Who is the world's fastet bassist? I've never asked myself this question, but receiving a Twitter request from the world's fastest bassist of course made me curious.

The request was sent by Jayen Varma, who according to his website is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as fastest bassist, playing 36 notes per second (corresponding to thirty-second notes at 270 bpm).

Much more interesting is the fact that Jayen Varma comes from India and has developed his own slap style playing bass like an Indian tabla. He has a YouTube page with a few videos where he demonstrates using Indian Ragas (scales/modes) and Talas (rhythmical phrases) on Bass. By the way: You shouldn't be surprised at the sounds he's making on some of the videos: In Indian music, each rhythm has a defined standard phrasing (see e.g. Teental) so that the rhythm can be spoken using certain syllables - similar to the usage of Solfège for scales in Europe.

There's a demo video after the click, and more on Jayen Varma's YouTube page.