How Fast?

[Posterboy]

I know speed isn't everything, but when practising etudes/drills/scale sequences etc what bpm would be a good standard to aim for.

Also in terms of tunes, I realise every jam and band do things differently but are there any standard tempos listed for tunes anywhere?

[themandocello]

When practicing scales and arpeggios the goal should be to play as beautifully as possible so the speed that you practice the mad is determined by how well you can play them.

[Posterboy]

I totally agree, and that's how I approach it, I'm just thinking in terms of long term goals. I guess I could just see what speeds some of the tunes are being played on youtube and have those as goals. I've learnt a lot of mistakes when learning to play the guitar not to race ahead and play sloppy rather than play each note well.

[UsuallyPickin]

How fast a player can play a song is based on sound technique and knowledge of the song itself. So practice slowly to play quickly. Insofar as classical pieces are concerned , yes the Italian word descriptions have defined values. Insofar as folk fiddle tunes, a danceable tempo is considered "standard". Listen to a few of your favorite artists playing tunes and set your metronome to the tempo that they are playing. That will give you an idea what you are working toward. For me, 120 bpm is usually a good "quick" but not light speed tempo. R/

[JonZ]

In the Bluegrass tunes one can access from iRealb, 220 is a common speed for breakdowns. Beyond that seems to be more about showing how fast you can play.

[Tate Ferguson]

If possible, avoid those sadistic bebop saxophonists...

[MontanaMatt]

I recommend finding your speed limit for a given exercise, back off a bit, and work on tone and precision. Then after some work, try to hit your limit again. Cycling faster and slower will develop your comfort at any speed.

[sblock]

Quick dances (like Contra dances) go around 120-140 BPM, so you want to be able to reach that tempo to play in an oldtime or traditional setting, at least on some of the faster tunes. But if you want to play bluegrass, you'll need to up the ante. Again, it depends on the group and setting, but you may need to reach 200 BPM, or possibly a good deal higher. As for ITM, I have also heard it hit well above 200 BPM. It depends somewhat on whether the music is being played in a performance, or in a pub, or in a jam (ceilidh) setting.

My recommendation would be to simple measure the BPM for some tunes that you have recorded, and which you like. Pick a few of the faster ones. There are plenty of free apps for phones (like the iPhone or Android) where you just tap along to the music on your screen, and they report a running average of the musical tempo. I'd suggest that you get one of these and find out the peak tempos of some of your favorite tunes -- in which case, THAT is the tempo you eventually would like to reach. But don't stress over it: speed comes later. Accuracy, cleanness, and solid timing come first.

[JonZ]

I recommend finding your speed limit for a given exercise, back off a bit, and work on tone and precision. Then after some work, try to hit your limit again. Cycling faster and slower will develop your comfort at any speed.

I was thinking about the same thing. You want to practice mostly in the zone where you transition from effortless to effortful. So if you can play 71, 72, 73 effortlessly and 74, 75, 76 with effort, work in the area from 71 to 76. I also think dipping way down occasionally into much slower speeds can be good for refocusing, removing all tension and preventing boredom. But no one ever became fast by only playing slow. You have to strive to extend your limits.

So, how do you practice something correctly at the speeds that start to get difficult?

• Practice smaller sections.
• Practice just the picking hand.
• Alternate between half speed and full speed.

When you are at the challenging speeds, do whatever you can to make the task easier. Then gradually add elements of difficulty.

[foldedpath]

I know Contra Dance is usually pretty quick, but 140 bpm seems a bit on the aerobic side for those dances. For what it's worth, the Wiki page on Contra Dance says they're "played at a narrow range of tempos, between 128 and 133 bpm."

Traditional Irish/Scottish and OldTime music isn't usually played quite that fast, in my experience. As far as standard references go, I believe the RSCDS (Royal Scottish Country Dance Society) recommends 116 bpm for reels and jigs. Competition reels in Highland piping are played at 104 bpm. Just general guidelines, because some reels played in a session setting want to be faster, some slower. Personally, I find 112 bpm a good number to shoot for when practicing Irish reels.

The tempos mentioned here for reels in Irish/Scottish trad are counted as 2/2, although they're usually notated 4/4 for easier readability. In Bluegrass circles, a reel is usually counted in 4/4, so the bpm numbers would double (112 bpm becomes 224 bpm). Confusing, innit?


A few years ago, a poster named Gary Martin over in thesession.org forum made a study of the tempos for reels played on recordings by a few prominent trad musicians. The numbers shown are for lowest tempo, average tempo, highest tempo, and finally the number of reel sets included in the sample.

Willie Clancy 100 107 113 12
Paddy Canny 107 109 113 7
Kevin Crawford 83 109 119 16
Joe Burke & Andy McGann 108 111 113 8
Frankie Gavin 99 111 127 12
Kevin Burke 100 113 124
Joe Burke 113 114 120 8
Liz Carroll 91 115 132 26
Mary Bergin 107 116 124 8
Michael Coleman 104 117 128 23

These are recordings by top players, and the tempos might be a bit quicker than you'd find in a local session. The variability is interesting too, showing that you don't want to always play at a fixed tempo. Some sets need to be faster than others. However, notice that the average tempo floats around that 112 bpm number, so I'm comfortable adopting that as a personal target for practicing reels.