When practicing, do you speed up single parts, or the whole piece?
Wed, 12/13/2017 - 04:10
When I learn a new piece, I break it down to parts (usually choruses) and practice them one after another in a slower tempo. Once I learn all the parts and I can play the whole piece slowly, I gradully increase the tempo untill I reach the final one.
Is this a correct approach? Or should I gradually speed up every single part immediately while learning it? Which approach do you use and which works best for you?
Sun, 12/17/2017 - 09:31
#2
Thank you Winslow! I
Thank you Winslow! I understand and I practice exactly as you write. I just wasn't sure whether it is the only correct way.
It takes patience, but playing all the parts at the same tempo is best, and pays off handsomely.
Ultimately, you have to perform the whole tune at a steady tempo, so why would you practice it at multiple tempos?
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you still have to play one part of the tune at a slower tempo, what good does it do to play the others at a faster tempo?
Now, you can break a tune down into much smaller parts than just choruses. Chunking, as it's called, is where you break a tune into phrases and work on each phrase.
Playing it at tempo is only one part of perfecting a phrase. rhythmic emphasis, tone, vibrato, dynamics are among the elements that can really polish a phrase and make it cme alive as music, beyind a sequence of notes o the sequence of actions required to deliver them.
When you slow down and focus on not only timing, but all the elements of expression, youll develop much more as a player than if you focus on speed.
Now, you may find you can play a particular phrase at a faster tempo that another one. Nothing wrong with exploring the potential that implies. But in the end you have to deliver the whole piece at a steady tempo, and the fastest tempo at which you can delive the whole piece is determined by the most difficult part. If that most difficult part requires a slower tempo, that's the tempo of the entire piece until you can master that part at a faster tempo.
The best way to increase the tempo is in small increments. You have to burn the pathways for the nervous system to send signals reliably. If you jump head faster than your nervous system can send the signals, you get unpredictable results.