John Taylor, a 28 year old music teacher from Westminister, Colorado achieved a blazing speed of 620 bpm while playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsokov, at the Olympian City Shopping mall in Kowloon, Hong Kong, on new year's eve.
At that speed, it is impossible to verify the correctness of the music. Moreover it feels just like listening to a random videogame sound effect than music. But the slow motion video revealed that John was successful in achieving 10.2 beats per second, without a single error ! He broke his own record of playing guitar at 600 bpm.
John Taylor had a dream of becoming the fastest guitarist in the world, shorlty after picking up the guitar at the age of 13. He used to practice 'The flight of the Bumblebee' for an hour everyday, despite of the hand cramps he had to experience. He use specially designed picks with angled tips that help smooth transitions between the strings of his guitar. Finally his years of practice has been rewarded. He is trying to go even faster and thinks that he could reach at least 800 bpm!
The Guinness officials have set 'The flight of the Bumblebee', a century old, famous and complex composition, as a standard for fastest guitarist record to avoid record aspirants going through a single note.
