Absolutely correct! I learnt this trick from my great piano teacher who was a pupil of a pupil of Liszt. She was so adamant about slow practice. In all my years of teaching I got good results from students who took actually DID what I told them. Of course, some didn’t and they failed.
That's always the case. Not following your teacher's instruction is like not taking medicine your doctor prescribed, but keep going to the doctor with the same problems :)
It’ only nice words , nothing more , there is a big difference to learn play slowly and middle and to be able to play fast , that just another level of skills of playing on piano .
My teacher reminded me of this. Very true statement. And you can take it further by saying if you can play it SLOWLY from MEMORY then you REALLY know it!
I’ve been telling my students this all the time. I was guilty of practicing incorrectly for quite a long time. I now play so much cleaner and precisely and my connection to my instrument (sax) feels so much more organic and by playing slowly, I have the luxury of sensing how my fingers are interacting with my instrument.
Excellent advice … thank you. PS: Another idea from my teacher is to learn a piece one bar at a time but … always include the first note in the following bar. I think this would help with transitions as you describe them in this video. Thank you.
This is something I've known for a long time intellectually (what teacher doesn't say this?), but this video crystallized it for me. I think watching you actually put it into practice is what convinced me-if someone at your level can still face similar issues, I should be more humble and slow down. I just tried it in my practice session and already saw major improvement in multiple pieces! I also did some harmonic analysis to solidify my understanding of the composition, and the combination of these two approaches made my playing a lot more confident. Thanks for finally getting me on the right path! I really think this is going to help me get past some of my roadblocks.
It's summer, 1982(3?), and I'm attending my third (& final) participation in John Mack's summer oboe seminar with 70+ other students. On my application I was foolish enough to submit Gunther Schuller's Sonata as one of three proposed performance excerpts and to my astonishment he picked it. I practiced it like a man possessed but the third movement was kicking my butt all the way to camp. It's not like I didn't already understand and abide by these "rules" for practicing, either. I was a student of Stevens Hewitt at the time and his requirement was "play it three times in a row flawlessly before you're allowed to go to the next metronome setting." ... The composition is 12-tone, 3rd movement is a Rondo in 6/8, speed set at 80bpm for the dotted quarter note (six sixteenth notes). A two-measure passage occurs twice in the movement where the oboe starts to play on one of its lowest notes, scampers through the 12-tone theme via counter-directional arpeggios, up 2-½ octaves and almost all the way back down. Fearing disaster for my performance, I got John's permission to hide in a room for a day of woodshedding. I focused on those two measures for two 4-hour sessions either side of a lunch break. Each session started fresh at 40bpm for the eighth note (⅛th concert speed). By lunch I could play it @ ⅔ concert speed. Before dinner I was nailing it at will. In the end the joke was on me because come time to play the piece we were running behind schedule and, because that 3rd movement has a reputation of sounding like it comes from a whole different composition than the 1st & 2nd movements, he gave me a choice of playing either/or... so I played the first two. Still, the endurance boost from my rigorous practice session had great effect on my ability to emphasize my notions for lyric phrasing and he made a point to congratulate me on the performance. It's not every day you get congratulated by an icon. Whenever a student doesn't seem to comprehend the significance of this tip I tell my story. It's amazing what they bring to the following lesson.
This is a deeply insightful video on a concept that is so simple that most people don't appreciate the power it holds. I find the discipline, restraint and patience needed to execute this approach is sometimes harder than the music itself.
Great advice to go slow! My organ teacher told me to start playing a tempo so the fastest note in the piece at 60/min. That gives enough time to not make mistakes, even at the first go. It is an incredible feeling to later speed up and never make a mistake, which stays in the performance as well.
when I am learning a new piece I slow the bpm right down to 60bpm and practice for about 10 mins until I get it perfectly without making any mistakes. Then I gradually increase the speed by 4 bpm. And this is on fast pieces, by the time I reach over 150bpm my playing is so clean
Very interesting point about the fast playing being easier because of kinaesthetic memory. The fast playing sounded very good to me personally. Thank you for this great video.
