How Tim Henson Can Play So Damn Fast

Tim's secret is countless hours of hard work

Interestingly enough, Tim does not actually have big hands. I've met him in person and shook his hand, and they felt tiny. He is just very flexible and dexterous, probably because of playing guitar/violin from a VERY young age in combination with actually practicing a ton. His fingers are mad skinny, which I think gives that illusion. Scott actually does have big hands though

He studied violin for years as a child. If you look at Tim's technique, he first developed on violin, and then he carried this discipline over to guitar. Some say Tim is this century version of Paganini, who was also a violinist and guitarist in his day also.

The three keys I have found essential to playing wide intervals: 1. Thumb well below the top of the neck (as stated in the video); 2. Guitar positioned to the fret hand side of your body; and 3. Changing the position of fret hand elbow. Bringing it closer to the neck for wider stretches. Elbow position is often well overlooked by instructors.

Great stuff. Tim is so freaking good. I love the video where one of his friends asked him how he got so good and he said “practice.” Then he asked how much do you practice? Tim says “I don’t know about 12 hours a day?”

he says he doesn’t have big hands, actually he says he has small hands compared to someone like scott, but his fingers are slender and is palm is small compared to his actuall finger length, this gives the impression that they are longer

I hope you find it useful. Sorry for the very long time between videos, I got extremely sick over Easter, was hospitalised for months, and have spent months afterwards recovering. Also, I drew the wrong conclusion that Tim has big hands! From his videos I saw he had around the same size hands as me, and I thought I had big hands, but it turns out that I have average size hands (7.6 inches from wrist to tip of middle finger). So I learnt that I am not as special as I thought 🙂 As the comments pointed out, small hands can be overcome with practice anyway, I touched on that in the video, but its important to re-stress that.

I love this video so much man. No bullcrap, no long explanations to simple things, no blatant plugs. You've earned a subscriber. Keep up the great work.

Great video. I don't even play guitar, but the way you explained those concepts was incredibly clear.

“I’ve never seen someone have so much control over a finger” will stick with me forever 😂

he also does this thing with his thumb that you can see at 3:33 where it looks like he uses his thumb to alternate pick instead of pronating his wrist. You have to hold the pick close to the thumb joint and make a wave motion with it. It's strange at first but it feels like you have more control.

Knowing every note on the fretboard can really help you play fast. Speed is really just the knowledge of knowing where your going.

How does he do it? Practice. Lots. He mentioned that he practiced 16 hours a day as a child.

Henson looks SO RELAXED when he plays

This was a good video and explanation, certainly for a pleb. Thank you :) Tim and his guys are incredibly talented

Dude what a breakdown! The best thing on YouTube is when smart, talented, creative people break down the actions of other smart, talented creative people! Sometimes the people doing the impossible aren’t the best at explaining how they do it

Dang this video was rly helpful. Gave me a lot of insight to what i've been doing wrong while learning this song and what i should work on. Thanks a lot!

Good vid, really nailed it with the classical fretting hand position. That, along with consciously minimizing tension in my hands/wrists during practice helped me a lot.

Pat Metheny is one of the fastest jazz players out there and you will regularly see his thumb. While I absolutely agree it's important to reflect or be aware of left hand shape and positioning it's not the key to speed. Speed is in the brain. If you can't hear it fast you can't play it fast. I've got huge hands, and can make long stretches but I wouldn't count myself as a fast (or capable being one) player. It's an attitude and synching brain and music.

Man, this was so helpful.