speed of practice

[liszmaninopin]

In the past I have generally practiced hands separately and then combined them. I have heard two theories regarding how to practice.  One says to practice slowly, hands together, being extremely careful of accuracy, and then just bring it up to speed.  What I have usually done is to play hands separately at speed, breaking up the music into smaller pieces.  This works, but I am wondering if slow practice might help.  How useful is slow practice? (especially for longer pieces, like major sonatas of concertos)

[NetherMagic]

liszmaninopin are you self studying or do you have a teacher?  Slow practice helps you clean up your music from a bit to a lot depending on how smudged up your music was before.  Well I'm really tired right now, so I'll just end it with slow practice helps with clarity.

[eddie92099]

However, don't make the mistake of playing slowly with articulation that would be impossible at the actual speed,
Ed

[BoliverAllmon]

Slow practice can help clean up everything and improve accuracy. How much it helps depends on the person.

boliver

[BoliverAllmon]

I forgot this. One of the greatest things about practicing slow with a metronome is it builds mental stamina. It will help keep you focused during performance.

boliver

[thracozaag]

In the past I have generally practiced hands separately and then combined them. I have heard two theories regarding how to practice.  One says to practice slowly, hands together, being extremely careful of accuracy, and then just bring it up to speed.  What I have usually done is to play hands separately at speed, breaking up the music into smaller pieces.  This works, but I am wondering if slow practice might help.  How useful is slow practice? (especially for longer pieces, like major sonatas of concertos)

 Slow practice is only useful for sound production issues and memorization, somewhat.

[meiting]

NOT FAST ENOUGH! lol..

[minimozart007]

Practice at a speed at which you can play musically

[pianobabe56]

As a general rule, I practice at two speeds- up to tempo (or at least the tempo that I can currently play it correctly at), and at 75% of that speed. I usually practice two times at the 75% speed for every one time I play up to speed, at least. For me, it helps with clarity, but it also helps me with evenness in touch, and the correct touch- for instance- after I play a staccato section a couple times at the slower tempo, my staccatos are much lighter and cleaner the next time that I play them up to speed.