My teacher wants me to play slowly and I'm always way too fast. Sometimes even above the indicated tempo. I finally see what she wants to achieve and I'll try to practice much much slower from now on! Thank you for this amazing video!
Thank you Akira. So fundamental, yet many of us rush through our music. Play slow is the key. Could you please cover on tension of the fingers and wrist. Would like to know what exercises to relieve and relax the wrist. Thanks
You are so correct and we need to hear it so many times. I have some pieces in my musclememory since I played them as a teenager and those are perfect example of this. I need to play them slower than anyone will recognise them.
Great advice! It really home. I realize I have been relying a lot on muscle memory cause lately I can play my exercises and just let my mind wonder lol
Akira, thank you for this tip. I heard it said many times but you have convinced me that it is a must in order to improve. One thing I don't understand is your view on muscle memory. If it is not muscle memory then what is it that allow us to play a piece without really thinking?
You are still thinking even when you are using muscle memory. It may feel natural to you, but your brain is still working. You can feel as natural when you use logical memory, too. You just have to get used to it.
Thanks for this video! I am extremely guilty of practising too fast, and at some point, those stops become muscle memory, which gets frustrating. The only thing I'd disagree with in this video is slowing down makes it boring, which would be the case if I didn't use the time to really appreciate the piece and think about how I want to play a section. Practising Bach is boring for me until I do that, and sometimes Debussy too.
I agree. Practicing slowly is actually not boring for me. I only say it because I'm trying to connect with general audience. But you are absolutely right, playing slowly doesn't mean your brain just remains idle. There's tons of things you should be dealing with while playing slowly, and when you realize it, it's never boring.
I actually don't own one... I have nothing against it, but digital one is more convenient and accurate, especially when you have to use it all day everyday at different tempi in the studio.
@@AkiraIkegamiChannel I either use a mechanical metronome or the metronome app on the phone for convenience. I find those digital battery operated ones not as convenient because I would have to find batteries in order to make it run.
i have a question . if you have practised a piece the wrong way can you start over to practise it slowly with slow tempo? also i started watching ur videos u are amazing
It's never too late to go back to slow practicing. Better late than never. In fact, I even do slow practice on a piece I'm ready to perform, just to make sure I really know the piece.
Sight-reading is a combination of many skills and knowledge, so I don't think I can cover in one video. I'm not a great sight-reader myself. I'm good enough to learn easy music quickly or demonstrate for my students, but not like some of my friends who can pretty much play (or at least fake through) anything without practicing. Having lots of experience learning new music and good internal understanding of music theory seems to be crucial to be a good sight reader.
💥 Professor, I noticed that when you played La Campanella, even very slowly, you kept looking at the keyboard. Why ? Wouldn't it be better to practice without looking at the keys, so you would gain the spatial distance for the jump across the keyboard ? And many people don't have a good sight reading because they keep looking at the keys, instead of looking at the sheet music. So, what do you recommend, trying to play slowly looking at the keys or without looking ? Thank you so much. 🎉❤
That's a very good point. Looking at the keys makes it much easier to move around on the keyboard, but one should not have to look at them in order to play; blind pianists can play the piano just fine. Not having to look at the keys should help with sight-reading as well. In this video, or other performance videos, I'm lookin at the keys because I don't have sheet music to look at, and it also helps me engage in performance. But I can probably play most of them without looking at them. So to answer your question, practicing without looking at the keys is absolutely beneficial. But from practical aspect, for most students, I'd be happy if they look at the keys abut can turn their eyes right back to the music without staring at their hands.
All good pianists know how to practice well, but only good teachers can explain it to students. I try to focus on reasons so that students will be motivated to follow instructions.
Yes. Going from a piano to a keyboard will definitely change the way you feel/kill your muscle memory. Before performance, if the student has both a piano and a keyboard at home, I sometimes suggest practicing on the keyboard without turning it on. If you can still play your piece with no sound, you really know your piece!
I may have solutions to that, too. There are actually many possibilities, but I'm making another video that's related to one of them now, so stay tuned!
@@AkiraIkegamiChannelI have the same problem, but mainly for pieces above my level (even if I combine loud, soft, short long, staccato, and progressively going up in tempo, one handed).
