Slower is faster

[Doc Ivory]

I keep telling the young people coming to play that speed is really cool but to get there, start slow. Slower than you want to or even think you should.

When I was young and learning Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page licks, I wanted to play blazing fast right off the bat too but soon my (less than average) mind finally go it - "Slower is Faster".

Patience was never a virtue of mine but even today, if I hear something I like and get the music for it or try to play by ear, I start slow.

Plus you get the added advantage of being able to concentrate on technique as well.

OK, you get how my day has been.
'Nuff said....

[OneChordTrick]

So true, I remember the mantra my son used to learn piano: slowly, sections, separate hands.

OK, so the last doesn’t translate to mandolin but the rest holds true.

[sblock]

Yes. Starting off slowly and cleanly, with the goal of eventually going faster, is excellent -- and tried-and-true -- learning advice. But it has been my experience (esp. among oldtime players) that some folks get stuck in the slow mode and never manage to go much faster. Alas, for them, slower isn't faster: it's just slower.

[AndyV]

So true, I remember the mantra my son used to learn piano: slowly, sections, separate hands.

OK, so the last doesn’t translate to mandolin but the rest holds true.

I often struggle with my hands working separately.

[Doc Ivory]

Unfortunately my hands are getting a bit arthritic so by default, I'm getting slower.. LOL!!

[MikeZito]

I always tell new players that speed is a tool for constructing the building . . . once you learn to properly use the tool, you shouldn't ignore finishing the rest of the building. Or, I used to tell my son - speed is a nice to place to visit, but don't live there.

[OldSausage]

Yes. Starting off slowly and cleanly, with the goal of eventually going faster, is excellent -- and tried-and-true -- learning advice. But it has been my experience (esp. among oldtime players) that some folks get stuck in the slow mode and never manage to go much faster. Alas, for them, slower isn't faster: it's just slower.

Indeed. My advice is to practice both slow and fast. Don’t neglect fast, thinking “it will come.” It will not just happen.

[Randi Gormley]

And at least for me, there is a threshold to slow. too slow and it's just individual notes that have no meaning. I need to hear the music before I can work on a tune. At some point, you have to push for speed simply to up your game. But you have to start somewhere, and slow is where it needs to be.

[Mark Gunter]

Last year I joined the modern world and began to listen to a few audio books through earpieces while working on stuff - one of those was The Practice of Practice by Jonathan Harnum. He quotes someone in that book who tells his students 'how slow?' - 'Slow enough that you can't recognize the tune'.

I'm like Randi, that's usually too slow for me, but I have gotten to a point that I actually enjoy playing slowly, and practice in time (metronome or backing track) slowly while concentrating on technique and tone.

Another tip I find useful from Jonathan Harnum is to play a piece slowly, followed by playing it up to speed, then slowly again. And there are lot's of ways in between to vary things, but definitely in order to play faster you have to practice playing faster. "Play slowly without errors; speed will come" is a good mantra, but the speed won't come if you don't purposely play fast.

[Michael Neverisky]

I have found that practicing a phrase of music, or a lick, extremely s l o w l y produces results that are nothing short of miraculous. Whether it's left hand fingering or right hand pick movement (and I do practice them independently sometimes). This has the effect of developing the coordination and muscle memory that is essential to playing cleanly and, yeah, fast. I discovered this in my decades as a guitarist playing complex and intricate fingerstyle arrangements. I told students it was guitar yoga

[yankees1]

I think a lot of songs sound better to ME when played slower. A lot of players like to play fast to show off their playing skill which is fine but to me I just like it a bit slower. I suppose this is the reason I prefer Old Time to Bluegrass music.

[peterleyenaar]

Quote by a well known Nashville musician, "they are playing too darn fast, can't hear the music"

[OldSausage]

I find the argument that some musicians only play fast to "show off", with its corollary that music sounds better when played slower, to be internally flawed.

[UsuallyPickin]

Well …. some tunes sound great at gazillion bpm … some not so much. For me to play a tune fast it has to be so well known that I don't think about it to play it. When I add a moment to think about a lick or a change poof it slows down and or breaks time.... or should I say brakes time ….. Lick players seem to have those phrases or styles of phrases so wired in that they require only execution and nothing else. Patterns , phrases, movement on an open string all become part of the play process. Then there are the genius level players that appear defy everything except gravity. I like to play fast when I can. Those days are numbered …. R/

[Mark Miller]

Given the direction of some of the comments, maybe it isn’t too off topic to ask those who think “you have to play fast to play fast”—which I think is true—whether you think that means A) slowly edge up the speed, devoting some time to this regularly on a well-known tune, until you get it to the desired tempo; or B) try jumping up the speed at some point—put on a track with people playing it fast, and just jump in and do it, warts and all. I’ve heard both theories. I used to be more in the second camp, until it was pointed out to me how sloppy I was playing. Now I’m trying to edge things up while keeping it clean. But I’ve definitely had the experience of getting stuck at a moderate tempo and not being able to take the next step, and then trying to play with a recording and sort of being able to hang in there. All of this in the context of lots of playing slow, of course.

[Jill McAuley]

I find it helpful to play something faster and identify where you're tripping up at the new the speed, then isolate those sections to figure out what is going on - many times it's not the speed itself that results in mistakes, but rather a case of technique tweaks needing to be made to accommodate the increased speed - stuff like better economy of motion for example. Another chicken that comes home to roost with increased speed is that it can shine a light on parts of a tune that you don't quite know off by heart, but get away with at slower speeds as they give you a window of time to recollect what note comes next - playing faster that window becomes a lot smaller. If I know a tune really well speed comes easily.

