Lysander
Oud Junkie
Posts: 410
Registered: 7-26-2013
Location: London, UK
Member Is Offline
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Slow practice
http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/is-slow-practice-really-necessar...
I read this article a while back and thought little of it. It made some sort of sense to me but I shelved the idea just wanting to play rather than to
practice. For months my oud teacher has been telling me I play too fast. I never really listened.
But today I decided to play some tunes at 80bpm and suddenly it started to make sense. It was hard at first. It still is hard but I think I see where
this is going. As the article above says, too often we can be concerned with the outcome rather than the process, and playing tunes at 80 or
70bpm really lets you understand the nuances of the tune and how you get to your destination rather than just zooming there to try to impress your
listeners. Now I am starting to practice rather than just to play, concentrating on every small intonation and the distance and movement between each
note. Additionally, playing to a metronome really helps you keep in rhythm and makes you realise how often you are galloping ahead and falling out of
time.
Does anyone else do slow practice and if so, what value do you personally derive from it?
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
Posts: 2949
Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: Stringish
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For the type of practice described in the article, it would be better not to use a metronome at all or use a tempo like 40 or 50 bpm. 70-80 bpm is
more of a moderately slow tempo, which is still helpful but a different kind of practice than the super-slow practice being described in the
article.
And yes, I use slow practice and strongly advocate it to all my students.
There are a number of advantages:
1- you can avoid making any mistakes when learning something new. This prevents ingrained habits of making mistakes at certain points, mistakes that
will often come out in performance
2- you can consciously relax and focus on playing cleanly and without tension or excess movement
3- you have time to focus very intently on specific aspects of the music or technical aspects of playing
I often observe that we really can only focus on one thing at a time. If we are doing more than one thing at a time (as is constantly the case with
music), then the things we are not immediately focused on will be guided by training and habit rather than conscious attention.
When practicing, this means that if you aren't careful, your attention will constantly be fluctuating between different areas rather than focusing on
improving one thing (say, getting hung up on your intonation when you meant to be working on your risha, or vice versa).
When we play in a performance situation, whatever are our automatic habits will come out in our playing. Slow practice allows you to determine in
advance what your future habits will be, giving you much more choice and control over how you play.
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