I believe so. They must have been able to handle a lot more without slow practice than ordinary people, but I can't imagine any good artist never practicing slowly.
You increase the tempo little by little, by a few notch on your metronome at a time. But if you started making mistakes, that means you went too fast. It's very important to stay at a "manageable tempo."
to practice the whole concert slowly doesn't make it kind of incredibly long the time to be ready?... I mean play slowly is really difficult, I do it anyways but, could take a lot of time to have everything ready to perform decently.
I didn't undrestand one thing..Everytime when you start to play a new piece, you should play it without stopping? Or you should do it after a while when you undrestand it generally?
Excellent question! Although it's ideal if you can avoid stopping from the very beginning of learning a new piece. However, stopping is often unavoidable as we need to figure things out when you play a new piece. It's better to stop and figure out and play it right than rushing through and learning something wrong. Once you are familiar with the piece, then you should focus on not stopping while slowing down as much as necessary.
@@AkiraIkegamiChannel For me, it absolutely does. A fingering that seems appropriate when played slowly may become unmanagable when the tempo is increased. For example, if you're using a fingering involves left/right motions of the wrist this is easily done slowly but at a fast tempo these wrist motions become very difficult and I find that just raising the forearm and relocating the hand requires less effort. I like to compare this to the footwork of a horse. A horse cannot walk at the speed of a gallop. It has to change its footwork to fit the speed it wants to move. So I practice small sections, hands separately, at tempo or slightly above to find the fingering that causes the least strain. Then I practice that fingering slowly hands together to ingrain into muscle memory and gradually bring it up to tempo. But otherwise, I agree with everything you say about slow practice.
For me, the most natural and efficient fingering is same regardless of tempi. When you play faster, the problem with certain fingering may become more obvious. But even when you are playing slowly, you are still having the same problem, it's just less noticeable. If your method is working to figure out the best fingering for you, you should continue it. Not everyone has to learn exactly same way. As long as you come back to slow practice, you are still achieving the same thing. Although, I think you should still focus on subtle difference in fingering when you are practicing slowly, so that you don't have to do that 2-step process.
Thanks so very much for this music acquisitions method!! You are absolutely correct! Slowing down in keeping strict time with a metronome helps very much. ❤
Just like everything else, when you play slowly, the same problems that exists when you are playing fast are now exposed. That's more of a reason to practice slowly. It's easy to fake through when you play fast, but that doesn't mean you are actually playing right, and trained ears can hear it.
Very timely video. I am running into this problem of pausing at certain transition points as well. My teacher wants me to go slower as well until I strengthen my technique. Thanks for all that you do!
Absolutely correct! I learnt this trick from my great piano teacher who was a pupil of a pupil of Liszt. She was so adamant about slow practice. In all my years of teaching I got good results from students who took actually DID what I told them. Of course, some didn’t and they failed.
That's always the case. Not following your teacher's instruction is like not taking medicine your doctor prescribed, but keep going to the doctor with the same problems :)
If you can play it slowly, you can play it quickly
Absolutely!
I should put this in a frame and sell it as a channel merchandise :)
@@AkiraIkegamiChannel I think two set violin has already done it
😂😂 This will never stop being funny
It’ only nice words , nothing more , there is a big difference to learn play slowly and middle and to be able to play fast , that just another level of skills of playing on piano .
My teacher reminded me of this. Very true statement. And you can take it further by saying if you can play it SLOWLY from MEMORY then you REALLY know it!
A great reminder that cannot be overstated. Playing with a metronome often also helps me keep speed under control.
I’ve been telling my students this all the time. I was guilty of practicing incorrectly for quite a long time. I now play so much cleaner and precisely and my connection to my instrument (sax) feels so much more organic and by playing slowly, I have the luxury of sensing how my fingers are interacting with my instrument.
Excellent advice … thank you. PS: Another idea from my teacher is to learn a piece one bar at a time but … always include the first note in the following bar. I think this would help with transitions as you describe them in this video. Thank you.
Thats fantastic advice!
What a solid solution to mastering a piece of music. A patiently way to allow the brain and hands to syconize and become automatic.
