Slow practice

[Bach5G]

How slow?

[Burgerbob]

Half speed is a good place to start, most of the time. Sometimes slower is better.

[GabrielRice]

Half speed is a good place to start, most of the time. Sometimes slower is better.

Agreed. And be mindful, so that you are being as simple and efficient with your motions as possible at slow tempi. That way the work you do will transfer well to performance tempi.

[DakoJack]

A very personal thought on this, I like to do a mix of slowing things down and playing thing in sections or "adding notes" at tempo. When I do slow things down to be precise I find where I can play it clean and then drop it 10-20 bpm and work back up in increments. For me this topic falls into a category I think a lot of things do which is finding what is most efficient for you as an individual so hard to give advice or an exact number.

[MStarke]

Kind of controversial: While I totally see the point of slow practice (and would typically start at half tempo with this approach), I am trying to force myself to also go into extremes with tempo. Only partially on specific passages or excerpts, but more on e.g. tongueing or scale exercises. I tend to be overly analytical and stop playing whenever one small thing happens. Consciously just going for a very high tempo helps breaking that habit and of course also pushing boundaries.

[trombonedemon]

All tempos, ballads can quickly become dance tempo and so on and so forth.

[timothy42b]

And then there's


Sulliman on fast practice approaches.

It might make some difference whether you're building technique that you don't yet have, or applying technique to a passage. Many of the pros who advocate very slow practice are just that, experienced pros who already have blazing speed. Their world is not always our world - ahem, never my world.

[GabrielRice]

Many of the pros who advocate very slow practice are just that, experienced pros who already have blazing speed. Their world is not always our world - ahem, never my world.

Sorry Tim, but you have it backwards. Please see my reply above. You build the technique to play fast by playing slow with as much mindfulness as you can muster.

Jason's approach is great, and I absolutely use it in conjunction with very slow practice.

[Wilktone]

Back when I was a grad student the jazz combo class I was playing in had a rehearsal and our instructor, Peter Ballin (a great saxophonist) was running late. We decided to jam on Giant Steps while we were waiting, at a reasonable tempo so we could practice making the changes. We were in the middle of the tune when Peter walked in. He immediately noticed the tune and got a grin on his face as he took out his sax. While the pianist was scuffling through the changes I whispered to the bassist and drummer to pick up the tempo to as fast as they could possibly play when Peter started to solo. When they did, Peter laughed and then tore it up. When he finished soloing, leaving us all with our jaws dropped, Peter told us his strategy for playing fast.

"Everyone says in order to play fast you have to practice slow," he said. "But I learned to play fast tempos by practicing fast tempos."

The moral of the story is that there needs to be a balance. It's certainly beneficial to practice slowly enough that you can concentrate on playing everything perfectly. It's also useful to push yourself to play faster than you can currently play.

But the bulk of my practice time I want to spend on playing on the edge where I can almost, but not quite make it happen. I feel that that's the sort of practice that provides the most benefit.

Dave

[ParLawGod]

I like slow practice as a tool...it's tried and true. Though another strategy I like includes full tempo practicing.

Play the FIRST note...when satisfied, play the first TWO notes...add one note at a time. Do not add to the line until you are satisfied with what you're already playing. Remember, "good enough" isn't good enough! Sometimes that means playing the same handful of notes over, and over, and over. It's good repetition, helps me with muscle memory, allows me to listen for tuning and quality of articulations, isolates exact trouble spots, etc. Somewhat tedious, but I've had good success with it...not at all saying it's the best approach for all situations. Though I do find that I do not play as musically using this strategy...it's more to work on technique.

[DakoJack]

Kind of controversial: While I totally see the point of slow practice (and would typically start at half tempo with this approach), I am trying to force myself to also go into extremes with tempo. Only partially on specific passages or excerpts, but more on e.g. tongueing or scale exercises. I tend to be overly analytical and stop playing whenever one small thing happens. Consciously just going for a very high tempo helps breaking that habit and of course also pushing boundaries.

