Tempos

[dinosaurtales]

I am mad at my teacher right now.  I am desperately trying to get a couple of pieces ready for a music festival, and two of them g minor ballade and suggestion diabolique are squeaking in just under a tempo I woiuld really like them to be at.  The Prokofiev is particularly problematic right now and I am sweating big time. 

So my teacher wants me to concentrate on cleaning them up at their current tempos, not trying to "rush" any more to make them go faster, while at the same time reminding me that they are really going too slow. 

So now I can't play them without subconcioiusly trying to go faster !  erg!   

[Bouter Boogie]

Hehehe.. That's not cool.. I've played Suggestion Diabolique a while ago, but my teacher didn't said anything about my tempo, it was already okay 

Anyway, doesn't it has to be "tempi" instead of "tempos"? Just wondering 

[rob47]

I am mad at my teacher right now.  I am desperately trying to get a couple of pieces ready for a music festival, and two of them g minor ballade and suggestion diabolique are squeaking in just under a tempo I woiuld really like them to be at.  The Prokofiev is particularly problematic right now and I am sweating big time. 

So my teacher wants me to concentrate on cleaning them up at their current tempos, not trying to "rush" any more to make them go faster, while at the same time reminding me that they are really going too slow. 

So now I can't play them without subconcioiusly trying to go faster !  erg!   

yes your teacher is right!  Just get them as clean as possible. You say they re just squeaking in under tempo.  So...if it's performance ready at just under tempo, just keep practice-room -performing it until this festival.  Then you'll be ultra comfortable with it so you just have to break the mental barrier which says slow down your rushing, and perform it.  The adrenelaine and excitement of performing it will take you the rest of the way.

[piano_world]

well, martha argerich once said to me:

u ve to prepare 150%, and on the stage u will get about 90%

...

[greyrune]

wow, cool name drop there man, i wish i could meet her, or even just seeing her live would be enough.  It's true what she said too.  I find that if you really need to get something faster practice it a lot slowly, that really helps.

[Eusebius_dk]

I definately think rob's right. I'd rather want to hear a performance just slighty under tempo, where you can manage to express the music, than hearing a performance, where you would just be struggling to survive the pieces.

When you're doing it a bit slower you also have a better chance to bring out more of the fine details and textueres of the music that you might not notice when playing it in the real tempo. Allow yourself to enjoy it, and when you finally bring the tempo up a notch you'll be much aware of what's happening in the music.

Sometimes I've had too little time to bring a new piece up to the tempo I really want before a performance, so I "played safe" and did it a bit slower. One or two after I normally feel the difference, I feel more secure, and I have no problems at all playing the piece much faster.

Good luck with the festival!

[ludwig]

Hi dinosaurtales, I think what your teacher's trying to say is that a rushed performance is something you shouldn't aim for. I think this is true like Rob said, however, if you feel that the tempo of the piece will affect the way you play, or lessen the performance in anyway, then you should aim for what you think will result in an exciting and successful performance. How long do you have til the festival? If its slightly under tempo then the only way I suggest is to target your troubled spots and increase the tempo ever so slightly with the use of a metronome in the beginning, do not get tense when you feel a problematic section's coming up, instead, relax into it thinking you can do it The other bits will come easy with a tempo increase. Goodluck and let us know how it goes

[nick]

I disagree with the comment that to play faster, just practice slower.
I suggest you find the trouble passage/s holding you up, identify which hand is the problem,(ususally it is one hand) play the first maybe 4 notes very fast, then add a note or two, making sure to stop after serveral repetitions and  work on another passage with the opposite hand. Then after several repetitions you can return to the original hand and repeat. You will gradually be able to increase the number of notes in the passage at the performance speed. You will get good at identifying exactly where the trouble spot is within a small section of the trouble passage. Then you can really zero in and solve the problem. The muscles get used to the faster speed and it becomes "normal" or more comfortable.  You must practice  fast to play fast, but not in the "gradually moving the metronome up" method. Muscles cannot handle repeats with no rest at ones fastest speed once the speed gets to a certain point, anymore than you can expect a sprinter to run repeat best runs with no rest in between! Good luck.

Nick