How do you play fasts, repeated chords

[Pat Azzarello]

I'm playing in a band and doing a few songs that require repeated chords. The most troublesome right now is Childs Anthem (Childs Anthem - Studio recording on YouTube) , where the intro has repeated triplet chords.

 

While I have plenty of classical (and jazz and pop) training, I've never been great at playing chords like this with speed. I can't play Jerry Lee Lewis type parts very well either.

 

I'm trying not to tighten up my muscles, and even played two-note chords (which helped, but it's still not where I want it to be).

 

Are there some tricks to doing this? Anybody have some pointers?

[CEB]

Start with this. Keep the center of your palms relaxed.

[mate stubb]

The line might be amenable to the cross hands technique. This video might give you some ideas.

 

[video:youtube]

[timwat]

Relaxed, tension-free:

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

[Moonglow]

Some good tips in a thread I started a while back seeking similar assistance:

 

Click Here

[DenCV]

I'm sure I'm going to get plenty of arguement here, but you might be at your fastest speed. Let me get off the subject a bit to explain what I mean. I took a 15 year break from music a while back, and ended up getting really involved in pistol shooting. We did what was called IPSC, which was a speed event.Matches were scored on a time and accuracy system, and I won and lost matches by a few thousandths of a second. We were drawing from a holster, reloading on the fly, opening doors, etc. while shooting. One thing we did to cut our times down was try and have the fastest splits we could. Splits were the time between shots. Well, I was practicing about a thousand rounds a week, and I still couldn't pull my splits down below 0.2 seconds between shots. I had a friend who never practiced, couldn't hit the broad side of a barn door, but could consistantly get splits of .09 seconds. I read everything there was to read, used the proper hand tension, foot position, etc. and still I was stuck at 0.2. I was shooting with one of the top pro's at a match, and I asked him about it. He made his living at shooting. He told me, stop trying, you hit your top speed, it ain't gonna get better. He consulted neurologists, sports doctors, everyone he could (speed determined his living), and they all told him it's something you're born with, and different people are faster than others. I think it was called repetitive muscle something.

I am not saying you shouldn't try all the hints here, try them all. I am saying if none work, it might be you hit your limit. I too have trouble doing that repetitive stuff on keys, but I know it's because I'm slow, so I don't kill myself. See how fast you can repeatedly hit a key with one finger, and then have some friends try it, even if they don't play keys. If they are all consistently faster than you, you might have the same problem I do. I have trouble doing shakes, repetitive piano hits, even tounging on a trumpet. So I accept that and work on other things. I watch Joey D do some of his repetitive stuff, and know it ain't gonna happen with me no matter how hard I try, so I appreciate that in him even more (Oddly enough that friend with the fast split times was built exactly like Joey, so it isn't a matter of being in shape that gives you the fast speed).

Again, I'm not saying this to give you a cop out excuse, I'm saying if you try everything you can, and it doesn't get quicker it might be because of this.

[ksoper]

I had to play the Jerry Lee stuff more than I cared to when I was with country artists. Absolutely hated it. It seemed to me the lowest common denominator when it came to piano licks. That and big glissandos, or what they call "rakes" in Nashville. But with time I got better at it and discovered that from time to time, it's the perfect thing to play.

 

CEB's comment about relaxing the palm of your hand is close to my experience. The hand is relaxed, a kind of controlled flop. The sensation should be like you've set your hand in motion and it's going up and down of its own volition. Let your hand go on auto-pilot. Don't think about it. The trick is not to tense up at the elbow or shoulder.

 

Straight eighths can be done with one hand most of the time at rock and fast country tempos. When switching to sixteenth note triplets or straight sixteenths, sometimes I could do it with one hand, but most times I went for the cross-hand technique. Paraphrasing Chick Corea, why play it with one hand if it's easier with two? In a band situation the bass and guitar are already covering the range you'd play with your left hand. So, two things happen--the mix gets clearer and you're providing flash.

[Daniel Wade]

 

What kind of keyboard are you using?

 

I have played some keyboards that are just too slow for some things. That's one reason I currently play a kurzweil pc3. My old keyboard was just too slow to do some of the things that I have to do in my current band.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

 

[Baldwin Funster]

The best way to play something really fast is to know the riff inside and out so you can play in like an impulse. If you know something that well and feel like you are too slow, you might have reached your max. In guitar terms, if you can't be van Halen maybe you're a David Gilmour. I like Gilmour better anyways.

[Tom Williams]

I also am a slow repeater. My favorite unobtainable repeat was Emerson's left hand playing on Pirates, probably around .13 seconds interval. One that I did manage to make work was on Billy Joel's Billy the Kid (perhaps as fast as .08 second interval), which I did by putting my left hand under my right.

 

With splittable keyboards, it's an easy trick to duplicate an octave or so at one end of the keyboard or another (a bit like tonewheels wrapping around), and then play with two separated hands.

 

Finally, with a multi-keyboard MIDI setup, you can set the same program on two different channels (sometimes you can even share a single channel) and play one hand over the other -- easiest of them all.

[Pat Azzarello]

Thanks for all the good ideas. Moving down to two note chords has made it easier and allowed me to sync with the drummer and bassist much better.

 

I also believe that I have a (genetic) disposition that makes me not be able to play one handed repeated chords faster than other people. However, I know I can do better - and I can practice it.

 

Two keyboards currently in use on this tune:

QS8 for Piano

QS7 for synths

I'm swapping out the QS8 for a MOXF8, which has a faster response (not as sluggish as the QS8). I did the Billy Joel "Angry Young Man" repeated single note test on it before I bought it, and it passed (the QS doesn't).

 

I'll let you know how it all turns out.

 

[marino]

Good advice left and right. I would only add one thing, that I also mentioned in another recent thread: If you keep your elbow in constant, *slight* lateral motion, it will help your endurance in a huge way.