Alternate picking: what do you think of as fast?

Lewy

So when it comes to alternate picking, let's say 16th notes, at what point do you hear something and think "that's now in the realms of fast/shred playing"?

Obviously there's all the mad Gilbert/Petrucci etc type speed...I'm more interested in what people think of as being at the bottom end of the range...what do you consider the "shred threshold"?

I'm gravitating toward the 160 BPM kind of range I think.

BigPaulie

Clean alternate picked 16th notes at 160 BPM (640 notes per minute) is well and truly in the shred stratosphere for me. I can't imagine being able to do that. I'd definitely have to cheat with some legato. 16th notes at anything over 120 pbm is what I consider "fast" but in the grand scheme of things, not "shred fast".

There's a wee widdly-widdly bit in the intro to Extreme's "Rest in peace" that's mainly sextuplets at 100 pbm (600 notes per minute) that, although I can't cleanly alternate pick it, I feel is comfortably within the "shred" ballpark.

grappagreen

You may think I'm mad but I think it depends on the nature of the timbre.. sextuplets at 120bpm played palm muted at high gain sound shreddy even though it's, relatively speaking, not that fast..

Lewy

grappagreen said:

You may think I'm mad but I think it depends on the nature of the timbre.. sextuplets at 120bpm played palm muted at high gain sound shreddy even though it's, relatively speaking, not that fast..

16th note triplets at 120 BPM (so 12 notes a second) seems pretty fast to me! 

wizbit81

16ths 160-200bpm
Sextuplets at 120-140bpm.