what are the advantages or disadvantages of practicing fast all the time?

[bonjing]

? 

[hasekamp]

You'll never learn a piece without mistakes that way. You have to practice all parts where you make mistakes VERY slowly until you master them.
Rene.

[guendola]

Advantage of fast practising: You can spend more time on your piano.
Disadvantage: You have to spend more time on your piano.

[timothy42b]

You'll never learn a piece without mistakes that way. You have to practice all parts where you make mistakes VERY slowly until you master them.
Rene.

Never?  No, I don't think so.  Just break the piece into small enough chunks, learn them all fast, put them together two pieces a t a time. 

[faulty_damper]

? 

This question is usually asked by those without a lot of experience based on certain assumptions and inferences.  The question is also very vague.

Assuming it means playing fast pieces, then the advantages are physical, neuralogical and intellectual.
Physically, your muscles will be conditioned and developed to play fast the way you practiced.
Neuralogically, your neurons will be conditioned to allow you to play fast the way you practiced.
Intellectually, your mind will be conditioned to allow you to be able to process the tasks the way you practiced.

Disadvantages in only playing fast pieces include all of the above not being conditioned to be able to perform the tasks at any other speed, particularly slowly.

Another major disadvantage, considering the inexperience of the learning pianist, is that musicianship skills may not develop as it should.  The point of playing the piano is to make music, not to play the piano.  Musically maturity will show whether or not you agree with this statement.

[solitudewithin]

Trying to deal with speed only at a practice time is ok. But as long as it doesn't take every practice session. Besides it builds tension and in my opinion you can't develop your music sense this way. Perhaps the answer you seek is that, in practice time you should try to work many things. Many things that fit the time of the session that is. Then you will work on many things than working only at speed.

[bonjing]

sure, i agree all of you guys. On the other hand, is it a good thing to practice fast or at the proper tempo in a new piece? i know the majority of practice should be slowww but i often don't practice it slowly. My professor keeps telling me to play it veryyyy slowlyyyy but I do play it fast.

[guendola]

sure, i agree all of you guys. On the other hand, is it a good thing to practice fast or at the proper tempo in a new piece? i know the majority of practice should be slowww but i often don't practice it slowly. My professor keeps telling me to play it veryyyy slowlyyyy but I do play it fast.

It is silly to practice fast or at the proper tempo of a new piece if you can't play it correctly then. It is a great start for a desaster of inexplainable mistakes and frustration. The best tempo for practising is a tempo where you have control over every single note. This tempo also allows your brain to learn what you are doing. At normal speed, you lose some control and so you have to rely on what is automatic by then.

And for the same reason, I find it best to speed up with single hands. You can start at a higher tempo because you only need to control and monitor one hand at a time.

But well, you don't believe your professor, so why should you believe me?

[faulty_damper]

sure, i agree all of you guys. On the other hand, is it a good thing to practice fast or at the proper tempo in a new piece? i know the majority of practice should be slowww but i often don't practice it slowly. My professor keeps telling me to play it veryyyy slowlyyyy but I do play it fast.

I know the majority of my typing should be slow, preferably around 23 words per minute but I often don't type slowly.  I usually type at 112 words per minute and my typing teacher keeps telling me to type veryyyy slowlyyyy but I do type fast!

This is ludicrous.  You practice at the speed that makes musical sense.  Most piano students don't understand this very obvious goal of playing the piano: to make music.  Once this goal has been achieved, is it really necessary to play faster?  Do you speak fast all the time just to have others tell you to slow down so they can understand you?

[faulty_damper]

It is silly to practice fast or at the proper tempo of a new piece if you can't play it correctly then. It is a great start for a desaster of inexplainable mistakes and frustration. The best tempo for practising is a tempo where you have control over every single note. This tempo also allows your brain to learn what you are doing. At normal speed, you lose some control and so you have to rely on what is automatic by then.

And for the same reason, I find it best to speed up with single hands. You can start at a higher tempo because you only need to control and monitor one hand at a time.

But well, you don't believe your professor, so why should you believe me?

I don't believe you either.

What you say is not necessarilly true.  A person can do anything with or without control but lets look at the person without the desired control for this example.

He's playing too fast for his ability to control it.  Musically, it's still too slow but the goal is to be able to make music.  Because he is still learning, that necessary control to make music will not be there.  With more practice, he will gain more and more control until he can make music.  But until then, he doesn't.

In hands separate practice, then it may better to practice at a faster speed.  The reason is because practicing separately is much easier than coordinating both and the mind will have to slow down the outputs to control both.

[acilles]

Practicing fast “all the time” is not wise at all. I can’t see how it is possible, as one must go through the whole process of learning the notes, rhythms and getting ones head around the piece. The process of learning a piece is slow, you have to learn and finger the notes, work out the positions of the hands and arms, decide what touch you are going to use, decide how to pedal, decide how to phrase and create a musical result.

 How can this be done by practicing fast?

To get the fingering it is necessary to think hard and play slowly, and taking note of the fingering if you are likely to forget, or if the passage is tricky.

The positions that you use take a lot of thinking about, because you have to make sure that you are playing efficiently, and not wasting time with superfluous gestures or creating tension.

Touch…You have to decide how to balance each chord, articulation, does this work with the positions you are using? Only slow work will truly tell you.

Pedalling will make a lot more sense if you play slowly, because you will open up more possibilities. The reason I say this is because all the obvious changes will be apparent at any tempo, but subtle half pedalling, flutter pedalling etc…will all be carefully planned and easier to create a result. 

