Go slow, go slow, go slow, go slow, go slow....................................

Ever tried to play part of a piece from the middle of a sequence and blanked out?  How about reducing the tempo drastically - do your fingers "forget" what they happily knew at the usual speed?  Mine do.  This is of course further evidence that there is a part of my brain akin to the 'black box' that used to be a common feature of my biochemistry lectures back in the day.  If the mechanism wasn't known, the equations used to show one thing going into the box, and another coming out. What happened in between was anybody's guess.  What brings this to mind?  Well my challenge this week is to play Carcassi 7 cold at an agonizingly slow pace every day.  I can tell what's going to happen - first my fingers won't want to find the strings (cold, remember?) and then I will get to a part where I blank out on which fingers play the note(s) I can hear in my head and have played approximately five hundred times (the black box).  So I will have to get the music out (or play faster) to 'remember'.  Come to think of it, I might also check out what the dynamics and phrasing are supposed to be while I'm about it. And I might figure out the sequencing a little more clearly.  Hmmm... perhaps there is some method to this madness -  My memory might even get to decipher some of the contents of that black box...

But here's the kicker - I have to do this for my guitar teacher next week!   Oh man, I'm going to need a strong drink either before or after that lesson (maybe before and after...)

Decided to see if repetitions of this process (trying to play it cold, sloooow) has any benefit...  so will try it daily and track problems and solutions this week.

DAY ONE.   Quel Disaster!    Playing it at 25-30 (vs. ~80).  Started off by missing strings (as predicted).  Then forgot where to go in multiple spots (also as predicted).  And speeding up (should have been predicted) - just could not stay with the metronome.  Tried the metronome on 8th notes (still hard to follow) and finally on 16th notes, which worked better.    I learned the "forgetting" was usually in the right hand, not the left, so practiced some areas right hand only.


DAY TWO -  Slight improvement...  a couple of sections I practiced yesterday were OK today.  Still missed strings, but mostly in the first few measures, right hand.  Maybe I should do a dry run of the first bit next time to make sure I'm lined up?  Still having problems with the slur section  - my hand doesn't like i on 1 with p on 6, so repeats m, and then I notice what I did and screw up the next bit.  Potential solution?  Changing fingering to add in 'a.' Noticed a squeak I can work to eliminate.  Forgot to put metronome on at all....oh well, it was slow...

DAY THREE - Definitely improved today - only missed or buzzed ?4 notes in a complete run through - but wait!   I "forgot" to go super slow - it was just "slower."   Aaargh.  Back to the metronome tomorrow.  Good news - squeak disappeared, and having done a dry run of the beginning few measures,  only missed one note instead of most of them in the first section.  And the 'a' on the slurs seems to be working but needs more practice.  Worked on trying to find that F#/C stretch by feel because it's a "commonly missed" part - not too much success with that yet.  Figured I'd better damp the E bass at the end so worked on the right hand thumb (which never ever wants to do what I tell it to....).  Thought about adding in breathing room but didn't...

DAY FOUR - Much better at staying with the metronome on 16ths - no tendency to charge ahead at all.   And I managed to get through to the end (i.e. before the repeat) , only missing one note , and in particular the first section when I was totally cold went without a hitch as did the slurs and F#/C (but I did have to look).  But then on the repeat new problems emerged - now I have so much time to think that I'm second guessing myself or analyzing or wandering in my head instead of focusing.  Then suddenly I remember to concentrate and - guess what? I don't know where I am.  Also totally forgot about damping at the end.   So tomorrow's challenge is to stay focused, perhaps by actively thinking about dynamics in the upcoming part instead of the individual notes...
Thinks💭   might try some of my other  "problem pieces" (actually that's all of them currently) at super-slow tempos to see if that will iron out some persistent problems.

DAY FIVE - I can say I know this piece a lot better than I did at the beginning of the week!  Tempo is good but I'm continuing to have problems remaining focused at such a slow pace, and today I had to restart due to 'wandering off' right at the beginning- what can I say? it's too early in the morning.  However once I got  my brain in gear, the second section including the repeat went well.  Tried to think about what I needed to concentrate on in upcoming sections and it seemed to help.  Though I did wander off once, believe it or not thinking about suggestions to avoid wandering off from yesterday's online masterclass!  - and I still forgot the damping. 

