practice slowly

[andrewjohnsson40]

We all heard this: practice slowly!
It's very different doing this on a piano or an accordion. Why? We have bellows on the accordion.
When I play slowly the bellows will have to close and open at different part in the tune than if I were to play it up to speed.
Also, som say playing slow music is the hardest thing to do.
Anyway, any thoughts or theory on this?

 

[TomBR]

Fair points!
I'd suggest very slow practice of large chunks of music is probably a waste of time, there's no point playing slowly through parts that you can already play well. Very slow is for the hard bits. So bellows are less of an issue. (Obviously it's a bad thing to play a piece speeding up and slowing down unintentionally, but deliberately varying the speed can be a good thing. Slow down intentionally and even pause before you play that bit wrong again!)

If playing slow is very hard, it may be because there are problems that are being hidden when it's played fast!

 

[Anyanka]

I find it useful to go back slowly over a very familiar tune now and then, esp if mistakes or bad habits have crept in. It's surprisingly difficult, because it gives you time to think, which breaks the 'flow'!

 

[george garside]

for practice purposes there is slow and very slow! . Most tunes work ok i.e. with same phrasing, dynamics , bellows movement etc if moderately slowed down an d this can give time to sort out tricky bits of fingering etc.

If some bits of the tune are presenting real problems it is best to take them out of the tune and practice separately until they can be played reasonable well at ''tune speed''

It is also worth while remembering that rather than a 'correct' speed many tunes have a moderate range of speeds that they can be played at whilst still being correct and keeping phrasing etc the same. Some tunes also have a very large range of speed eg a 4/4 as a slow air or a quick march and in that situation the dynamics and phrasing are different as are note lengths etc

There are also some tunes that can be played with completely different time signatures eg 4/4 to 3/4 or vice versa. The Scottish tune 'the rowan tree' is a food example of this,

george

 

[accordian]

We all heard this: practice slowly!
Its very different doing this on a piano or an accordion. Why? We have bellows on the accordion.
When I play slowly the bellows will have to close and open at different part in the tune than if I were to play it up to speed.
Also, som say playing slow music is the hardest thing to do.
Anyway, any thoughts or theory on this?

although this is an older
post I would agree that playing
slowly is very difficult as I find it
gives you time to think.

 

[JerryPH]

Easy topic. Separate the act of bellows control from playing the music. Practice music proficiency first. Play slow! Get that down and then play at normal speeds and only then work in bellows control at that point!

 

[Happy girl]

Good point jerry PH.

I have repeatedly practiced tricky bits whilst at the same time diligently controlling the bellows to move in the correct direction.

This has resulted in tearing a ligament in my left shoulder which now requires physiotherapy.

I am learning my lesson; my back strap & seating arrangement is now altered resulting in better posture & I no longer diligently manually push the bellows back in order to comply with so called correctness when practicing areas of difficulty.

I was near to changing my accordion to a lighter model, but now it is better supported on my knee so that drama is out of the way at the moment!

Of course, all this could have been avoided if I had had a teacher to point out the error of my ways......... self assessment is not always ideal.

 

[george garside]

unless closely following accordion specific written music there are no strong rules about when to reverse bellows direction.

Its down to common sense eg don't change in the middle of a long note or mid bar and theres absolutely no harm in simply playing 4 bars out followed by 4 bard in or even 2 out and 2 in!

The real key to practicing slowly is to not just slowly drone on through a tune but to incorporate ''the gaps'' in the most suitable places. The way the gaps between notes are played is every bit, if not more , important than the way the notes are played.

george

 

[StargazerTony]

Actually, I break a new tune down into small, musically complete parts and practice this slow. I know if I'm going to fast if I stumble, and play it slower until I don't, then move on to the next part

All tunes I play for and by myself, are rubato

 

[JeffJetton]

unless closely following accordion specific written music there are no strong rules about when to reverse bellows direction.

Nor could there be, since the point at which you might change the bellows can be different from tune-to-tune, time-to-time, and person-to-person, due to differences in volume, register settings, size (and leakiness!) of the instrument, number of notes played, etc.

 

[StargazerTony]

Another reason to practice new music slowly, at first, is muscle memory. That occurs at night, while you're asleep, long after practice is done. It doesn't care if what you have practiced was correct or not. It simply remembers whatever you have practiced. Practice slowly, at first,, to get it right so you develop the correct muscle memory

I think correct bellows movement will come later, when you have developed the correct way to play a piece.

 

[JerryPH]

I think correct bellows movement will come later, when you have developed the correct way to play a piece.

Done enough, bellows control also becomes part of muscle memory over time, but quite honestly, I think the concept is over-rated if it is tried to be consciously used, this is one of those things that is different for each person and unless one hits on the perfect combination of circumstances, shouldnt be relied upon all that much.

Maybe I am just not getting it, but Ive played hundreds of songs for thousands of hours in decades past, but for some unknown reason, I can play Czardas with almost zero thought or effort and thats a piece I played since I was 10 years old, learned it played it a million times over a year or so, and then put it away for almost forever... Ive perhaps played it maybe 5 times over 35 years and then pull it out of the hat to do the mic test video with no warming up at all, which likely explains the rustiness (). There are easily 100+ songs that I put in equal time and effort in to practice and play back then.... but I cannot play any of those at all.

Then I look at some stupid easy piece, start super slow, build up to performance speed over 5-6 hours of practice time... and a week later, I have to start from scratch in re-learning it. I must be getting old... lol

There are only a few pieces in my head like Czardash, but honestly, I have no clue what I did to have assimilated them so completely. I did nothing differently than what I did with hundreds of other pieces over the years. To me, muscle memory is one confusing mystery.

Another related thing about playing vs playing slowly, an industry expert once said that learning to play very slowly and build speed was indeed the right thing to do (and this does seem both logical and common sense, one cannot run without learning to walk, for example), but if memorizing a piece is difficult, a recommendation made was to start at the last measure, play it, the go back 2 measures, play those to last measures... then go 3 measures from the end and play those all the way to the end. Continue all the way to the start of the song. Apparently, after doing that, you are able to play the piece not only better, but by heart (without your music notes).

Ive never tried it, but if someone else wants to test this one out, feel free and let us know how it went.

 

[JeffJetton]

This Perlman guy has some good advice on this topic. Apparently hes a decent fiddle player. :lol: