Music Video Lesson: Speeding Causes Accidents

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin and you're watching LivingPianos.com and today the subject I just proved, speeding causes accidents. I missed the top note. I went so darn fast. Well, speeding causes accidents, that's a really interesting phrase that somebody brought to my attention recently. I thought maybe I can shed some light as to what he's talking about because he is a piano teacher in the piano industry and he has keen insights and I thought I'd bring this to your attention.

You know, it's an interesting thing that when you play a performance or anytime you're playing for someone, your heart goes a little faster and you may get a little bit nervous and you will tend to go faster and not realizing it and what happens? Things fall apart and it can become a disaster which is why I always recommend taking a deep breath when you sit down to play for someone and then think your tempo and then slow it down a notch in your mind. You think of your piece and then just slow it down and think your piece a little slower and you might be exactly the right speed then.

What else can you do to avoid speeding and causing accidents in your playing? Well, one of the things is to practice with a metronome and try to have a little margin above your performance tempo.

Practice playing faster than you need to play so that in the inevitable situation where you play a little faster or worse yet, you're playing with another musician accompanying them and they go faster and you have no choice.

Be prepared by practicing faster.

You can also lighten up your playing. You know that speed and power are inversely related. The faster you play, the lighter you must play in order to avoid fatigue. So if you find you have to go faster, for whatever reason, lighten up your playing.

Conversely, an incredibly valuable technique is to practice slowly.

You develop security by playing very deliberately at a slow speed, playing very articulated notes, raised fingers. It trains your hands which fingers are down and which fingers are up. So it's, for example, if I were playing the E flat impromptu of Schubert, you know...

Now in order to play at that speed, I'm playing extremely lightly with my fingers right on the surface of the keys. Otherwise, it would be really difficult if I tried to play that same thing with raised fingers and it would be a nightmare.

It's literally painful to do that.

But however, when playing slowly, that's exactly what you want to do, to feel each finger on each key. It's so satisfying. It trains your hand which keys are up, which keys are down, and it really solidifies your musical performance as follows.

Interestingly, it's like putting your playing under the microscope. There was one note that wasn't totally clean there. When I played fast, if that was a factor, I probably wouldn't even notice. Yet, that could trip me up in a performance. So you want to have the opportunity to find any weakness by playing slowly, which is an analytical way of making sure everything is secure. Plus, if you play fast all the time, mistakes will creep in. You might not have the absolute clarity. If you were to play fast all the time and then you were to slow down what you're doing fast, you might find that instead of playing every note cleanly like this, you might actually be playing like this. Fast, slow down.

Overlapping notes.

That kind of thing can happen if you play fast.

How do you know the releases are really true and precise? The slow playing allows you to analyze every finger that's down and every finger that's up.

So remember in your playing, get your performances faster than you need to play them. And in performance, deliberately play a little bit more slowly. And prepare by slow practice with raised fingers to solidify your playing.

You can also do metronome speeds. If you can't get the speed you want and clean playing, go from slower to faster, and as you get faster and faster, stay closer and closer to the keys.

So those are some tips for you. I hope this is helpful for you. Again, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/speeding-causes-accidents/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---