This is something I've known for a long time intellectually (what teacher doesn't say this?), but this video crystallized it for me. I think watching you actually put it into practice is what convinced me-if someone at your level can still face similar issues, I should be more humble and slow down. I just tried it in my practice session and already saw major improvement in multiple pieces! I also did some harmonic analysis to solidify my understanding of the composition, and the combination of these two approaches made my playing a lot more confident.
Thanks for finally getting me on the right path! I really think this is going to help me get past some of my roadblocks.
Glad it was helpful, and so great to hear you are already getting result!
Thanks for sharing.
I'm definitely going to try this. I think this is why I make so many mistakes 😢
It's summer, 1982(3?), and I'm attending my third (& final) participation in John Mack's summer oboe seminar with 70+ other students. On my application I was foolish enough to submit Gunther Schuller's Sonata as one of three proposed performance excerpts and to my astonishment he picked it. I practiced it like a man possessed but the third movement was kicking my butt all the way to camp. It's not like I didn't already understand and abide by these "rules" for practicing, either. I was a student of Stevens Hewitt at the time and his requirement was "play it three times in a row flawlessly before you're allowed to go to the next metronome setting." ... The composition is 12-tone, 3rd movement is a Rondo in 6/8, speed set at 80bpm for the dotted quarter note (six sixteenth notes). A two-measure passage occurs twice in the movement where the oboe starts to play on one of its lowest notes, scampers through the 12-tone theme via counter-directional arpeggios, up 2-½ octaves and almost all the way back down. Fearing disaster for my performance, I got John's permission to hide in a room for a day of woodshedding. I focused on those two measures for two 4-hour sessions either side of a lunch break. Each session started fresh at 40bpm for the eighth note (⅛th concert speed). By lunch I could play it @ ⅔ concert speed. Before dinner I was nailing it at will. In the end the joke was on me because come time to play the piece we were running behind schedule and, because that 3rd movement has a reputation of sounding like it comes from a whole different composition than the 1st & 2nd movements, he gave me a choice of playing either/or... so I played the first two. Still, the endurance boost from my rigorous practice session had great effect on my ability to emphasize my notions for lyric phrasing and he made a point to congratulate me on the performance. It's not every day you get congratulated by an icon. Whenever a student doesn't seem to comprehend the significance of this tip I tell my story. It's amazing what they bring to the following lesson.
This is a deeply insightful video on a concept that is so simple that most people don't appreciate the power it holds. I find the discipline, restraint and patience needed to execute this approach is sometimes harder than the music itself.
Great advice to go slow! My organ teacher told me to start playing a tempo so the fastest note in the piece at 60/min. That gives enough time to not make mistakes, even at the first go. It is an incredible feeling to later speed up and never make a mistake, which stays in the performance as well.
Very useful advice. I play too fast too early and then I'm like "I can't play this properly". I need to change this. Thank you.
when I am learning a new piece I slow the bpm right down to 60bpm and practice for about 10 mins until I get it perfectly without making any mistakes. Then I gradually increase the speed by 4 bpm. And this is on fast pieces, by the time I reach over 150bpm my playing is so clean
Great video, Akira! This is the most coherent and logical explanation of _why_ to play slowly that I have ever heard. Thanks!
Thank you!
I just found your channel and it helped me so much. Please keep posting!
I started doing this yesterday. It's working!!! Thanks for your great advice. I'll stick to slowing way down from now on.
It's great to hear you are already seeing results!
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Very interesting point about the fast playing being easier because of kinaesthetic memory. The fast playing sounded very good to me personally. Thank you for this great video.
Thank you. That fast playing went better than I expected, but I know it's not going to be stable enough to do it on the stage :)
My teacher wants me to play slowly and I'm always way too fast. Sometimes even above the indicated tempo. I finally see what she wants to achieve and I'll try to practice much much slower from now on! Thank you for this amazing video!
Nice to see an expert demonstrate this.
