Slow Practicing

I have long advocated slow practicing to my students (and nowadays, to myself!) but what that means exactly needs to be spelled out in some detail, I suspect.

The virtues of slow practicing are widely known and widely practiced. I have been told by people who were there that guitarists like John Williams can be heard before a concert playing through certain repertoire at very slow speeds, perhaps half of the actual tempo. I have been told by orchestral players that they have heard Pepe Romero practicing the Concierto de Aranjuez at one-quarter tempo before a concert. If you have never done this you will be astonished at how much sheer concentration it takes and how much energy.

But just playing the piece at a fraction of the normal tempo is only part of the story. You need to ask yourself why this is a useful technique. The reason you are practicing very slowly is to observe exactly what is going on in both hands. Is there some fixed tension somewhere that you might need to release? Can you improve the right hand attack so as to remove any harsh sounds due to rushing? Are your fingers moving in the most efficient way possible? Do you feel any strain anywhere and can you reduce or remove it? In other words, it is all in how you practice. Frankly, if you practice slowly in a sloppy inattentive manner, you will actually make things worse instead of better! I think that one of the most important factors in good playing is your alertness to what is physically comfortable. You also need to be sensitive to good tone, rhythmic precision and musical phrasing. In the absence of these abilities, I suspect it doesn't matter how slow you practice.

Here is a piece I recorded years ago and I assure you, there was lots of slow, careful practicing beforehand. This is Las Abejas by Barrios: