Music Video Lesson: Why Playing Fast Is Easier Than Playing Slowly

Because once you understand the intention of the music, it's so much more productive in your practice being able to know what you're aiming for.

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos.com. Today the subject is, Why playing fast is easier than playing slowly? You might think that's crazy. Of course it would take more work to be able to develop speed in your playing, and there is some truth to that. But once you do have some speed and fluency in your playing, have you ever tried to go back and play slowly again? It can be really difficult. There's a lot of reasons for this. We're going to discuss this and what you can do to help your playing. Now when you play a piece many, many times, and after a while your fingers just kind of know where to go. I described years ago, I made a video about how playing your scales has to be on autopilot. And I likened it to learning how to walk. You see a toddler taking the first steps and the concentration of their faces is unbelievable. Of course, once you learn how to walk, you really don't think about it. It's almost involuntary. You could be thinking about other things while you're walking once you learn how to do it. Well, the same thing is true of scales, but it's also true of all the music you play. You get to a point where you might be wandering in your mind all kinds of places and your fingers keep going. Now that's actually a good thing in some respects because if it didn't have that to rely upon, it would be so hard to be able to be focused 100% of the time. But naturally you can't depend upon that motor memory, finger memory, muscle memory, whatever you want to call it. When you go slowly, it's so much harder to think through everything because every single note becomes very obvious. But there's another reason why playing fast is easier than playing slowly. And I'm not even talking about the solidity of how well you know the score. I'm talking about musical considerations. You see, when you're playing slowly, it's very difficult to even know where the line is. For example, Chopin's E minor Prelude. Playing that slowly and trying to get a sense of the rise and the fall of the line is all but impossible.

It's very difficult to maintain a line. Think of it this way. All music really is reflective of the human voice. All instruments are really an extension of the instrument you all carry with us. Naturally wind instruments are a direct analog to the human voice because the breath is involved. It's a natural extension. Bowed instruments like the violin or cello are also, even though it doesn't have the breath, it has at least the continuum of the bow against the strings. On the piano, it's hard to even imagine that. But imagine if you were a wind player or if you're a singer and you were trying to sing a song much slower than it goes. It would be hard to sustain the phrase. You'd run out of air. Be hard to get a sense of the line. Now that same Chopin Prelude played at a faster tempo where the pulse is the quarter note or even the half note, it's much easier to feel the line.

Once you know the piece, it's so much easier to play it faster because you can hear the line. You can feel the musical line. It's not just in Chopin though. For example, in Beethoven's Sonata, Opus 49 No. 2, the G major Sonata, and the second movement, the Minuet and Trio, trying to get the elegance of this, what is really a dance kind of movement, it's really hard at a slow tempo. Once again, it plods along at a slow tempo. It's hard to feel the line.

Now, up to tempo, suddenly you can hear the ups and the downs of the phrases. So then the challenge is gaining enough fluency that you can play up to speed. Sometimes just trying something up to tempo, even if it's not totally polished, just so you know what you're working for. Of course, you don't want to repeat sloppy playing again and again. Maybe you even want to do just the right hand, just to get the feel of the phrasing. Because once you understand the intention of the music, it's so much more productive in your practice being able to know what you're aiming for. So think of your music up to tempo, even if you can't quite play it yet, even if it's only one hand, or even if you're playing it just mentally, or singing it, try to do it up to speed so you get a sense of the music. Because practice is always in service of the music. And that's the message for today. I hope this works well for you again. Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. Bring your questions to me, Robert, at LivingPianos.com. Thanks so much. See you next time.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/why-playing-fast-is-easier-than-playing-slowly/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---