Struggling with speed, accuracy, or pulse? James describes three ways you can use different tempos to maximize your practice sessions. The following is a transcript of the video above (slightly reworded for readability):
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Hello, everyone. This is James Christian with RudimentalUniversity.com. Today I would like to talk about three different ways you can use tempo to help you when practicing a piece of music.
I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while, and this last week several ideas came together. I never used to listen to podcasts, but over the last year or so, I’ve gotten into several of them, and some of them are really good. And I like to listen to things that come from all sorts of disciplines, and it’s amazing how when you hear someone talk about something in one area, you can apply it to a different area. And I think that just helps you to become a more integrated thinker.
This one podcast which is pretty popular is called The Art of Charm. And recently they interviewed James Clear, and he talked about “mental models.” And those are basically different grids through which you can see different ideas and apply them and come up with different solutions that you might not normally come up with if you stay in one mental model, of one way of thinking about things. So it’s basically a way to expand your way of thinking about ideas, and coming up with new solutions, and just having new directions to go.
The other podcast I listened to is called @percussion. And it’s really great. If you haven’t already listened to it, I would highly recommend checking it out. Anyway, just recently, they interviewed Colin Hill, and he did his dissertation on how different experts, specifically expert percussionists, practice. And as he went through it, he discovered that there’s no set way. He was trying to find THE way, like common ground, that people use to practice, and he found that a lot of people have different ways of doing it.
I actually found that really encouraging, because I personally use tempo in different ways to practice. And so [what I’m about to present] are basically different mental models, if you will, for practicing with tempo—in practicing to get a performance ready with a piece of music.
Here are the links to both of these podcasts:
The Art of Charm, episode 592: James Clear, Mental Models
@percussion, episode 81: Colin Hill
Method #1: Slow Down!!!
The first way of looking at tempo is a method that’s very common. It’s to take the piece very slowly.
Say the tempo is marked at 120 beats per minute… A lot of people would advocate taking it even as low as half that tempo, to 60 beats per minute. Some might be a little more lenient and maybe go up to 80 or so. But find a comfortable tempo that you can pretty much play the whole piece at perfectly. And so you take it about where you can sightread it and start learning it that way. Play through the whole piece, note for note, get it exactly 100% accurate. And once you get that comfortable, then bump the tempo by about 10 clicks on the metronome, and then keep bumping it and bumping it and bumping it. And eventually you arrive at the tempo you desire to play it at.
This method is very good in lots of ways. It’s great for building coordination. If you’re playing drum set, or tenors, or maybe a four-mallet marimba piece where you have lots of coordination things between the two hands… That can be really helpful for just breaking it down slowly and being very aware of what each hand is doing at each point—or each foot, depending on how many limbs you’re using. And you can build the coordination that way, and then slowly, as your brain gets used to feeling it, you can bump the tempo up that way.
It’s also great for rhythm and note accuracy. With all these, I would highly recommend using a metronome if the tempo is at all steady through the piece. Anyway, take the metronome and really focus on… Especially if you have a lot of metric modulations and all that. Or even just getting basic things like quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes. We might want to tend to rush quarter notes, or we might want to tend to slow down sixteenth notes—or speed them up, either way. Whatever it is, then the slow tempo forces you to be very aware of the space on that.
Also, especially on keyboard playing—or drum set, or tenor drums, or timpani—where you’re having to hit a lot of different surfaces, it can help you be really accurate in your playing zones on drums or on keyboards, even striking the right bars, making sure you’re hitting every note exactly correct. Sometimes when you get fast tempos, it’s very easy to accidentally hit a B natural instead of a C natural or something like that. But going really slowly can help you be very accurate in your spacing. And then as you start speeding it up, you can hear a lot easier if you’re starting to get sloppy on playing zones or note accuracy, and you can correct those errors at the slower tempos.
So basically, the whole idea on that is take it slow. Get it perfect with dynamics, note accuracy—everything. And then just slowly build it up until you can have it at the correct tempo.
Method #2: Play at the Written Tempo
Now, this next way of using tempo in practicing is pretty radical: You actually play it at the written tempo. I know, crazy, right?
The benefits of that are, first, you’re already closer to what the composer intended—and also hopefully what you intend, for what you actually want to perform it at.
The other benefit is: It allows you to know your ability, your physical limits, your chops. The problem I’ve seen with a lot of people who use the slower method is maybe they get it to where they can play it great at 80 beats, then they can get it at 90 beats, and then they can get it at 100 beats. But if it’s written at 132, they might never be able to get faster than 100, because they’ve never practiced the endurance or the speed required at the actual tempo. So I think it’s very important that you do regularly practice at the written tempo—or at least, if you’re wanting to take it differently
than what’s written, that you’re taking it at what you intend it to be at.
