Music Practice Tips

This tip is probably obvious to many players - if a part is hard, slow it down and then speed it up. However, there can be good and bad ramifications to this practice, which you should be aware of if you’re going to use this technique.

Slow practice is great, because it allows you time to think about what you’re doing. Once you’ve then got the hang of it, you can then quicken the pace, and cut out some of the thinking steps which take up the time. However, you need to be aware of the changes in playing technique that can change in lower speeds.

For example, in violin playing there is a fantastic technique called Up-bow staccato. It’s a brilliant technique that will hammer out a number of notes clearly, from one bow. It has to be done quickly, as the only way to do it is to embrace the natural bouncing of the bow. If we do this technique slowly, then we can’t control the bouncing in the way that we would at higher speeds, and as such we either play it all on the string, or in a different off the string technique. Either way, we are practicing the wrong technique, and this can cause problems when we speed the tempo up, as we’ll have practiced the wrong thing. Remember the saying, “Practice makes Perfect”? Well, it should actually be “Perfect Practice makes Perfect” as we will remember to do what we practice doing. If we practice a passage with the wrong technique, then we’ll continue to do it with the wrong technique when we speed it up.

One way to get around this is to vary your metronome speeds. The great thing about digital metronomes these days is that you’re not limited to the markings on a pendulum. You can set it to 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100. We can use this to break the possibility of learning the wrong thing. Using a standard dice, choose 6 tempi that you’d like to practice this passage at. Let’s say, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100. Roll the dice, and play the passage through at that tempo (Eg, if you rolled a 1, you would play it at 50, if you then rolled a 5 you would play it at 90). The main things at work here are the differences between each tempo marking, and also the element of chance. The difference between 50 and 60 isn’t too large that it is a big jump, but it is enough to make the technique slightly different, changing what your body is expecting. Chance comes in through the dice, ensuring that your mind can’t make assumptions as to what to expect next, and also providing bigger jumps in tempo to shock the body into making sure it doesn’t remember an incorrect technique.

Have you tried this technique before? I’d especially love to hear from wind and brass players to know if there are changes in technique that can cause problems with slow practice.