先生、お疲れ様です。比国からのギタリストです。大学の頃から、ゆっくりで練習しなさいとよく言われましたが、意味は池上先生のようにちゃんと説明していただけなかった。ゆっくりしないと早く出来ないとよく言われるけど、その裏に何で早くできないことはずっと悩みました。理由を詳しく説明していただき、ありがとうございました！
ありがとうございます。
これもいつか動画にしたいなと思っているのですが、驚くことに、理由をかみ砕いて説明したり、やり方を順を追って指示したりする/できる先生ってあまりいないんです。うまい方は自分が自然にできていることなので、どう説明したらいいのかわからないのかもしれません。その点僕は落ちこぼれなので、教えるには有利なのかもしれません。
Good video thank you!! I will try practicing more slowly now, and try to stay patient
very interesting, I think this could be applied to almost anything we learn
True!
Thank you Akira. So fundamental, yet many of us rush through our music. Play slow is the key. Could you please cover on tension of the fingers and wrist. Would like to know what exercises to relieve and relax the wrist. Thanks
Excellent lesson for anyone on any instrument. Thanks!
Yes, this is very helpful and useful suggestion. I started practice slowly, and the effect is amazing. Thanks a lot!!
Excellent advice!!
Totally logical
Thank you!!
You are so correct and we need to hear it so many times. I have some pieces in my musclememory since I played them as a teenager and those are perfect example of this. I need to play them slower than anyone will recognise them.
Did I ever need this. It's one thing to say it but it's another to see it. I really need to take this advice and be more patient with myself. Thanks.
The intro is literally me. 😂😂
Thanks.
Nice video. Showing even someone who has a lot of experience still has to practice the basics.
Hi Akira
Just found your channel, even tho I’m a classical guitarist not a pianist your advice is still perfectly valid for me , thank you 😊
I've received nice comments from a few other guitarists, too.
Welcome aboard!
It was perfect as usual.. please make some videos about sight reading.🙏⚘️
Great advice! It really home. I realize I have been relying a lot on muscle memory cause lately I can play my exercises and just let my mind wonder lol
I'm guilty of everything you pointed out - excellent advice!
i'm brazilian and your channel was an amazing find, i love how music can bring people together and your content is amazing keep producing 👏🏻
Akira, thank you for this tip. I heard it said many times but you have convinced me that it is a must in order to improve. One thing I don't understand is your view on muscle memory. If it is not muscle memory then what is it that allow us to play a piece without really thinking?
You are still thinking even when you are using muscle memory. It may feel natural to you, but your brain is still working.
You can feel as natural when you use logical memory, too. You just have to get used to it.
We finally get La Campanella performance! :O
Maybe I'll re-record this in the future like my other performance videos.
You are awesome with your teaching methods. Keep up the good work. I suppose you are helping many students become pianist.
Very good video and very applicable for my instrument too. Thank you very much! Keep up the good work :)
It makes the music a pleasure to play. No longer does it feel like an exhausting chore.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for advice..
Thanks for this important lesson, what book do you use? I love the instructions on it.
I have videos on it :)
Wow! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with Us.. I will subscribe!
Great lesson !!!
Interesting video. Thanks !
That’s exactly what I need, thank you so much for making this video ❤❤❤❤
Playing fast and crashing is the music version of ego lifting in the gym 😂
Good comparison!
I think this is a brilliant video with such good advice. Makes me want to go and try it out. thanks
Thank you!
Came across your channel recently. Great job on the content. You're super informative. Thanks for your hardwork
I appreciate that!
how do you know me so well?
Lot's of students share common issues. By posting solutions to those, I may be taking lots of piano teachers' jobs away. I have to watch my back... :)
@@AkiraIkegamiChannelextremely revealing remark. Mistakes are job security for teachers.
Funny and useful video!
Thanks for this video! I am extremely guilty of practising too fast, and at some point, those stops become muscle memory, which gets frustrating. The only thing I'd disagree with in this video is slowing down makes it boring, which would be the case if I didn't use the time to really appreciate the piece and think about how I want to play a section. Practising Bach is boring for me until I do that, and sometimes Debussy too.
I agree. Practicing slowly is actually not boring for me. I only say it because I'm trying to connect with general audience. But you are absolutely right, playing slowly doesn't mean your brain just remains idle. There's tons of things you should be dealing with while playing slowly, and when you realize it, it's never boring.
11:13 The arrow should be pointing up if you want it to be slower.
