In my lessons with the undergraduate students here at Yale I find myself repeating a few core ideas many times. Perhaps one of the most common suggestions I make to students is to… slow down.
Guitarists seem to have a fascination with playing things fast. I must admit that I too went through my phase… ok. several phases, of obsessing over my speed. However, I have found in my teaching and my own studies that the best way to improve control, accuracy and even speed is to slow everything down.
There are three types of slowing down that I would like to talk about here. (I do admit, the titles don’t sound promising but the ideas are!)
1. Slowing down the tempo
2. Slowing down your practice
3. Slowing down your performance
Slowing Down the Tempo
When you slow down the tempo of a section that needs work then, and only then, can you see what isn’t working and how you can fix it. Slowing down allows us to understand the very complex movements of both hands that are involved in a passage of music. Once we understand the movements we have more control of the movements. With more control comes accuracy and speed. It also aides in the speed at which we learn a piece and perhaps, eventually memorize it. Once you start slowing down the tempo of passages to work on them you will find out that you are saving a ton of time by slowing down.
Slowing Down your Practice
In a similar way slowing down your overall practice means that you work more efficiently and productively. By slowing down your practice I mean that you do not try to learn the piece in one sitting or even ten. Take your time. Map out all of the fingering, try different fingerings, look at right hand fingering, analyze the form, the structure, the harmony, the phrasing… do you understand? There are many facets to each piece yet most of us jump straight in the deep end and start playing a piece from beginning to end… at full speed. By doing this you are making the entire learning process stretch out over a much longer period of time than it needs to be.
Slowing Down your Performance
So, after a coffee and a good warm up you can play that overture at a blistering pace of MM. 120 all the way through with only a few slips… (congrats!)… but when the performance comes around half of the notes were missing and the other half may have been in another key! Does this sound familiar? It is all too common to hear the phrase “but I played it much better last night at home” following a less than spectacular performance. So why do we always try to play at the very extreme of our capabilities when the situation is at its toughest?
Well, the answer to that question can be left for someone else to answer but I am here to say that if you shift down a couple of gears in your performance and take things at a more manageable pace you will be a happy chappy.
and here’s why…
The positive reinforcement you feel after being on stage and feeling more in control is worth its weight in gold and the positive side effects filter through all of your playing. (can you imagine how good you would feel if you were always in control on stage!)
So. Slow down everyone. O.K?
I agree with all of this!
That’s a very sound approach to working on any new or old piece of music Simon. Slowing the process down can never be overstated. We all have the desire to learn a piece of music we know and love instantly but the reverse happens when we rush through it.
It seems like there are always these weak links in the piece that never go away. Slow down and observe how both hands are moving. Go over the difficult sections in slow motion, not letting any problems get past you. Solve them now rather than later. Sometimes you need to break it down to just two notes or chords at a time.
Don’t leave the metronome feeling lonely in the corner. Use it early on before bad tempo and rhythm habits develop. Before you start to use another musicians interpretation, you should learn the rhythms as written so you won’t be hazy later on of what the original rhythms were. Also don’t neglect your tone while you’re struggling with all of the technical aspects.
There’s a lot to think about when learning a piece of music. The slower you approach it the faster you’ll learn it, and the more accurate, and musical it will end up being.
Sound advice. The perception of time, and therefore of tempo, is fragile in anybody, though musicians may hope to have a slight edge owing to training and practice. Under stress, the body’s chemical response can play havoc with what sense we do have of time/tempo, sabotaging our best effort to play as we want to play. A friend who has taught and played piano and organ at conservatory level for over a half century admits he still consistently tends to speed up in public performance.
Doug Niedt discusses this common problem from a concert guitarist perspective and makes the same recommendation to slow down — perhaps till the tempo seems way too slow to the player; it may seem about right to the listener then.
And I think John Johnston makes a good suggestion about the metronome. It can be a revelation to listen to its impartial judgment and accept its friendly advice. I’m not a great player and never will be, but I do find that I play at least 50% better when the metronome’s going. That’s got to mean something! (Maybe I should get one of those that fits in the ear like a Bluetooth transceiver, for when I play for friends….)