Phrasing and creating a musical result will come from slow practice ONLY if the slow practice is musical. If it is musical, slow practice will never be boring. Slow practice is harder, because the amount of control required is much greater. Things such a quality of tone and legato become more obvious and create much more problems.


If speed is the aim of your practice, say you are playing Alkan Comme le vent, or any other piece that requires remarkable dexterity, it is not wise to go about this by playing fast. You must spend hours and months at a slow tempo, carefully working out every position and creating perfect evenness in the lines. I can almost guarantee that most of the people who practice fast are tense and their playing lacks clarity. If you really ant to train to play fast, you should look at athletes and how they train. A sprinter doesn’t go out everyday and run as fast as he can, and hope that this will make him faster. He carefully looks at things in slow motion, sees what muscles are not efficient, he sees where he can make improvements, sees where tension occurs. A pianist must do the same, he must look at each movement very carefully, and see what is happening and what can be improved. So in a piece like Comma le vent, one must look at the position of the hand, and see if it is perfectly over the keys the fingers must strike, because in a piece like this, you have no time to add any changes. What happens when your 3rd finger goes down? Do the other fingers move from their positions? Is the wrist tense etc…? all of this will go unnoticed if you just keep playing fast. You could argue that experienced players could spot this, and fix it, then continue playing fast, but this wouldn’t work, as you can’t cure problems like that by repeating until it gets better, you must slow it down and perfect the movement.

A good method of training the fingers is to use this rather crude technique. Play the passage you desire to play fast extremely slowly, as loud as possible using nothing but a strike from the finger, which must be raised as high as possible. This is a slow, exhausting process, and should probably be demonstrated by a teacher who knows about this technique, as you must be aware of tension in the wrist and arms. It must be a complete finger stroke. It’s like a runner who trains with weights…he runs with the weights on him, and therefore he is forced to run slower, but when he takes them off his muscles have developed and he can run faster. Obviously one must maintain a sense of the music, and shape the line and phrase etc….so it’s just like turning the volume up.

To sum up:

Fast practice is not as successful as slow practice, because slow practice teaches one how to play fast and accurately. If slow practice is done properly, and the speed is slowly cranked up, the end result will be much cleaner and complete than practicing fast and not so well.

Hope this adds a different dimension to this thread.

Best wishes

[keypeg]

Thank you, Acilles, for a very informative post!   .

[faulty_damper]

To sum up:

Fast practice is not as successful as slow practice, because slow practice teaches one how to play fast and accurately. If slow practice is done properly, and the speed is slowly cranked up, the end result will be much cleaner and complete than practicing fast and not so well.

Hope this adds a different dimension to this thread.

I disagree.  This makes the assumption that playing the piano is like training for the Winter Olympics.  I don't know about what kind of physical skills are necessary in playing pool but I doubt that poolists are training long hours, strenuous hours just to be able to strike a ball with a cue.

Pool playing is completely opposite.  It doesn't need extensive physical strength and endurance to compete with other poolists.  What is needed is SKILL, not muscle mass!  How does one improve his skill if all he is concerned with is training for the Olympics?

There are two kinds of pianists:
1.  Pianist
2.  Musician who plays the piano.

Pianists practice for hours a day with very little to show for their immense effort.  Now you suggest that they practice slowly.... which would mean even more time practicing... If they were paid by the hours...

Here's a better practice method.  Don't practice slowly.  Practice at the speed that is necessary for the desired goal.  If the piece happens to be a slow piece, then slow practice seems to be fitting because the piece is slow.  If it is a fast piece, how will you be able to gain speed without playing fast?

Slow practice is only good for developing coordination but this assumes you are coordinating correctly.  And slow practice is only used for the minimum amount necessary to develop that coordination.  Once that coordination is gained, slow practice will NEVER be necessary again. 

[mike_lang]

To sum up:

Fast practice is not as successful as slow practice

In my experience, it is not that one is more successful than the other, but that they have different purposes.  There is nothing to teach quick playing like "fast," a.k.a. "a tempo" playing, and certainly nothing better to engrain the piece in the muscle memory.  I have found that no matter how many times I practice a passage slowly, if it is meant to be played presto, it must also be practiced presto.

On the other hand, there is slow practice, which has several purposes of its own.  For me, it is beneficial in testing the memory, refining tone, searching for inefficient gestures, and eradicating mistakes.

If slow practice is done properly, and the speed is slowly cranked up,

On the contrary, there should be one movement for the piece, and if it works at MM138, it should work just as well at MM152 or MM160.  I firmly believe that there is no need for "cranking up" the metronome, but that one must find straightaway the movement which works at MM160.  If it only works at 138, then something is incorrect in the motion and needs attention.  So often I find that students repeat passages ad infinitum with the metronome for weeks on end, thinking that the tempo will magically be realized, when in fact all that is needed is a bit of intelligent effort.  Generally, there are two problems - the notes are not learned and under the fingers, or alternatively as mentioned above, the motion is not correct. 

I hope the post is not too verbose and can be of some help to someone...

Best wishes,

ML

[keymoo]

Hope this helps:

[1.II.17] Importance of Slow Play
https://www.pianofundamentals.com/book/en/1.II.17

[ilovemusik]

Hope this helps:

[1.II.17] Importance of Slow Play
https://www.pianofundamentals.com/book/en/1.II.17

wow i love this site... awesome!