True! But not many people know how these metronomes work anymore...
@@AkiraIkegamiChannel You could have filmed yourself making speed adjustments on your mechanical metronome. ☺️
I actually don't own one...
I have nothing against it, but digital one is more convenient and accurate, especially when you have to use it all day everyday at different tempi in the studio.
@@AkiraIkegamiChannel I either use a mechanical metronome or the metronome app on the phone for convenience. I find those digital battery operated ones not as convenient because I would have to find batteries in order to make it run.
This is great. Thank you.
Great!! Tnx 🤍
i have a question . if you have practised a piece the wrong way can you start over to practise it slowly with slow tempo? also i started watching ur videos u are amazing
It's never too late to go back to slow practicing. Better late than never. In fact, I even do slow practice on a piece I'm ready to perform, just to make sure I really know the piece.
Great video as always, sensei. The only problem left is sight reading @@
Sight-reading is a combination of many skills and knowledge, so I don't think I can cover in one video.
I'm not a great sight-reader myself. I'm good enough to learn easy music quickly or demonstrate for my students, but not like some of my friends who can pretty much play (or at least fake through) anything without practicing.
Having lots of experience learning new music and good internal understanding of music theory seems to be crucial to be a good sight reader.
@@AkiraIkegamiChannel I see, thank you sensei!!
💥 Professor, I noticed that when you played La Campanella, even very slowly, you kept looking at the keyboard. Why ? Wouldn't it be better to practice without looking at the keys, so you would gain the spatial distance for the jump across the keyboard ? And many people don't have a good sight reading because they keep looking at the keys, instead of looking at the sheet music. So, what do you recommend, trying to play slowly looking at the keys or without looking ? Thank you so much. 🎉❤
That's a very good point.
Looking at the keys makes it much easier to move around on the keyboard, but one should not have to look at them in order to play; blind pianists can play the piano just fine. Not having to look at the keys should help with sight-reading as well.
In this video, or other performance videos, I'm lookin at the keys because I don't have sheet music to look at, and it also helps me engage in performance. But I can probably play most of them without looking at them.
So to answer your question, practicing without looking at the keys is absolutely beneficial. But from practical aspect, for most students, I'd be happy if they look at the keys abut can turn their eyes right back to the music without staring at their hands.
Thx so much!!! I need to follow ur advise..my teacher say 2 me the same thing anytime..but I never got it so clearly.
All good pianists know how to practice well, but only good teachers can explain it to students. I try to focus on reasons so that students will be motivated to follow instructions.
Agree. I have my casio ap-270 at home and when tryed fortepian first time it was like my memory was wiped out by men in black 😂
Yes. Going from a piano to a keyboard will definitely change the way you feel/kill your muscle memory.
Before performance, if the student has both a piano and a keyboard at home, I sometimes suggest practicing on the keyboard without turning it on. If you can still play your piece with no sound, you really know your piece!
If you can play it perfectly slow, you can play it perfectly fast. One in fact save more time practicing slowly than fast
Slow practice definitely saves significant amount of time in a long run.
I have played lots of pieces slowly and perfectly...but when i play them fast... I always fumble
I may have solutions to that, too.
There are actually many possibilities, but I'm making another video that's related to one of them now, so stay tuned!
@@AkiraIkegamiChannelI have the same problem, but mainly for pieces above my level (even if I combine loud, soft, short long, staccato, and progressively going up in tempo, one handed).
Which tablet you are using for music sheet. What is the display size of your tablet?
th-cam.com/video/piI4RSXNsa8/w-d-xo.html
How to know if I’m practicing a piece that’s way above my level?
We check to make sure the student has learned all the basic technique/concept needed for the piece. But it's hard to make that judgment as a student.
Look at your best pieces Henle or ABRSM levels, 1 above or 2 might be doable. More is really hard and long.
I have a big question: did Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Chopin study music slowly (including their own music), even at the height of their careers?
I believe so. They must have been able to handle a lot more without slow practice than ordinary people, but I can't imagine any good artist never practicing slowly.
How do you play “faster then faster” would you apply the same method? For example going from 150-200.
