Slow Practice: Myth or ? Options

[inigo]

There's learning the music, and there's learning the instrument, and some instruments maybe require more slow practice than others - as a string player for example I find slow practice essential because of the physical demands and coordination, and the listening for detail. I would think also that people at various stages of learning might benefit from slow practice because their reading may be less than fluent. And, sometimes slow practice involves small speedy bits with long gaps in between. The problem is if you do different things playing slowly (like using a lot of bow) which you might have to change when at tempo. Slow practice is worthwhile so long as you know exactly what aspect it is you are practicing - (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[corenfa]

At the moment, I have to do only slow practise - my hands hurt because I think I've strained something playing big chords fast. I've been told to practise the chords very very slowly and make sure that I can get my fingers into the right position for each one.

[schraeubchen]

At the moment, I have to do only slow practise - my hands hurt because I think I've strained something playing big chords fast. I've been told to practise the chords very very slowly and make sure that I can get my fingers into the right position for each one.

Sorry to read about your hurt with your hands. Hope you recover soon.

Itzhak Perlman just a while ago posted on facebook: "Advice from the "thinking violinist": One must always practice slowly. If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly."

I agree with him.

And to me it is good to start a new piece practising it slowly to get the sense of it. At the moment I am working on flute duets written by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, which all have a pretty complicated rhythm and it worked very good to start playing them in slow motion to understand the rhythm.

[tigerlily101]

As long as you speed it up afterwards I find it very effective (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[schraeubchen]

As long as you speed it up afterwards I find it very effective (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

[SingingPython]

We (his piano teacher and I) are trying to teach my 7 year old how to practise slowly. He's doing really well (2nd instrument - or perhaps 3rd counting voice?) and gets musicality into his playing very quickly - but has a problem with keeping things even that of course will respond to targetted slow hands-separately practice. The last couple of days when I was able to closely supervise some of that, he "got it" when he put something back together and it was so much better than before. I think we're on a mission to help his technique catch up with his ability as quickly and efficiently as possible!

There's a clear theme in this thread - slow practice is not something you do because it is the thing to do, and it is not usually appropriate for a whole piece. But for targetted fixing of a specific passage it is indispensible!

I've just remembered how we did "slow" practice with violin in relatively early stages - play note, then stop and quickly prepare the next note - kind of breaking down the two hands, without slowing down the speed of the skills that had to be mastered.