The other reason is: This helps you practice the physical momentum of the piece. And this applies to any instrument. If it’s a clarinet piece where you’re having to go over the break, or where you have some fast slide positions with trombone, or anything. But on percussion, especially on multi-surface instruments, like keyboards, or drum set, or tenor drums, or timpani, or anything—there’s a big difference between… At 60 beats per minute going: one drum, one drum, one drum versus at 200 beats a minute where you’re having to go… maybe you have three notes with one hand going across there, and there’s a momentum that’s required on that. And if you’re always practicing at slow tempos, you’ll never practice it with the actual physics involved with the piece.
Even on snare drum, on one surface, there’s still… how quickly you have to switch from dynamic markings, or putting grace notes in for flam passages, or if you have some backsticking, or moving from the rim, or whatever your movements are, you have to be able to control it quickly and know the momentum you have and then how to control that momentum. You have to be able to do that at the actual tempo you’re going to do it at.
One way to practice that if you have a hard passage to learn is to do it in small chunks. Say you do one beat at a time or maybe even two notes at a time. Say you’ve got a fast keyboard passage and you’re going to go: E natural to E flat. You might just practice those two notes: “Da-dut Da-dut Da-dut.” Get those two notes good, and then say you’re going to go down to a C after that. So you might go E, E flat, C. “Da-da-dut Da-da-dut Da-da-dut.” You’re just getting those quick notes there. And then you do that with the whole phrase. You may have 20 measures of sixteenth notes like that, but if you do it chunks at the speed and have patience with it, then you can practice the actual momentum involved and get the notes in time and still be accurate with it.
Now, this particular method was one that I often use, and I was happy to hear at a clinic at TMEA a couple of years ago, they did a study of some of their colleagues at a university. (I can’t remember who did the clinic. I apologize for that, but if anyone knows, feel free to write a comment in the video.) But anyway, they noticed a lot of their colleagues did the same thing, because they were practicing the momentum involved with that. Frequently, they found that if they had a really difficult passage, it was helpful to go back to the slower method and just bring those couple of measures… slow, practice those, and then boost them up. But ultimately, they were trying to get to the actual tempo they were going to perform it at as quickly as possible. And that helps with muscle memory, so that you’re doing it the same way every time.
Method #3: Play Everything Fast! (yes, you read that correctly)
The final approach for using tempo to help you is: to go faster than the written tempo. I wouldn’t recommend doing this a lot, but there are a few occasions that I’ve found it to be really helpful. It’s when you’ve already learned the music. I wouldn’t try this until you pretty well have it down at the tempo you want. But then if you find you have tempo issues with tending to rush easier parts, sometimes it’s helpful just to take the whole thing lighting fast.
Just push it as fast as you can, and then tell yourself, “I’m a better player now. I don’t have to take this at my fastest tempo. I’m going to take it at the tempo I want to.” And so you already have kind of worked it through, you’ve given yourself permission to push the tempos when you want to. But now you say, “I’m going to restrain it.” And you pull it back, and then you already know you want to go faster here, and you know you can go faster, but you choose not to.
Summary
All three of these methods are good mental models for using tempo.
Sometimes if you’re approaching a piece of music, it might be helpful to chunk it at the actual written tempo. Sometimes it might be helpful to take it a lot slower. Sometimes if you can just tell your note accuracy is really poor, you might want to take the whole thing really slow and just focus on that and then speed it up. Other times, you can tell, “Man, I just keep struggling with keeping a steady tempo, because there are parts I want to go faster or slower.” Just have the freedom to play it really fast! You don’t have to perform it that way, but you can do it really fast and say, “Okay, I know what I’m capable of. Now here’s the controlled version to do that with.”
So anyway, I hope these are helpful mental models, helpful tempo ideas… gives you some different tools in your toolbox for approaching music. If there’s a certain passage you’re trying to learn that’s difficult, then you might just try one of these different ways. If something you’re doing is not working, then try the other way. And hopefully with all those, you can find something that’s really helpful, and hopefully you can find something that creates a great performance.
If you have any comments, or if you have any other different ways to use tempo in rehearsal, then I’d love to hear about them. Please leave comments on the video, and if you like it, please like, share, and just help this channel to grow. I appreciate your watching, and I will see you next time.