Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Practice Tip Number Seven

Slow vs Fast Practice
Notes from Dr. Helen Marlais' Lecture at the MTAC Convention / July 2009

This is the piano version of what your trainer at the gym suggests you do while working out on the treadmill.

Play a passage three times slowly -- and really do play slowly, then once more, immediately, at full tempo.

If the piece is long, use this method for individual sections -- playing an entire movement of a Beethoven Sonata in this way could drive a person to really hate practicing, which would be counter-productive.

Since the ultimate goal is to play well and enjoy your repertoire, all of these tips will make your practice time very efficient and manageable. Tip number seven is also great for solving a tricky measure or any difficult passage in a longer piece.

1 comment:

David Saslav said...

Melissa - your post coincided with a story on last night's local SF about shorter bouts of interval training being several times more effective in terms of weight loss than more prolonged exercise that doesn't involve occasional "sprints". I think you are on to a very powerful analogy here!