Hard to believe it's been almost 2 months since my last post but I've had a bit of a cello vacation as of late. It was nice and I needed it but I'm ready for another year on the cello. This is now year 7. Wow.
Time and time again, I've had teachers tell me the way to practice difficult passages is to slow the tempo down to a tempo you can actually play it. For people who lack patience (me), this is really hard to do...I frequently keep doing the runs I have trouble playing at frantic speeds thinking that one day, it'll fall into place. Guess what? It never does! All those frantic tries are just helping me practice how to do those passages the wrong way. I've had teachers go through passages slowly with me in many lessons. Almost every time, it has helped. Nevertheless, my first few tries at impossible passages will always be earnest attempts to do it "a tempo". It's probably not hard to guess that I run my life the same way. I am often disappointed at myself when I don't do things perfectly on the first try. I'm slowly learning to undo that thinking with the results I've seen in cello practice.
So...here's to a year of slowing things down, in cello practice and in life. Happy 2008!
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7 comments:
A useful strategy can be to work backwards... start at the faster tempo, then take it down a notch... then another, then another... etc, then work your way back up... it might help you in getting over the impatience... (maybe, maybe not...)
Best of luck to you in the new year.
Great to see a post from you!
I have the same issues with wanting to rush and not be patient. I sometimes get mixed signals from my instructor. Sometimes I hear “play it slow” until you get it down and then other times I hear “you need to play the piece in the context is was meant to be played- whenever you are practicing”. I think I understand what she means – but heck – I am just trying to get the notes right at some form of a tempo – let alone intonation and the dozen other markings. Good luck in 2008. My goal is to make it to the Suzuki 3 book by the end of the year.
Don't be too hard on yourself for being a little "up" when it comes to the way you run your life. I can't speak for you, but my tendency to go, go, go, gets a whole heck of a lot of stuff accomplished, too. The cello, and teaching thereof, are where I make sure I don't rush over everything. :)
The only thing worse than being stressed is worrying about being too stressed, right?
Stephanie Judy offers this suggestion for speed in her book "Making Music for the Joy of It": Break the passage into the smallest playable bits (perhaps 2-note groups), and play those notes nearly up to tempo, pausing to prepare between each group. When 2-note groups are secure, then practice the passage in 3-note groups, etc., until the entire passage is set. She says this is better than playing a passage very slowly and then gradually increasing because playing slowly requires a different muscular control than playing quickly. It makes sense, but I haven't tried it out yet.
Glad to see that you're back. Happy New Year!
Good to see a post from you! I find practicing v.e.r.y....s..l..o..w..l..y really hard to do too. I have been trying to slow down sections of things I'm playing, down to the speed which I can actually play everything accurately, and then gradually speeding it up to where it falls apart, then slowing it back down again to where I can play. I'm finding that works for me...I guess all of this is about finding a method of slowing down that you can actually stand to do and then doing it (ha!!! wish I could find the thing that works for me!)
hi!
it took me like 5 years and a lot of finger-pain to learn how to barely play a string instrument, and there'll come a time when progress will be more a matter of time than practise, effort and struggle.
i'll continue reading.
bye
Wow, it sounds like a lot of us share our impatience with practicing it slowly! Happy 2008 to you, too!
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