[The song played at the beginning of the Quick Tip is called Say Old Man. Listen to it here!]
Vi Wickam here. How are ya’ll doing? This is your Quick Tip of the Week for https://www.myTalentForge.com.
Play it faster than you have to.
Now, don’t take this the wrong way- I’m not saying play faster than you can play it. That is not at all what I’m saying.
What I’m saying is when you’re preparing a piece, it’s all well and good to be able to be able to play it comfortably at the speed you want to perform it at.
So say I have a breakdown and I want to play it at 115 when I perform it.
It’s all well and good to be able to play it comfortably at 115. But when I’m getting ready to perform it, there’s a good chance I’ll have some nerves. I’ll have some energy, some adrenaline going on, and I might take it at 120.
If I can’t play it comfortably at 120, I could have a train wreck on my hands. This has happened to me before… not lately, but it’s happened!
We’ve all had train wrecks. So don’t think you’re unique that you’ve had a train wreck and that makes you not a good player. This is a matter of preparation.
Prepare. If you’re going to want to play it at 115 or 120, work your way up with the metronome. Start at 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, maybe even 135.
Get it up 10 or 15 beats per minute faster than you can actually play it. Then you’re going to be performing it, and then when you get up and perform it at that speed that you want to, it will be totally comfortable.
It will be a breeze, you won’t even have to worry about it.
So, prepare. That preparation, that building up the speed a little bit at a time, and going beyond the point you really need to go will make all the difference in the world when you get up to perform it.
That’s your Quick Tip of the Week! I’ll see you next time.
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