[sblock]

Given the direction of some of the comments, maybe it isn’t too off topic to ask those who think “you have to play fast to play fast”—which I think is true—whether you think that means A) slowly edge up the speed, devoting some time to this regularly on a well-known tune, until you get it to the desired tempo; or B) try jumping up the speed at some point—put on a track with people playing it fast, and just jump in and do it, warts and all. I’ve heard both theories. I used to be more in the second camp, until it was pointed out to me how sloppy I was playing. Now I’m trying to edge things up while keeping it clean. But I’ve definitely had the experience of getting stuck at a moderate tempo and not being able to take the next step, and then trying to play with a recording and sort of being able to hang in there. All of this in the context of lots of playing slow, of course.

In general, I like your Plan A the best -- practice slowly at first, but work to speed up consistently until you have the full tempo down, with few mistakes. But Plan B, "just go for it!", is definitely something to try, at least every so often. It challenges you to think fast on your feet. And as Jill McAuley correctly pointed out, it can quickly reveal the spots where you are less fluid. Just going for it can be excellent preparation for performance playing, as well as for jams with unfamiliar musicians. So I'd say "yes" to BOTH approaches.

[yankees1]

In general, I like your Plan A the best -- practice slowly at first, but work to speed up consistently until you have the full tempo down, with few mistakes. But Plan B, "just go for it!", is definitely something to try, at least every so often. It challenges you to think fast on your feet. And as Jill McAuley correctly pointed out, it can quickly reveal the spots where you are less fluid. Just going for it can be excellent preparation for performance playing, as well as for jams with unfamiliar musicians. So I'd say "yes" to BOTH approaches.

Which approach works for one person may not work for another ! We all have different abilities due to various reasons.

[OldSausage]

There are so many different things that can prevent you from playing at speed. The most basic one is that you just don't have the experience and (so-called) "muscle memory" of playing fast regularly (jamming with other good players helps a lot with that). Beyond that it can become highly technical, and requires you to examine everything you do - right hand, left hand, extraneous movements of all kinds - to work out the tiny economies of motion that let you do this. Plus you have stay relaxed because otherwise you could actually injure yourself. It's a journey of self discovery alright.

Oh, and you pretty much have to learn to work with a metronome every day.

But you know, also people like me probably need to chill out and realize that many people can have a lot of fun with the mandolin without doing any of that stuff.

[peterleyenaar]

The best way for me to play a tune faster is to know it well, play it clean and in time with a metronome, (having played it hundreds of times), from there,increase the speed by a few (2 or 3) bpm every practice session, also emphasizing certain notes and establishing a cadence seems to help playing faster, jumping in at high speed just makes me sloppy and perhaps not in time.

The speed of a marching band is 120 bpm, the average heart rate is 60 bpm, so there may be a biological relationship with the speed of music

[gtani7]

Brass, woodwind and violin players start with holding one note a long time, for adjusting embouchure, diaphgram, bow control, intonation/tone etc. Sometimes that's all they do.

This story about a guy who'd been playing trumpet 12 years and his teacher (one of the best known) sent him back to playing long tones https://www.allaboutjazz.com/takuya-...yes.php?page=1

[sblock]

Brass, woodwind and violin players start with holding one note a long time, for adjusting embouchure, diaphgram, bow control, intonation/tone etc. Sometimes that's all they do.

This story about a guy who'd been playing trumpet 12 years and his teacher (one of the best known) sent him back to playing long tones https://www.allaboutjazz.com/takuya-...yes.php?page=1

This approach can certainly address some playing issues (esp. tone), but it is not a valid route for learning how to play up at full tempo. The way you learn to play at tempo is to play at tempo. You can start slowly and cleanly, and gradually speed up. That is a tried-and-true method. Using a metronome can certainly help with this process, and it provides a quantitative, benchmark guide. Also, you can occasionally just try to see how fast you can manage to play (by yourself, with a metronome, or against a musical recording, or with other live players), and identify the rough spots in any given piece. Both of these are valid approaches, and they are not mutually exclusive. But practicing only slowly will never get you playing quickly. There, I said it.

[OldSausage]

The best way for me to play a tune faster is to know it well, play it clean and in time with a metronome, (having played it hundreds of times), from there,increase the speed by a few (2 or 3) bpm every practice session

There's an important point here that, if you are a player who can already play many other tunes cleanly at the speed that professionals play, this will work and within a week or two you will be playing your new tune up to speed and sounding great. But if you are not yet able to play any tune at that speed, the approach will fail, and this can be very discouraging for beginners.

After all, if this were really possible, wouldn't every bluegrass mando jammer be blasting Blackberry Blossom at breakneck speed in their first year? And yet this never happens.

[DavidKOS]

I find the argument that some musicians only play fast to "show off", with its corollary that music sounds better when played slower, to be internally flawed.

I've noticed in the guitar world, many players that complain that "the music is too fast" lack the ability to play the music.

[Hypoxia]

Quote by a well known Nashville musician, "they are playing too darn fast, can't hear the music"

"I got no kick against modern jazz
Unless they start to play it too darn fast
They lose the magic of the melody
Until it sounds just like a symphony"
--C.Berry