At 14, Ma Zihan Plays 473 Guitar Notes in 30 Seconds to Set New World Record
Updated: Sep 15
The Chinese guitarist used three-finger alternation on a single nylon string to average nearly 16 distinct note attacks per second.
By Atlas Editorial Team
13 September 2026 • Chengdu City, Sichuan Province [China]
A Hand Moving Faster Than the Ear Expects
At first, the sound is difficult to reconcile with the instrument producing it.
A nylon-string guitar is usually associated with warmth, resonance and patience. In the hands of 14-year-old Chinese guitarist Ma Zihan, one string becomes something closer to a precision instrument.
On July 27, 2026, Ma sat down in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, and attacked a single nylon string with a repeating three-finger sequence: index, middle, ring. Over one continuous 30-second interval, he produced 473 qualifying note attacks.
That is nearly 15.8 notes every second.
Atlas World Records has certified the performance as the world record for Most Notes Played on One String of a Nylon-String Guitar in 30 Seconds Using Three-Finger Alternation.
There is an appealing contradiction in the record. The equipment is traditional. The technique is rooted in established fingerstyle playing. The result sounds almost industrial.
And the person doing it is still several years away from adulthood.
Speed Was Never the Entire Point
Ma has been playing guitar for about seven years. He says his fascination with extreme speed did not begin as an attempt to chase a number. It came from arranging and performing music.
Fast passages, he explained, can create tension and excitement inside a piece. As he began incorporating more of them into his playing, speed became less of a trick and more of a musical tool.
By the age of nine, Ma was already practicing sections requiring roughly 12 notes per second. Over time, the demands grew. So did his ability to meet them.
He says he now regularly works at speeds in the 400-to-500 BPM range and that, when his hands are in optimum condition, he can maintain extremely fast playing for more than a minute. His warning to other musicians interested in pushing toward those limits is straightforward: warm up properly. At these speeds, the hands are being asked to do something unusually demanding.
That physical element is part of what makes the record interesting. Four hundred seventy-three notes cannot simply be rushed through. Each attack has to remain distinct enough to count.
The hand must move quickly.
The notes still have to exist.
Ma credits his father with supporting his development and cites a formidable group of guitarists among his influences: Paco de Lucía, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Jesse Cook and Jon Gomm. They come from different corners of guitar music, but all share an interest in extending the technical vocabulary of the instrument.
473 Is a Starting Point
For Ma, guitar began as a hobby.
That has changed.
He now says he wants to become a professional musician and hopes eventually to work
alongside accomplished people in the music industry. The record gives him an unusual credential at the beginning of that journey, but he does not talk about it as though 473 is a number to be preserved forever.
Quite the opposite.
“The world record means a lot to me,” he told Atlas. But almost immediately, his attention moved toward what comes next.
“I’m going to challenge myself again.”
That may be the clearest expression of the mentality behind the performance.
Records built around speed have an inherent problem for their holders: the moment a number is established, it becomes a target.
Ma seems perfectly comfortable with that.
At 14, he has already put 473 into the record book.
Now he has given himself something to chase.
Certified by Atlas World Records on 13 September 2026