How Do I learn to play fast?

Everybody wants to be able to play fast tempos to impress the other players and the audience, but seldom do we practice playing fast in the proper way.  The first thing to do is to be able to play slowly at a steady tempo.  Most players have erratic time at all tempos so it is necessary to get control of the instrument at all tempos.  "When playing slow you gotta think fast and when playing fast you gotta think slow." 

I was forced into playing fast by the fastest drummer I've ever heard, Max Roach.  He could play tempos that were a blur because they were so fast, but he never looked like he was straining or scuffling to do it and he was constantly bringing forth new ideas.  In other words he wasn't just playing fast to play fast, but as an expression of music.  Fast is exciting, but you as the performer can't get overly excited or you will loose sight of what and why you are doing something. 

My suggestion is to start playing at a medium tempo and work at that until you feel comfortable - always being creative!  Slowly work your way up to the next tempo and continue until you have gotten up to the mm=300's and beyond if you feel it necessary.  Work with small ideas - maybe only a four or five note phrase and then try to expand on that.  Don't try to string together a bunch of 8th notes that go nowhere - always remember that you are creating melodies that have to make sense in relationship to the composition, chord changes and style of the music.  If you listen to those who play at break-neck speeds you will hear that they are still concerned with making melodies within their lines - Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Fats Navarro, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, etc.  They were all well grounded in the language of the music and knew how to create melodies that not only made musical since, but also were very personal statements about who they were as human beings.

Max Roach often said that, "Bird would take his horn out of the case, run to the microphone and play the fastest thing they were going to play all night and just destroy the band.  Max would be struggling to keep up and Miles would be spitting and sputtering.  So they would go home and try to get ready for him the next night and Bird would destroy them again, but all the while they were learning how to play unheard of tempos under his tutelage!"  Well, Max did the same to us every night - challenging us to play those fast tempos - so every night I would go home and try to figure out how to keep up.  I would practice all my fingering exercises, breathing exercises and musical ideas with the idea of not getting embarrassed on the bandstand the following night!  Finally thru years of work I got to the point where I could do it and stay relaxed!

Good luck!