thoughts on how to increase speed

[DavidParticipant]

Hi Rick, Do you have any thoughts on how to practice to increase speed while playing single note lines? I didn’t know if working with a metronome would be beneficial (increasing speed slowly while playing the same line) or if speed comes naturally as a result of good technique (so I should practice really slow and speed will come as muscle memory ‘kicks in’ or perhaps both?).

[Rick StoneKeymaster]

David,

Practicing slowly at first is always a good idea. Make sure that you’re crystal clear about what you’re trying to play. That includes knowing; the sound of every note (you know I’m a big fan of singing everything), the name of the note, the physical location on your instrument, and the tactile feel of each note under your fingers as you play it. There are things that you learn from doing this that you just don’t get if you’re rushing through things.

That said, some people assume that you just keep gradually increasing the tempo until you get it to where you want it. And to a certain degree, that approach works, but it’s not always an efficient use of practice time. There will always be some parts that you already know pretty well and don’t require that much attention, others that feel near impossible, and progress is slow.

Fortunately, there’s a better way. I stumbled upon this quite accidentally back in the early 1980s and it became my main method of practicing new material. Then, some years later, I was reading Kenny Werner’s book “Effortless Mastery” and he pretty much describes the same procedure which he refers to as “The Learning Diamond”

The idea is that in order to play effortlessly, you need to systematically sacrifice one of the other attributes on the diamond.

So you might:

1) Play the whole thing perfectly, but slowly (sacrifice “fast”)
2) Play short bursts of notes fast and perfect (sacrifice playing the “whole thing”)
3) Play the whole thing fast, but don’t worry about “perfect”

I find it very beneficial to cycle through the above three steps repeatedly over a period of time. One of the reasons this works so well is that “playing fast” is not the same as playing slow only faster. There are sometimes logistical issues that don’t become apparent until you try to play something fast (fingerings, picking, etc.). Remember that you’re also developing muscle memory as you do this, so it’s good to be really clear about your fingering and picking, etc.. It’s better to find that out early in the process before you’ve invested a lot of time (and have to unlearn something that turns out not to work so well).

Also, never expect everything to happen on the first day you practice something new. The first day you play a new piece, study or lick, you’ll probably play it slowly a lot. Just take your time and memorize it. Try to sing everything. Some of it might come very easy, but you’ll bump into little glitches. Spend some time trying to work those out and getting them up to temp (sometimes just a measure or two at a time). The first practice session on anything new is usually a long one. But to make it stick, it needs to be repeated on a daily basis for a period of time (usually a few weeks). Luckily the daily time spent on the new piece of material decreases as time goes on, so it opens up time in your practice schedule to learn something else.

So when I’m learning something new, the time spent on a particular piece or exercise might look like this:

Day 1: 40-60 minutes
Day 2: 35-40 minutes
Day 3: 30-35 minutes
Day 4: 25-30 minutes
Day 5: 20-25 minutes
Day 6: 15-20 minutes

Etc. Until by the 3red week, I’m probably just running through it once or twice (maybe 3-5 minutes) just so that I don’t forget it (and by then, I’m well familiar with it and it feels quite easy).

I might also mention that what you decide to define as “the whole thing” can be somewhat variable. If you’re learning a long and difficult classical piece, you may decide to break it into a series of mini-goals, and so the “whole thing” may just be a 16-bar section for instance.

As far as metronomes go, I’ll say that I’ve used them (and still do sometimes) but for jazz playing, I infinitely prefer playing with a great drummer; enter this amazing little app I’ve started using recently called DrumGenius. It’s actual 8-bar loops of drummers playing grooves from Billy Higgins, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Jo Jones, etc. Really awesome! It just feels so much better than playing with a dreary “tick tick tick.” The app itself is free but after you download your first three grooves, you’ll have to purchase credits to get additional loops. Trust me, just pay the $12.99 and get the unlimited pack (you’ll wind up saving money in the long run). Totally worth it!

If you’re interested in Kenny’s Book, you can get it directly from Jamey Aebersold.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by  Rick Stone.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by  Rick Stone.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by  Rick Stone.

[DavidParticipant]

Wow, thanks very much for the detailed and thoughtful reply and for the recommendation for the drum app (Im downloading now This gives me some structure on how to practice which is great and Ill definitely pick up the book in the near future since it looks like a goldmine!

[Rick StoneKeymaster]

David,

Yeah, Kenny’s book is excellent. Another great one I thought of is called The Practice of Practice by Jonathan Harnum. It’s an easy and fun read, but will definitely get you thinking about how you’re spending your practice time, what’s working, etc.

Musically Yours,
~ Rick

[DavidParticipant]

Thanks very much for your suggestions, Ill pick them up and give them a read!

David

[DavidParticipant]

I grabbed the ‘the practice of practice’…its free right now on kindle in case anyone is interested…

• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by  David.

[Rick StoneKeymaster]

David,

Great. Thanks for the heads up. Yes, it’s usually $9.95, but every once in awhile he makes it available for free as a promotion.

~ Rick

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