You increase the tempo little by little, by a few notch on your metronome at a time. But if you started making mistakes, that means you went too fast. It's very important to stay at a "manageable tempo."
to practice the whole concert slowly doesn't make it kind of incredibly long the time to be ready?... I mean play slowly is really difficult, I do it anyways but, could take a lot of time to have everything ready to perform decently.
It does takes incredibly long time to prepare for a full concert. It's just what it takes to prepare for a performance.
the best musicians practice 8 hours a day till they reach perfection
I’m guilty 😮
I watched this video at 1.5x speed, but had to pause a few times.
:)
Good one :)
Can you talk a little about using page turning foot pedals with IPAD Forscore? Or perhaps it's just getting used to it.
It's just getting used to it. Once you get used to it, you won't be able to go back to paper music.
I didn't undrestand one thing..Everytime when you start to play a new piece, you should play it without stopping? Or you should do it after a while when you undrestand it generally?
Excellent question!
Although it's ideal if you can avoid stopping from the very beginning of learning a new piece. However, stopping is often unavoidable as we need to figure things out when you play a new piece. It's better to stop and figure out and play it right than rushing through and learning something wrong.
Once you are familiar with the piece, then you should focus on not stopping while slowing down as much as necessary.
@@AkiraIkegamiChannel thank you for your exact and helpful answer, it's really going to help my playing..Thank you again.🙏🌱
What piece were you playing in the beginning
It's a pice from Piano Adventures series. Simplified version of Skaters Waltz.
Which metronome we must have to use for practice, mechanical metronome or electronic metronome?
Either one is fine. I personally use digital though.
Don't you think that you have to work out the best "at tempo" fingering before you practice that fingering slowly?
Does your best fingering change depending on the tempo?
@@AkiraIkegamiChannel For me, it absolutely does. A fingering that seems appropriate when played slowly may become unmanagable when the tempo is increased. For example, if you're using a fingering involves left/right motions of the wrist this is easily done slowly but at a fast tempo these wrist motions become very difficult and I find that just raising the forearm and relocating the hand requires less effort. I like to compare this to the footwork of a horse. A horse cannot walk at the speed of a gallop. It has to change its footwork to fit the speed it wants to move. So I practice small sections, hands separately, at tempo or slightly above to find the fingering that causes the least strain. Then I practice that fingering slowly hands together to ingrain into muscle memory and gradually bring it up to tempo. But otherwise, I agree with everything you say about slow practice.
For me, the most natural and efficient fingering is same regardless of tempi. When you play faster, the problem with certain fingering may become more obvious. But even when you are playing slowly, you are still having the same problem, it's just less noticeable.
If your method is working to figure out the best fingering for you, you should continue it. Not everyone has to learn exactly same way. As long as you come back to slow practice, you are still achieving the same thing.
Although, I think you should still focus on subtle difference in fingering when you are practicing slowly, so that you don't have to do that 2-step process.
How quilty you are!
Your Honesty is Priceless!Thank you for this great demostration.Liked & Subscribed!
Hi Akira. Thank you for one more video!!!
Nice video. I have a question:
how to practice slow with pieces that have different speeds? For example: sonatas always have 2 or 3 tempi.
No matter what the tempo marking says, you practice slow enough so that you can play perfectly, then gradually speed up to your designated tempo.
Thanks so very much for this music acquisitions method!! You are absolutely correct! Slowing down in keeping strict time with a metronome helps very much. ❤
What to do with rythm when going very slow? I find keeping rythm very hard when going very slow…
You can set the metronome to 120 but still play 60. Or count half of each beat in your head, for example.
Just like everything else, when you play slowly, the same problems that exists when you are playing fast are now exposed. That's more of a reason to practice slowly.
It's easy to fake through when you play fast, but that doesn't mean you are actually playing right, and trained ears can hear it.
Very timely video. I am running into this problem of pausing at certain transition points as well. My teacher wants me to go slower as well until I strengthen my technique. Thanks for all that you do!
I also have a tip to resolve transition issues.
Not sure when I can get to it, but stay tuned!
Great🎉
Thank you.
I love your membership badge there!
Another wonderful tip. Thank you Akira