Justa picker said basicly what I was about to say. Mussle memory. You should practice to the point that you can play the tune while reading a book or getting into a heated coversation with your mates while playing. I sometimes find myself listening to coversations in pubs while playing and makeing all the changes etc. When you are running on gravity, you can go as fast as you want... however, if you listen to some Great bands like the Bothey band, who play fast for the sake of attracting folks who listen to rock in stead of Irish music, well, in a lot of ways they just played to damn fast. If you slow down Paddy Keanans playing in that band, you hear wonderful wonderful things that you miss as it flys past, which is why I like his solo albums so much better than his bothey band recordings, which are great if you are really skuthered, but well, any way that's my tupenny piece on the whole speed thing... Larry