PRACTICE TIPS #2: A Practice Strategy for "Up-to-Tempo"

[Brent Hugh <bhugh@griffon.mwsc.edu>]

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PRACTICE TIPS #2: A Practice Strategy for "Up-to-Tempo" Practicing

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In the last issue of Practice Tips, we arrived at this conclusion:



     Spend more of your practice time playing small (perhaps very, 

     very small) sections of your piece, up to tempo. Spend less 

     of your practice time playing lengthy sections of the piece 

     at slow tempos.



Leon Whitesell of the University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, responded to

this idea and added some interesting points:



     . . . this concept was foundational in the teaching of the great 

     Edward Steurmann, and the highly-esteemed pianist-teacher 

     Guy Maier. It is often combined with the Slow-Fast (or 

     even referred to as Tempo Doubling, which is not quite truthful, 

     but makes its point).



     Of course, solid-as-a-rock rhythm is fundamental in all 

     practice, but when these "spurts" are followed by relaxed 

     "stops", we not only achieve fluent speeds, but also "control" 

     over that which we are seeking - virtuoso skill.



     And, by the way such practice develops memorization abilities 

     amazingly!





This idea--spending more of your time practicing small sections up to

tempo--suggests an overall strategy for practicing that is commonly used by

professional musicians, but often overlooked by aspiring musicians.  Music

can be learned several times faster by this method than by the old

"gradually slow-to-fast" method.



   1. When first learning a piece, you spend the vast majority of your time

practicing very small sections, which, after some initial planning of

fingering and other basics, are soon right up to tempo.  The exact length

of these sections will vary depending on your ability and the difficulty of

the music, but in very difficult sections you may often find yourself

practicing something like three or four notes at a time, right hand alone,

or two chords, left hand alone.  These sections should be short enough

that, right from the beginning, you can mentally grasp each section, in its

entirety, with complete clarity.  



  In between playing each of these short sections, you take plenty of time

to relax, breathe, evaluate what you just played and plan what you will

play next.



  In order to get an overview of the piece and how the small sections fit

together, you spend perhaps 10-20% of your practice time playing larger

sections at slower tempos.



   2.  As you master the small sections of the piece up to tempo, you find

that they can fit together rather easily into sections that are a little

larger.  So now you spend some practice time reviewing the small sections

(up to tempo), the majority of your time working on these medium-sized

sections (which are now up to tempo also), and a small amount of your

practice time playing larger sections (which you still must play slowly).



   3.  As the piece is starts to come together, getting close to

performance readiness, you can now play long sections and even the entire

piece up to tempo.  You spend approximately equal amounts of your practice time



          A. Reviewing the smallest sections

          B. Reviewing the medium-sized sections

          C. Playing large sections or the whole piece, as in a performance.





Happy Practicing!



--Brent



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PRACTICE TIPS is by pianist, teacher, composer, and internet nerd

Brent Hugh.  Brent knows about practicing mostly because he *does*

it, and in fact is toddling off to do some of it just about now . . .



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