the fasted. His finding were published in Guitar World earlier this year. He has posted samples for people who were interested. (it's a huge thread... but worth the read) http://deb13.proboards31.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=2676&page=1

Originally Posted by: The Black CirclThe guy in Dragon Force was clocked as being the fastest

That's bull I'm afraid (no offense intended!). A couple of things about Dragonfarce, everything they do is cut and spliced in the studio - fact. There are loads of vids on youtube showing them playing outside of a studio environment without a live band behind them and they are so sloppy you can't help but cringe. The most embarrassing thing they did was appear on 'bet you can't play this' which is now on you tube entitled 'DragonForce can't play this' - check it out, it's awful.
There are many many guitarists that are properly referenced as being faster - Rusty Cooley, Michael Angelo, Shawn Lane, Mathew Mills, Chris Impeliteri, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Bellas and even the (not so) Great Kat to name but a few. Hell, Steve Vai may not be the fastest but he annihilates most of the above as musicians who in turn annihilate Dragon Force - he only rarely unleashes his full speed potential, check out the strange instrumental on the dodgy 'Sex and Religion' cd for a rare example.
The only guy I have ever seen playing alternate picked runs at similar speeds is Shawn Lane and for the record he was a far more accomplished musician than the guy with the record in this post, Lane could literally play 'anything' including some unbelievably unorthodox and uber technical stuff with off the wall fingering and painfully huge stretches.
And still the fact remains that none of the above amazing guitarists have ever clocked anything on a live recording anywhere close to the guy on this post (with the exception of Shawn Lane). This guy’s live take has been properly documented as accurate alternate picking of 16ths at 320bpm for a relatively complex piece that utilises most of the fret board. It's a youtube post so the video quality is far from perfect but the playing is genuine. Probably the only way to assess speed now is to measure it in the context of 'Flight of the Bumblebee'. If Shawn Lane was still alive I'm sure he would play something that most top players would have serious difficulty in playing at even 200bpm (seriously).
If you could prove that either of the dudes from DragonForce could play faster I will gladly eat my entire collection of guitars and post the experience on youtube.

Originally Posted by: bkwWhen and by who and using what standard.

There is a person who has spent the past few years working up the fastest guitarists using 'Strict alternate picking' and Shawn Lane was clocked as the fasted. His finding were published in Guitar World earlier this year. He has posted samples for people who were interested. (it's a huge thread... but worth the read) http://deb13.proboards31.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=2676&page=1

Hey man cool post to a serious speed picking forum;-) Just to let you know though, Lane is referenced throughout as alternate picking at 19nps but the vid of this guy playing Flight of the Bumblebee at 320bpm is consistantly 22nps from start to finish over all strings (it was only recorded this year too so it would be interesting to see what those guys think about it!).
I do believe that if Shawn Lane was still alive he would probably play it faster - to my knowledge he never set out to record 'the fastest solo inthe world' so we don't know what his true potential for speed really was. I also agree 100% that he was probably the most gifted and unbelievable guitarist who ever lived. In fact if he played the same song he would probably go off on a tangent with some of his own 'outside' lines thrown in before finishing it off at around 26nps :eek:

He (Willjay) did an analysis back in June.

His post is about halfway down at http://deb13.proboards31.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=8684&page=3

You used to be able to watch the video samples (full speed and slowed down). I saw it and his picking hand is not that fast as Willjay said. I can try to get the vids if you really want to see them.

But it comes down to his picking hand is only going about 15 notes per second.

i'M NOT SURE WHEN OR WHO - BUT I AM SURE THAT IT WAS RECENTLY AND BY SOMEONE WITH CRED AND THEY DID IT WITH A TIME KEEPING DEVICE SUCH AS A CLOCK WHICH MEASURES BEATS PER MINUTE - ALSO KNOW AS STANDARD METRONOME TIME.