I don't think this is that out there, I feel that occasionally you do need to practice fast like anything else the way to get good at something is doing it and playing fast is no exception.

[ParLawGod]

I also practice technical passages a little FASTER than indicated. There have been a couple times in my life (with solo rep.) when a pianist has gotten a little carried away...I try to be prepared for that the best I can.

[glenp]

I also use both slow and fast practice. One place where I feel that slow practice works better for me is for awkward intervals across partials. Anytime I under or over shoot intervals at tempo despite being able to hear the pitch in my head, I slow it down until the interval comes out cleanly.

[timothy42b]

Many of the pros who advocate very slow practice are just that, experienced pros who already have blazing speed. Their world is not always our world - ahem, never my world.

Sorry Tim, but you have it backwards. Please see my reply above. You build the technique to play fast by playing slow with as much mindfulness as you can muster.

The bold in Gabe's reply is mine.

I tried searching the forum for mindfulness, and found four references, none of which referred to it in more than passing.

Perhaps it is worth a deeper discussion.

I suspect (but would defer to Gabe's expertise) that slow practice without mindfulness is largely unproductive.

[GabrielRice]

I suspect (but would defer to Gabe's expertise) that slow practice without mindfulness is largely unproductive.

Most practice without mindfulness is largely unproductive.

That said, I definitely do some of my playing every day with something else - video, magazine - going on in front of me. I know there are some who say that's a terrible thing to do, but I also know players better than me who do the same.

[Mr412]

It apparently is debatable by some. But what shouldn't be is practicing under as many different scenarios as possible to hope for the best during a performance and yet to be prepared for the worst.

[timothy42b]

I suspect (but would defer to Gabe's expertise) that slow practice without mindfulness is largely unproductive.

Most practice without mindfulness is largely unproductive.

That said, I definitely do some of my playing every day with something else - video, magazine - going on in front of me. I know there are some who say that's a terrible thing to do, but I also know players better than me who do the same.

At ETW/ATW one year, Dave Taylor said he played scales while watching soaps. (Gabe may have been at that lecture too.)

[GabrielRice]

At ETW/ATW one year, Dave Taylor said he played scales while watching soaps. (Gabe may have been at that lecture too.)

I wasn't, but that tracks.

[GabrielRice]

I'll go into a little more detail about what I mean by mindfulness while practicing slowly.

First of all, rhythm is essential. I almost always use a metronome when practicing slowly; it helps keep me accurate, and it also helps me keep the discipline of staying slow.

My favorite metronome app is Time Guru, which allows me to program passages of mixed meter and/or changing subdivisions, and then I can manipulate the tempo of the programmed section. It has other fantastic options as well, including voice counts, etc.

Second, slow practice with a lot of extra physical motion is not going to be particularly helpful when bring the passage up to performance tempo, so I am very attentive to economy of motion. I like to treat the process meditatively to a certain extent. Another way that I think of it is that I'm programming my body like a machine, so that it does only what it needs to and nothing more. Then I can speed up gracefully and calmly.

[MTbassbone]

I agree with what Gabe said. I think it is important to acknowledge there are many ways to approach practice. Having as many techniques at your disposal to produce results is important. What works for some may not work for others, and what worked for you yesterday may not work today. I do subscribe to slow practice to an extent and certain agree with the economy of motion. Like many things a balanced approach is important. Believing in only one technique, theory, belief, etc can be counterproductive.

I too am guilty of having media, screens, or audio (especially MLB and college sports) playing while practicing, especially scales and patterns. Almost meditative in weird sort of way.

[PhilTrombone]

I like the emphasis on mindfulness; My own teacher always said that he'd rather I put in 30 minutes where I was truly concentrating and focused, rather than hours of mechanics while half-listening.

One thing I like to do to help focus is to practice in the dark. If you're doing simple patterns it's easy, since you don't need to be reading anything. If you're reading something, just put on a small stand light to illuminate the music.

When you free up the part of your brain dedicated to processing vision, it really opens up your ears.

Do I have to mention that you need to be careful if you are walking around in the dark?!?!?!?