Just an observation here. As someone who mostly plays Irish traditional and Contra Dance fiddle tunes when I'm picking fast, I don't get much out of watching Bluegrass pickers. Bluegrass breaks tend to be mostly unbroken strings of eighth notes, which lends itself to a steady up-down hand motion. At least, that's what I see when I watch a fast break by Monroe, Skaggs, Bush, etc. Even when the tune might include a brief interruption in the melody line, they tend to "ghost pick" the missing notes and keep that hand moving in a steady pattern to keep the speed up. I know there are other ways to pick Bluegrass (Thile), but that seems to be a fairly standard method for going fast.
Playing Irish 'trad or Contra Dance tunes at a fast tempo doesn't work that way. You have to play the actual melody, including all the fits and starts, all the little quarter note pauses, triplets, and runs that make up the melody. It's not an unbroken string of eighth notes. The rhythms are also different from a steady mechanical 4/4 pulse too, even in a reel... at least, if the group is good enough not to steamroller reels so they all sound the same. So it can be tricky to play quickly.
With this style of music, I seem to make the most progress by just practicing the specific tunes over and over, getting them deep into brain/muscle memory so I can glide over any rough spots. Maybe I'm doing it wrong... maybe I'd make more progress by running scale and arp exercises to a metronome, but I think deep familiarity with the tune is at least a starting point for building speed with this style of music. Besides, practicing by playing tunes is a more fun than running scales. So that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
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