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When you are learning something new,  your motto should be:  “Yo!  Go slow!”

The scenario is:  the student has been learning a new tune and has come back for his lesson.  He is showing what he has learned while practicing the piece for the last week.  Of course, there are some “nerves” involved in the delivery but for the most part the student starts the tune much too fast.  He plays some parts quickly and some parts slowly, making mistakes in every section.  

“Wait!” he says.  “Let me do that again!”  “Ok,” I say.  

He does the same thing as before....too quickly for accuracy and slowing down on the difficult parts.  This is done several more times in hopes of getting it right, though it never happens.  He still goofs up and slows down.  

The message here isn’t that I like watching students perform something over and over again in order to see them mess up.  No!

The message is:   “Hey!  Let’s try something different here and see what happens.”  My solution to this scenario is for the student to slow everything down to a manageable speed.

There are a few things going on that need to be addressed. 

The first thing is that the student is attempting to play the tune at an unmanageable tempo that causes him to reinforce mistakes.  He has been doing it over and over again hoping that at some point he will play it perfectly by doing the same things that are causing the mistakes.  The thoughts usually are,  “Uh-oh, I  goofed up again...gotta start over,” and usually fixed on just getting to the end of the tune.  After all isn’t that what we’re trying to do here...play this tune?  Well....not exactly.

The other problem is that he is playing the tune in several different tempos - quickly for the easier parts, slowly for the parts that are difficult, and something in-between for the parts at the end that have been worked on the least.  

Solutions:  I learned a trick from a good friend that plays violin and teaches classical music.  She has students that do the same thing.  Her idea is this: allow yourself to play the piece as slowly as needed in order to play it accurately - each time.  She also developed a little game to help her students do that.  I borrowed that idea and now incorporate it with (just about) everyone that encounters this problem.  

Play the new piece as slowly as you need to in order to play it well - no faster.  When you can play it by ear and not make mistakes, then you can speed up...a little.

The other rule that I like to set is that you must play the tune only as fast as the part you play the slowest.  

Usually the most difficult or least practiced part of the tune is going to cause the most trouble.  Determine the tempo of that part and practice the rest of the tune in that tempo or slower.  Doing that reinforces the habit of keeping an even tempo throughout the entire piece - something that other musicians, later on, will definitely appreciate.

You will find that incorporating these simple changes into your practice routine will make a big difference in the quality of your music.

Until then....Stick To Picking.

Cheers,

Robert