Useless Stuff I Do When Bored

I was bored today, and decided to play guitar for a little while. Just for laughs I wanted to see exactly how fast I can alternate pick. Personally, I rarely just pick every note these days. I prefer to mix in other techniques with picked notes like like legato, economy picking, sweeping, and tapping. Which means that when I want to play fast, I can go even faster than my results here.

The calculation for notes per second is: ((Notes per beat) x (beats per minute)) / 60 = notes per second

My criteria for this test was strict alternate picking, each note clearly articulated. (No full arm spastic arm vibration picking, or slopping over notes.)

Playing 4 notes per string, I was able to accurately alternate pick 32nd notes (16 per beat) at 130 bpm (beats per minutes), so according to that formula, I can pick about 17.3 notes per second. When I switched to something that was 3 notes per string, I played sextuplets (6 per beat) at 150 bpm, for around 15 nps. Really, my comfort zone is around 14nps. I can pretty much play stuff at that speed with less effort and it sounds just as fast. So I guess 16 would be the average, but honestly 15 feels like it's more correct.

How does that stack up against other players? Well Guitar World printed a handy chart awhile ago...

I find it a bit hard to believe that I'm as fast a picker as guys like Paul Gilbert, Yngwie (who's more of an economy picker), Steve Vai, and Michael Angelo. I hear those guys, and I still think they blow me away technically. I'm just a hobbiest, occasionally playing for my own amusement with zero band ambitions whatsoever. To be fair, I practiced obsessively as a teenager when I still harbored delusions of rock stardom. In fact, given how little I play these days, I'm surprised I retained any chops at all. I wonder how fast I would be if I actually still practiced, instead of just picking up the guitar every once in awhile when I've got an itch in my fingers? (Not that speed equates with good playing, mind you.)