#3 - Slow and Steady Wins the Race

So, there's an issue that keeps bugging me. I see it in trumpet students and also in band classes. It baffles me. Why would anyone ever do that? It seems to obviously reckless and haphazard, yet so many musicians are guilty of relying on this tactic when learning new music.

The other day, while I was batting this idea around in my head after a day a teaching lessons, my friend (and brilliant clarinet teacher) Cindi Bartels posted a story about a lesson she had taught that day. In that lesson, this exact topic was the centerpiece and she gave a great analogy. And since I have a fondness for great analogies, I'll share it here with you (along with a few of my own to really drive the point home).

When you were learning how to drive, did you practice in an empty parking lot? Or did your parents take you out onto the freeway on your first day?

I'll continue with a few of my own...

If you were learning to skydive, would you go through all the training processes and procedures, learning each small and important step one at a time? Or would you just jump out of the plane and try to figure it out on the way down?

On the first day of Surgeon School, do you think they say "Okay...here's the scalpel, here's your mask, now let's just dig in and see what happens."

Obviously not right? (hopefully)

Then why do so many musicians insist on doing the exact same thing when learning a new piece of music. They say "Well, I can't even play it at half tempo, so lets see what we can do at full speed," and they're off...hacking their way through that poor, unsuspecting etude or concerto or whatever they are working on. That poor piece of music never stood a chance...it was a bloodbath!

Playing a piece over and over again at full (or even 3/4) speed is not how you should go about learning a new piece; you'll just get really good at playing it poorly. Unless you take pride in ALMOST being able to play something well, this is not going to be a very good approach. Why on Earth would you ever work on increasing tempo before working on accuracy?
Seems obvious, doesn't it? But so many players (and teachers) are guilty of this. Some of them are completely aware of it, but they call it something else. They call it "pushing themselves" or "challenging themselves." Challenging themselves to do what? To see how fast they can butcher their way thorough something with 75% technical accuracy and zero musicality? This is a HUGE screaming red flag for me when identifying the "jock trumpet" mentality. This person's goal is to see how fast they can play something, not to say or do anything musically or creatively.

We all know what we're supposed to do, but very few of us have the patience and self control to actually do it. Here's how I approach a new piece of music. I pick a tempo that is painfully slow....so slow that I can perform it with 100% accuracy the first time through. If I make a mistake, then I go back and slow it down. The goal isn't to get through it as quickly as you can, it's to learn the piece with 100% accuracy. I find the tempo that allows me to play with 100% accuracy so I can then focus on playing each note and phrase with a beautifully controlled sound, accurate articulations, expression and phrasing. Everything you would want in your final performance, just at a slow tempo.

Then, I kick it up just 4 BPM. This is where the self control comes into play. Few would argue the virtue of starting slow like this, but even fewer actually put it into practice. And most of the people who actually do put it into practice increase the tempo too soon and too frequently. The result us usually a performance filled with gaps in level of preparation.

Once you can play it musically (including both accuracy and expressively) at 44 BPM, kick it up to 48 BPM. And so on. Resist the urge to jump up to medium and then fast tempos...even "just to see." You're wasting practice time that could be spent actually improving. 48 BPM, 52, 56, 60, 64, 68, 72, etc. Like Mrs. Johnson, my 6th Grade teacher always said, "Slow and steady wins the race.”

Surprisingly, this approach doesn’t take any more time than the other (although it seems like it would). In reality, you save tons of time by actually learning and developing with each note you play, as opposed to the time you would waste just hacking through it mindlessly over and over again. You also have the added benefit of increased endurance. Phrasing will be a little weird at first, because the extremely slow tempos will affect where you can breath, but that part will naturally correct itself as the tempo increases.

Another point (and this may seem obvious, but most player don't actually do it) is to document your practice tempos. I use a practice journal, but also keep track right on the etude itself. It keeps you honest. It keeps you from jumping ahead to a faster tempo before you are ready, and it also provides a little bit of positive reinforcement when you see the tempos you have been able to cross off along the way.

By practicing this way, you are ingraining in your brain and soul and fingers and mind a beautifully expressive, technically accurate performance. And the funny thing is...although when you read this, it may seem like it's a painfully long process, you will actually learn the piece much more thoroughly and it will actually take less time. We have all had days when we spent an hour in the practice room and haven't made any progress. That does not happen when you use this approach.

An added benefit of practicing this way is that you will never have any mistakes to "unlearn." You are practicing with 100% accuracy from the very first reading. No bad habits to undo, no inconsistencies that keep sneaking into our performances, and no more of a third bad thing (these lists work best in groups of three).

So there you go...it's nothing new, but maybe it's a different way of thinking about it. You've heard it before from your teachers, but I challenge you to actually put it to the test. Pull an etude book off of the shelf, open it to a new page, set your Dr. Beat to 40 BPM and spend 10 minutes on that etude. the next day, crank it up to 44 and continue. You'll learn it much more thoroughly (and much faster) than you've ever imagined.