Slow Practice Equals Quick Results

When it comes to learning music or perfecting your technique for any musical instrument, there are various practice methods that have been tried and tested by various renowned musicians. One of the best methods includes slow practice, which refers to bringing down the tempo when you are rehearsing on your own or in a private setting.

This blog covers everything you need to know about slow practice and how it yields quick and better results as compared to other forms of practice.

What is Slow Practice?

Slow practice is a practice method most commonly used in music, and it involves playing the chosen music pieces at a lower tempo that is predefined. Once you start practicing at a slower speed, you can slowly bring up the tempo until you reach the correct tempo. It is known to be one of the best ways to develop the right finger techniques and also understand the complete structure of the musical passage you are trying to perfect.

How does Slow Practice work?

Slow practice may sound easier, but it actually involves more discipline and deliberation than you may think. Moreover, it also commits the musical passage and its structure to your muscle memory, and transfers it to your subconscious, following which you don’t even have to pay too much attention while playing the passage that you have been practicing.

Slow practice involves learning and understanding every single note of the musical piece, so that you can commit it to your memory. At first, when you are playing it at a very low tempo, you might find it difficult to process it the same way as you would at the right tempo, but with a few days of practice at slowly increasing tempos, you will get used to playing the piece repeatedly, to the point that you don’t have to put any conscious effort into it.

Benefits of Slow Practice

Slow practice is more than just playing a musical piece at slower tempos repeatedly, and it has more than one benefit that helps you become a better musician overall. Here are some of the top benefits that you can experience.

Better listening skills

Most people often misunderstand that slow practice is best for people who are just starting out their musical journey or leaning music for the first time. On the contrary, slow practice is used by advanced and professional musicians as well, especially when they get stuck on a complicated musical piece that causes them to get stuck.

One of the biggest benefits of slow practice is that it enhances your listening skills. If you try out this method for a few weeks, not only will you be able to practice all your musical pieces to perfection, but you will also be able to listen to other musical pieces and identify the notes and patterns inside it, and your brain will work much faster to do so.

Enhanced musical understanding

Another advantage of slow practice is that it improves your understanding of the musical concepts and components that you might not have learn about before. It often happens that you listen to a piece of music and fail to separate the musical instruments and patterns from each other. However, when you play each piece at a much lower tempo, you will be able to transcend this understanding towards all types of music that you listen to or play in the future.

Moreover, by trying out slow practice, you will also be able to determine the best technique of practicing a particular musical piece, i.e. the proper wrist rotation, the amount of pressure you should put on each key, etc.

Improved reflexes and memory

Last but not least, slow practice uplifts and enhances your reflexes, which would actually help you play faster musical pieces with much more ease. Moreover, it also improves your memory and allows you to learn and play more complex pieces, thus furthering you on your journey to musical learning and playing. As a result, you also become more calm and relaxed while playing music, and this further enhances your playing style.

This brings us to the end of our blog on slow practice and its ability to bring out quick results. Slow practice isn’t something that you can apply for just a while, but you can keep this as a part of your regular musical practice routine, so that you can keep polishing your skills and move towards more complex and advanced playing techniques.