Listen to your favorite player play the song at the tempo you want to achieve. You will get that “thing” in your head and then you can reach toward that goal.
Also - Play as fast as you can until you start getting sloppy, then back down one notch until it’s good and play it there a bunch. Repeat until you play at the speed you want, and well.
As a former dancer, I agree that you need to play up to dance speed, but my session experience has shown a surprisingly large number of musicians, some very talented, who have no grasp that you can play too fast for dancers.
I think we start missing the big picture when the goal becomes speed alone.
Eric
I think it’s useful, once you know a tune, to combine slow and fast practice, working to a speed that is outside your comfort zone. First of all, it pinpoints the problem spots are so you can work them out and, if you pay careful attention, it shows you specific movements that you need to work on; secondly, it forces your hands to respond more quickly than your conscious thinking so that movements become automatic. It’s interesting to note that when infants are learning to speak, they start babbling before they actually start speaking with words; in other words, they are practicing the rhythm and cadence of speech before they get to the specifics, just the opposite of what we tend to do with music. That’s part of the reason they don’t end . . . up . . . talking . . . like . . . this.
As a whistle player, I’m still at the slow and careful practice stage but I’ve been playing fiddle tunes on guitar and mandolin for many years. I’ve never had much luck with starting slow and slowly ramping up the speed like most people recommend. I reach a barrier where no amount of practice can break through.
Playing a tune up to speed has a totally different feel than practicing slowly. I think, at least for me, that to play a tune up to speed I have to practice it up to speed. I like to set my metronome at my target speed (120 bpm) and have at it, letting the chips fall where they may. I won’t be able to get in all the fancy ornamentation that I can play in my slow practice. I may not even be able to play more than one note out of four. But when I can play that one note out of four in time, I have something I can build on. For many of the my better tunes, I have two versions. The slow version is the way I’d like to play the tune and the fast version is the tune stripped to its bare essentials so that I can play it in a session.
Please note that I’m not saying that I don’t practice slowly. I think that practicing a tune at a comfortable speed is very important and very satisfying. But, when you reach a plateau that you can’t get past, practicing up to speed can help.
My experience is very similar to Black_Gibson’s. I’ve been playing whistle for many years, but am primarily a mandolinist who plays fiddle tunes.
Unlike B_G, I am one who starts playing a tune slowly and works up to faster tempos. But he’s right in suggesting that there’s a “wall” you seem to hit, almost like a runner experiences. It can be hard to break through that. Once you do, it can be hard to play the tunes slowly again, and they just don’t seem to sound right.
That said, I’m still a proponent of medium-velocity, purposeful playing. The soul of these tunes is in the nuances that are lost if playing them becomes an aerobic workout exercise. I like to play in sessions that stay moderate in speed, with some diversity in style and tempo to spice things up. That way, when you do introduce pyrotechnics, they’re more interesting for player and listener both.
When you play very fast, the wrong notes don’t last as long.
They do in your mind, though.
“Save police time - beat yourself up”.
That said, I’m still a proponent of medium-velocity, purposeful playing. The soul of these tunes is in the nuances that are lost if playing them becomes an aerobic workout exercise. I like to play in sessions that stay moderate in speed, with some diversity in style and tempo to spice things up. That way, when you do introduce pyrotechnics, they’re more interesting for player and listener both.
I don’t think I made myself clear. I definitely believe in slow/medium speed practice. I think it’s very important–much more important than fast practice. I am not a speed demon. I like playing tunes at a comfortable tempo, which for me is 80-100 bpm on the metronome, depending on how well I know the tune and which instrument I’m playing. I probably play 90% of my fiddle tune music in this range.
However, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to play a tune up to speed. It’s quite frustrating at first but also very satisfying when you manage to play something that doesn’t sound completely horrible. I don’t think the argument that many people make about forming and breaking bad habits by playing faster than you can applies either as long as you do continue to do most of your practice at your comfortable speed.
BTW, although I know that there are much finer gradations in ITM, I consider up to speed in American fiddling to be 120 bpm. Some play a bit faster and some a bit slower but to me this is the speed that has a nice bounce to it. I’m not there yet. On a good day, when the phase of the moon is just right, I can sometimes play a creditable version of a tune I know very well at about 105.
As an often-broken rule, I try to practice to beyond the tempo I’ll need, then back off. When the group gets going a bit too quick, it’s nice to be able to tough it out rather than throw down one’s instrument and stomp off in disgust.
Please excuse the horrid grammar.