I tried the super-slow stuff on Maria Luisa - that's a harder nut to crack - I've tried concentrating on so many different aspects  - one of these days I will figure it out.

DAY SIX  - I would dearly like to say that this is the day it all came together.  Nope.   In fact it was dreadful.  Missing notes with both hands left right and center.  Gave up and practiced thumb damping instead.  Reminds me of when you are clicker training a pig to follow a target (yes, I've done all sorts of odd activities in my career) and things are going along swimmingly until a few days in, then the pig ups and forgets everything you thought it had learned.  This (for a pig) is normal - within a day or so it's back on track and seems to have mastered the task.  Something to do with transitioning from short term to long term memory.  I suppose I could be like that pig.  OR it might have been because I reduced the metronome to 8ths, and here I was again fighting not to speed up instead of concentrating on what I was playing.  I'd love to know why it is so much more difficult to stay at tempo with half as many clicks...  Tomorrow's task - somehow encourage my brain to stay on tempo with 8ths and think about what's coming next...

DAY SEVEN - well today was the day when I actually had to play it, at this painfully slow tempo, for my guitar teacher.   Just so you know, I rarely if ever manage to play anything for my guitar teacher due to nerves and fear of failure.  What happened?  Well I succeeded! - played through the whole thing with minimal mistakes (though admittedly I did have to start twice).  Of course I did not have to stay with the metronome, which helped. Next week's task is to stay with the metronome on fewer clicks, but I think I'll spare you the day-to-day tribulations  😊

Slow practice: so that's why it isn't working!

I'm messing up again.   Even though I can play it at home, (most of the time) I'm not managing to play it for my guitar teacher.   And then comes the instruction ... "try playing it more slowly" -  I can almost predict when.  But at home, I often do play it more slowly in an effort to make it more consistent, it's just not helping much with the faster playing - why not?

I think I may have just come across the answer in Kevin Gallagher's excellent blog at http://www.guitar69.com/   His latest post is short, to the point and may have hit the nail on the head.   He says you have not just to go slowly, but also to do things differently while you've got all that time, with a view to changing how you play it fast.  What in particular does he recommend?  You should be thinking ahead - visualizing, and even feeling how the upcoming notes are going to look and sound while you are still playing the previous ones.  As this is something I've been unable to figure out how to incorporate into my own playing it feels like it might be key. Also consciously working on playing in a relaxed manner - essential for playing faster.  

So it's back to the drawing board for another round of slow playing - this time with something to aim for 😊

Another way of learning a piece "thoroughly" ?

Apart from nerves turning my fingers into sausages when I try to play for others, my brain seems to go on coffee break and I'm quite likely to get stuck in the middle with no idea how to get restarted.  I know this is because I've only learned it by "muscle memory" and anything that interferes with the flow (like missing with one hand or the other) is likely to result in a blank because my conscious brain kicks in, and "it"  hasn't learned it. (I find it totally amusing to contemplate having 2 brains inside my head that don't speak to each other - much more fun than the scientific description),  I've tried half heartedly to kick my conscious brain into action by learning things one hand at a time - and in fact have had some success with the left hand alone (plus singing so I know where I am), and for short sections needing to be worked out, the right hand alone while reading the score.  However it's totally tedious (ie not fun) and I am having a hard time making myself do it.

So a few weeks ago my guitar teacher gave me specific instructions to practice a piece at an unbelievably slow tempo.  Almost so slow you couldn't tell what was going on.   The intention being I would have time to  concentrate on all the things I don't do well (or at all), like actually hitting all the notes and making them truly legato.   However it had the serendipitous effect of making me think about what my hands were doing.  Indeed I find I have learned the part I was working on quite well.  Admittedly this is just a small sample, but it does offer another way of perhaps getting a piece lodged properly in both 'parts' of the brain.  I don't know if you've ever come across the effect that when you try to play something a lot slower than normal, you "forget" what you were supposed to be doing and get lost. I certainly have.  I'm hypothesizing that at very slow speeds,  the muscle memory sequence is disrupted and your conscious brain has to kick in instead.

Anyway I'm excited to try it - particularly on some pieces I ought to be able to play well, but am prone to "forgetting" in the middle.