Comments on: When in Doubt, Slow Down

By: Metronome Trick No. 1

Metronome Trick No. 1 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:38:45 +0000

[...] September 25th, 2009 at 4:01 pm The Practice Notebook » Blog Archive » When in Doubt, Slow Down Says:[...] practicing playing. I don’t know any good tricks for speaking like I do for playing [...]

By: rachel deren

rachel deren — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:13:13 +0000

This is the very concept my teacher has been nagging me to use. I have to admit I have been a bit hesitant to use it because stubbornly I thought it would cause me to regress rather than to progress toward my goal because slow practice was what I misunderstood as being a beginning step but after reading in your blog and seeing how it helped you I feel I MUST TRY IT and I may have hurt myself by not having utualized this.

By: Bonnie Whiting Smith

Bonnie Whiting Smith — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:06:33 +0000

I think this technique (playing slowly at a time other than in the very beginning stages of learning a piece) might also be applicable in the middle of the learning process. . . especially when one is doing something slightly uncomfortable/different. (i.e., speaking and playing or, if you’re me, doing something like playing kick drum.)

By: Anne Anderson

Anne Anderson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:04:56 +0000

Yes! It’s like the first time I picked up the cello after being in Paris for two weeks. I tried playing Bach 4th Suite Prelude at the pace I left it at, but, aghh, everything was off, naturally. So I slowed the whole thing down and played it like a Zen meditation, celebrating each note, letting the phrases slowly speak to me in new ways. And I’ve been playing everything better, with better tone and intonation since then.