Improvement through…

[3bc]

In my own personal experience, I’ve found that progress is not linear. I’ve also found that. Sometimes to progress I need to play/practice well above my skill level, and sometimes I need to play something as slow as necessary to get it down, before progressively speeding it up.

Take something like “Come one, come over”. Some progress might be made by playing it as slow as necessary to get the part down perfect, and gradually speeding it up, and maybe some progress might be made by playing it at speed, however sloppy, and getting a little closer to playing it at speed well over time.

When faced with getting something under your fingers that’s just really fast or otherwise challenging, which do you find is more productive? A proverbial “slow is smooth smooth is fast” or “fake it til you make it!”

 

[Rocket Queen]

Molly Gebrian

www.mollygebrian.com

 

[tonym]

Ditto. Excellent book, very concrete useful methods. The online videos cover the same basic content.

 

[Geepers]

I prefer going slow and gradually speeding up. Going fast and “faking it ‘til you make it” only ingrains poor habits in my experience. I would also recommend Kenny Werner’s “Effortless Mastery”. He gives a very clear breakdown of how to do go about this.

 

[SteveCS]

Molly Gebrian

www.mollygebrian.com

 

[Polfuste]

One more vote for Molly's book. Forget the "“faking it ‘til you make it”: you will both memorize the good way to play it and the bad way to play it . So when you'll want to play it, your brain will take one or the other way with the same probability; cause he doesn't know which is the good way or the wrong way. So you will struggle with this and never be sure to play it well whe you arrive to this moment.
So better to play slowly, and repeat the phrase 10 times "good". If you miss a note at 5th repetition, start again for 10 times until all are good. Then forget this tune and come back to it the day after, after one good night during which your brain will record it strongly. (small summary of one idea of the Molly's book)

And one more vote for the Kenny Werner's one which is absolute gold for musical state of mind. Plus he provides some guided meditations which are really powerfull, not only for music but for life in general.

 

[DWA2469]

I use both. I try to break the parts down into a measure or two. Kind of like the old saying how do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time!!

 

[joeLowB]

Molly Gebrian

www.mollygebrian.com

Another ditto for Molly's approach. It has hugely helped me conquer difficult songs and passages within songs.

.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Yep. Slow until it’s perfect, and concentrate on avoiding tension or pain anywhere.

 

[NocoLaw]

In either Effortless Mastery or The Practice of Practice (based on neuroscience and experience, and both are great road-trip audiobooks), the recommended practice that makes the most sense to me is slow enough to be perfect the vast majority of the time, so you don’t ingrain mistakes (which you will do playing too fast repeatedly) and occasionally playing at speed, no matter how sloppy, to get a feel for the tempo, grove, etc. I like that model.

 

[J Wilson]

Slow becomes fast.

You can certainly flub through it, but do that often enough and you make a habit of getting it wrong, when what needs to be done is to grow your own system of getting it right. Often not fun, aggravating, even boring, but you have to build a house to live in it.

 

[Pings Bass]

One of my reeds teachers always said "slow plus even equals fast." Usually I'll take a difficult passage at half time with a click until I can nail it. Faking it may be good enough for rock and roll, but not for me.

 

[retslock]

In my own personal experience, I’ve found that progress is not linear. I’ve also found that. Sometimes to progress I need to play/practice well above my skill level, and sometimes I need to play something as slow as necessary to get it down, before progressively speeding it up.

Take something like “Come one, come over”. Some progress might be made by playing it as slow as necessary to get the part down perfect, and gradually speeding it up, and maybe some progress might be made by playing it at speed, however sloppy, and getting a little closer to playing it at speed well over time.

When faced with getting something under your fingers that’s just really fast or otherwise challenging, which do you find is more productive? A proverbial “slow is smooth smooth is fast” or “fake it til you make it!”

For me firstly is to ensure that my brain knows exactly how it sounds. The fingers can't do what the brain doesn't comprehend. Then I start slowly - as slowly as it takes to execute the part smoothly and without errors. I will also at times try to play the part in different areas of the fret board if it can be done. Often the feel of a part will be altered by changing the position.

 

[DJmtd]

I tend to subscribe to "slow is smooth, smooth is fast." When it comes to playing, those mistakes you make when you're fudging your way through it tend to compound over the course of a song or whatever and then you've really screwed yourself by greasing grooves you shouldn't have when it comes time to perform.

That being said, I play a lot of chaotic metal (for example) and sometimes I do find myself making quicker progress by banging my head against the wall at or very near the tempo I need to be at. 99% of the time I'm doing this I have already transcribed what I'm working on, so I've been going glacially slow through the parts anyway.

I think it's also worth considering the groove and how tempo affects it. Some songs will destroy me at slow speeds because I have a hard time feeling what I'm supposed to be feeling time-wise. Speeding it up is the only way for me to catch what everyone else is doing in relation to what I'm supposed to be doing.

 

[Bob_Ross]

I tend to subscribe to "slow is smooth, smooth is fast."

Thread Drift: I spent 13 years coaching an annual 12-week progressive training program for adult bicycle riders who wanted to learn cooperative group cycling skills in high-speed pacelines

...and one of the first mantras I taught every year was "slow is smooth, smooth is fast."

 

[SunByrne]

One of my favorite little nuggets is "don't practice until you get it right; practice until you can't get it wrong."

 

[Carl Hillman]

For learning a set part, play it slow, play it perfectly, then gradually speed up.

The exception to this kind of learning method would be for sight reading & improvisation. Even then, pushing yourself tempo-wise until you're on the brink of failure should not be anywhere near the majority of the way you practice those things.

 

[mambo4]

I always pursue relaxed accuracy before speed

 

[singlemalt]

Molly Gebrian has a YouTube channel as well.

I’m learning guitar, and I find if I can’t play a part up to speed, there’s a weak technique. Usually it’s picking. Slow and accurate has to be settled first. Then I bump up the metronome until I’m breaking up. Then I’ll completely butcher it at speed, and get bits of it.

Then it’s back to picking exercises at various tempos. Week in and week out.

I have heard that the improvements come at the edge of the current limits. So I have to willing to make a mess of it at speed, then go back and find the problems in technique.

 

[SteveCS]

Molly Gebrian has a YouTube channel as well.

You really need to read the book. At first glance, some of the concepts seem to contradict each other, directly or in less obvious ways. It is only when you read everything that context, circumstances and other constraints create daylight and coherence between the ideas, ironing out any apparent inconsistencies.