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How Slow Can You Play A Scale?

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(@scrybe)
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Topic starter  

And be dead on the beat with it? I can get quarter notes down as low as my metronome goes (40bpm). But I rush around 60. Weird. How about you?

Ra Er Ga.

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(@joehempel)
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What's a scale?

I actually don't know how slow....I've never tried to play a scale with a metronome, I'll have to try it.

In Space, no one can hear me sing!


   
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(@alangreen)
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Boredom creeps in at anything below one note per click at 100 bpm

A :-)

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
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(@dogbite)
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I can play slow. I have the patience of a tortoise.
John Cage is much slower and patient than I.

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(@gnease)
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planning the first note of a C# natural minor scale for tomorrow … or is it day after? ….

-=tension & release=-


   
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 cnev
(@cnev)
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greg that's a bit fast can you slow it down to next month

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(@kent_eh)
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Don't know, never tried. I'll get back to you.

But the timing thing I'd like to be able to get to is something that Bassist Victor Wooten demonstrated...

Set up a drum machine (or looper or something) to play one single beat out of 12 bars, then play and try to hit that beat each time it comes around.

Then you'll know just how good your internal metronome is! (mine is still horrible)

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(@scrybe)
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Topic starter  

Don't know, never tried. I'll get back to you.

But the timing thing I'd like to be able to get to is something that Bassist Victor Wooten demonstrated...

Set up a drum machine (or looper or something) to play one single beat out of 12 bars, then play and try to hit that beat each time it comes around.

Then you'll know just how good your internal metronome is! (mine is still horrible)

What I love about the Wooten vid is just how often he screws it up, lol. But it's a good way to work, imvho.

But seriously, I find it odd that threads about how fast you can play always get so much attention and input, yet how slow is a different matter. Seems max tempo is something people measure more than slowest tempo; I can't help wondering how many of the faster players would fall apart if they had to go really slow and be accurate there. Or maybe it's just that the mistakes are more noticeable. :roll:

Ra Er Ga.

Ninjazz have SuperChops.

http://www.blipfoto.com/Scrybe


   
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 cnev
(@cnev)
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I think its conterintuitive to what are normally programmed for. In every other area we always strive to be the fastest, whether you're racing cars or running a sprint or a marathon it's always about how fast can you go. I'm trying to think of one instance where being the slowest is preferable.

So when you take that mentality to playing guitar to me it would natural for everyone to aspire to be able to play the fastest amount of notes int he least amount of time.

Also when you look at advice on learning new passages it's always start off slow and then increase the tempo.

Plus any song played under 90 BPM would probably put me to sleep anyway! :D

"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!


   
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 KR2
(@kr2)
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I'm right in tempo with the zodiac changes . . . and groovin'.

It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.


   
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(@fibaz)
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And be dead on the beat with it? I can get quarter notes down as low as my metronome goes (40bpm). But I rush around 60. Weird. How about you?

With anything new I pretty much slow it down to 40 or 60 and get it internalized. I figure If I can't play it right at 40-60 then I can't play it at 180.

I don't get paid by the note so I just practice it until I can pass through it perfectly 7-10 times before bumping up the tempo. All in all, I learn pieces of music for piano and guitar much quicker than trying to learn everything at tempo or slightly below. It also means less time polishing and isolating parts so I can pay more attention to dynamics when I hit the desired tempo. I usually end up practicing a scale or piece higher than the tempo I would be performing it at because I can slow it down easier than I can speed it up.

As much torture as it can be on some days it's worth taking the time to get it right the first time.


   
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(@ricochet)
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I could play a note of the scale at exactly 00:00:01 of January 1 in each new leap year and stay on time, but I'm not likely to get finished with the scale.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."


   
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(@gotdablues)
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Joined: 17 years ago
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And be dead on the beat with it? I can get quarter notes down as low as my metronome goes (40bpm). But I rush around 60. Weird. How about you?

With anything new I pretty much slow it down to 40 or 60 and get it internalized. I figure If I can't play it right at 40-60 then I can't play it at 180.

I don't get paid by the note so I just practice it until I can pass through it perfectly 7-10 times before bumping up the tempo. All in all, I learn pieces of music for piano and guitar much quicker than trying to learn everything at tempo or slightly below. It also means less time polishing and isolating parts so I can pay more attention to dynamics when I hit the desired tempo. I usually end up practicing a scale or piece higher than the tempo I would be performing it at because I can slow it down easier than I can speed it up.

As much torture as it can be on some days it's worth taking the time to get it right the first time.
Words of wisdom! ...Slow and correct beats the heck outa fast and sloppy!!


   
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 Crow
(@crow)
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There are innumerable guitar players out there who can play huge streams of warp-speed 64th notes with no musical content whatsoever.

Even scales are music. How slow (or fast) can you play a scale and make it musical? Then substitute the word "solo" for "scale." If you're just playing fast, I don't want to hear it.

"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa


   
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(@dvorak)
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Hmm. I've actually done this before. I find it usually helps to subdivide the clicks...I imagine that the metronome is actually playing every other beat at a faster tempo, and if Itap my foot to that faster tempo I can usually get into rhythm within a few seconds. Keeping it up requires intense concentration though--maybe even more than trying to push to a faster tempo. Which means practicing scales very slowly over and over makes for great meditation, but also leads me to lose track of the time.


   
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