The word ‘fartlek’ is Swedish, and is usually used to refer to a type of running training called ‘speed play.’ Justin Sandercoe did a really cool lesson on this which I have since extended to a series of exercises mixed with ideas from Indian music to create a lovely web of speed training techniques.
Speed Training Techniques
- The One String Exercise – Start with a metronome at a slower speed like 65 and start playing subdivisions of that pulse. Start by playing one note per click, then gradually divide until you can’t any more. Starting out with doing division 1-2-4 of a mediums slow pulse is good for beginners. A more advanced challenge is to set the metronome for 40 and try to get all the subdivisions between one and twelve.
- Subdivision Scales – Playing a scale you are working on with these various subdivisions is a good challenge.
Unfiled Notes
Add-Etude – Attidtude
Timing tools – tempoless, pulse tools, metric tools
- Numbers on a String and Crossing – Splitting Numbers, one per string
- Change Subdivisions
- Augmentations
- Adjust Tempo
- Change Index
- Polyrhythms
- Listening
- Speed Bursts – Groove a speed, add irregularly in a definite place, groove, move around
- Challenges – subdivisions and augmentation pyramid, Speed Bursts
- Synthesizing with Other Techniques
- Pyramids, Subtraction, Isorhythm Grids