The need for speed

**Mike Floorstand** · Feb-02-2021, 6:01pm

I've decided to put some serious effort into increasing speed...

At the moment I can play reels (Irish) including ornaments (triplets) around 90bpm, but the ornaments disappear over 100bpm, and it's a struggle to hot all the notes cleanly after 110bpm. So the initial goal will be to keep the ornaments in over 100bpm, and be comfortable without ornaments between 110 and 120bpm.

I made this video to record the starting point - I'm just playing the opening bars of Maid Behind The Bar, with a metronome programmed to increase speed by 2bpm after each repeat:

I was pleasantly surprised to be able to exceed 150bpm before having to giving up completely, although there's obviously plenty of technical and tonal issues at the slower speeds.

I'm aiming for a wrist-only movement of a relaxed right-hand fist - think I can see my forearm getting too involved as the speed gets faster, so I need to work on that. I'd be interested to hear if anyone can spot any other obvious signs of tension or other problems?

I have various exercises to try to increase the speed, I'll try to keep this thread updated with my progress if people are interested.

**ampyjoe** · Feb-02-2021, 8:38pm

Good luck with it. I find myself that above 105-110 bpm, I pretty much have to use forearm movement. And, like you, I have to drop the number of ornaments at the higher speeds too. Let us know how it goes, and if you discover the secret practice routine that works like magic... don't keep it a secret!

**Mike Floorstand** · Feb-03-2021, 5:38am

Originally Posted by ampyjoe

if you discover the secret practice routine that works like magic... don't keep it a secret!

All will be revealed!

**Jill McAuley** · Feb-03-2021, 5:47am

This is something I need to focus on as well. I saw a great Kevin Burke fiddle lesson video where he says that to play fast involves changing the fine movements you use, because the movement that helps us play a tune at a slower pace successfully won't help us play it faster, so if we just speed the tune up, but don't alter the motion of our right and left hands then speed will be difficult to achieve . I was a drummer in another life and it reminded me of what my jazz drumming teacher used to tell me about building speed up on the drum kit - namely that the faster you play, the more minimal your motions should be, otherwise if you're lifting your sticks too far from the head of the drums then it robs you of speed. Enda Scahill also talks about the importance of both relaxation and economy of motion in his tenor banjo tutors in regards to building speed up. One other thing that comes to mind - I was watching some videos of Martin Howley on the mandolin and he has a very light touch when playing, something that also facilitates playing with speed.

Anyways, enough rambling on - I'm looking forward to following your progress and you've inspired me to go back and work on this as well!

**maxr** · Feb-03-2021, 6:29am

For me, 120 bpm on fiddle is about where speed vs expression becomes an issue. I think there's two parts of that - how fast listeners can hear an ornament and how fast you can play it. I've played Highland bagpipes, where there's an ornament called a torluath which has seven notes in it and sounds kind of like 'abrah'. It takes about as fast as you can say "onetwo". IMO most fiddle tune ornaments aren't in that category, and the listener benefits from hearing each note. As a mandolin beginner, I've discovered that if I can't play a triplet decoration fast enough, playing the first and third notes only is a useful cheat till I can - especially if the three notes are either the same or a scale run.