when to practice slow and when to practice at tempo?

[kghayesh]

I am kind of confused about the tempos one should practice with. Suppose we have a piece that should be played at a fast tempo, now when one has learnt and perfectly memorized all the notes, how should the practice go next? Should we gradually increase the tempo until we reach the required tempo and then practice everytime with this tempo or we should always practice slowly even if we can play it at full speed??

[pianoperformer]

Neither.

I usually do a bit of both. It is important to practice slowly so that you can get the feel of the notes. However, it is also important to practice quickly. If you just increase in speed slowly, you will encounter a speed wall that you will have trouble getting pass.

The trick is generally to occasionally practice above performance speed, but hands separate. Once you do that, you will find that the slower speed is much easier, and you can even play it a bit faster without losing accuracy.

However, don't practice the whole piece like this, but extract a measure or two, or even a beat or two, and practice those repeatedly using the above method. If you like, you can practice a section of the piece around those troublesome parts, or the whole thing if it is not long, but at a slower speed (from 1/2 to 3/4 speed). The last time you practice it should be slower.

Also don't practice these parts for too long. Maybe do 10 minutes or so for a troublesome part, and then move onto something else.

[gyzzzmo]

play as fast as you can, as long as you dont make mistakes.

[ryanyee]

PLAY ACCORDING to how u feel it should be.

[slobone]

I use slow practice until I've learned the notes. After that I tend to use both "too slow" and  "too fast". When I first sit down at the keyboard, especially if I haven't played the piece in a few days, I start with the same slow tempo I learned with. Then I play it somewhat faster than performance tempo, if I can (both with metronome). I might also do one or two speeds in between if it's really been a long time since I looked at it.

But don't spend all your time with the metronome. It's important to allow a lot of time to work on phrasing and expression, and really plan out how you're going to play the piece. This can be surprisingly difficult to do, especially I think because there aren't so many mechanical aids to help you at that point.

[danny elfboy]

The smallest chunks should be practice almost up the tempo, the more the combining of small chunks results in larger chunks the more slower they should be practiced.