WTF is up with all these "Flight of the Bumblebee" guitar players?

famous beagle

famous beagle

Well-known member
I'm sure you've seen them on YT; if not, just search "Flight of the Bumblebee guitar," and you'll see people claiming to play it at 340, 750, 900, 1400, 1600, and even 4000 BPM. LOL.

What the hell people? I mean, if you watch these things, once it gets above about 400 bpm, the notes are pretty much indistinguishable, and you can't even tell if they make a mistake.

But regardless, what is the compulsion anyway? I mean ... do these people spend 8 hours a day doing nothing else?
 
It would appear so...

I did actually spend about an hour watching this shit one evening, up to about 1200 or 1400 bpm. One guy, British bloke, talking about the bumblebee is a labour of love. I was surprised, amazed, interested appalled... then I realised I was bored and didn't care. I haven't watched one since.

I don't think they're accepting records for it any more as its impossible to tell if people are actually doing it properly.
 
Generally these wankers are all bout speed and the notes, absolutely no feeling in the music whatsoever. I watched a video the other night of a 12 year old girl wailing Vivalvdi's 4 Seasons (or something like that). She had all the notes, the speed, the various techniques, but no feeling. Maybe she'll learn that at some point, too.
 
I heard an anecdote about some blues gathering to honor BB King (back when he was still alive)...and I guess everyone there took their turn playing some guitar, and some modern/name player (don't recall the name), who could shred, got up and ripped away and played like a champ.
Then BB got up next,and hit one note and just rode on it...and TOTALLY killed...mainly because of his tone and feeling.
 
mjbphotos said:
Generally these wankers are all bout speed and the notes, absolutely no feeling in the music whatsoever. I watched a video the other night of a 12 year old girl wailing Vivalvdi's 4 Seasons (or something like that). She had all the notes, the speed, the various techniques, but no feeling. Maybe she'll learn that at some point, too.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but she's a 12 year old girl, she obviously likes music but probably doesn't even know what music she likes yet. Being technically sound won't do her any harm in future.
 
JDOD said:
This is one of the better ones I've seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSa...U&annotation_id=annotation_3002571639#t=8m30s
Still, 30 odd notes/second. Seems dubious to me. That's one hell of a wanking hand.
Click to expand...

What always strikes me about these videos is the picking hand. It never seems to be moving that fast. This guy is especially like that (I've seen another video of him doing this as well). It like, even though his fret hand seems to be speeding up, the pick hand almost never seems to be getting any faster. Is this because he's employing more and more legato the faster he gets? With it being so fast, you can't even tell.
 
Some people have Everest, some have weight loss, some others have improved brain power and some seek the holey pail of TFOTBB @ uberrevvs.
Me? I call it typical for the modern human who seeks a level of recognition for ever more irrelevant, obscure or arcane acts.
Someone put it more succinctly, (not necessarily Andy): "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes".
It was reduced to "15 minutes of fame" and

which is even the more amusing for being out of synch - though I know it wasn't when it was a hit in OZ a cope of decades ago.
 
miroslav said:
I heard an anecdote about some blues gathering to honor BB King (back when he was still alive)...and I guess everyone there took their turn playing some guitar, and some modern/name player (don't recall the name), who could shred, got up and ripped away and played like a champ.
Then BB got up next,and hit one note and just rode on it...and TOTALLY killed...mainly because of his tone and feeling.
Click to expand...

I heard the same anecdote in Jr high. That would have been 1977 or so. I'm pretty sure it was made up. If it was a modern occurence, someone would have recorded it and put it on youtube by now.

I always found bb king to be a bit boring. He really could place that one note very well, but by the 15th time he placed that note that well, I would start looking for something else to do.
 
It's the same reason people try to break any record. They want to be the best in the world at *something*. Whether that's playing guitar fast, smashing watermelons with their forehead, whatever.

That being said, I don't believe these 4000 BPM claims. Without a better recording (turn off the distortion, ya noobs!), you can't tell what they're playing with enough accuracy to verify it. (Except that the first 4000 BPM video I saw was sloppy as crap, so clearly, he wasn't succeeding.)
 
I once thought I played something at 4000BPM...but I'm not so sure anymore...it all happened so fast.
 
The good thing about playing FOTBB at 2000 RPM is that it's over in about 3 seconds and you can then go and listen to real music...
 
I just wish I never googled it and lived happily ever after in the ignorance of not knowing what it was.

I just wasted about 5 minutes listening to shite played really fast that sounded, well, shite!

Oh well, back to Rory Gallagher for me. :thumbs up:
 
These videos are faked. It is done in video editing software and the sole reason for the clock/bloke hanging around in the background (in some clips), is to fool the viewer that it is all happening in real time. I'll believe it when I see it in person.

Until then...no.

RB
 
That's kind of the point of FOTBB, like the Minute Waltz. More of a stunt than a piece of music.
 
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