Do you have any tricks to play at “full speed”? I have found that after knowing about 30 tunes by heart, I did a “big leap” regarding speed, but I it seems that I need another one or two tricks…
I tried everything and all I could do was play them constantly and in another YEAR
they all were twice as fast.
I hope you find a quicker solution.
Lolly
I suggest cybernetic finger implants. Mine work wonders for jigs but get a little sticky with hornpipes. I think it’s because I went a little overboard with the deluxe options. But it is nice to be able to get emails on my fingernails now.
This is probably no surprise to you, but metronomes are wonderful for their capacity to raise speeds at small increments. Start where you’re comfortable, go up setting by setting, and before you know it, you’re playing a tune 30 - 50% faster. They’re also invaluable for showing you places where you lose pulse; ie, you speed through a figure or add a beat. And they’ll also improve your ability to listen critically to your playing.
I know some will say they turn players into unfeeling automatons, but you don’t have to let that happen. I think it’s an invaluable tool.
My own experience:
It comes in slow steady progress puncuated by the occasional epiphany where it “clicks” and you leap forward a bit.
It’s something I’m still working on…as are we all, I suspect.
Best,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
Thurlowe I’d like to get a good metronome as I know I have a tendency to speed up during a tune. Can you recommend one? I’d like to get an electronic one with an earplug output and a volume control…
I’m with James on this one. It’ll just come over time with practice. Once your fingers start flying though, don’t forget to go back occasionally and play slowly as well. You’ll find it somewhat more difficult than fast at that point and really important to do to maintain proper phrasing, rhythm, etc.
Take care,
Philo
There’s something you can download called Midi metronome. I find it better than my wife’s old mechanical one. Costs nothing, so the price is right.
But I would like to find something portable so I can practice outside.
Sorry, there are no short cuts. You’ll speed up when you are ready, and you will know when you are ready, because you’ll speed up. Speed only happens with time, unless you are highly gifted, and then you would be telling us the answers to obtaining more speed.
I’m with Thurlowe: get a metronome. I don’t particularly care for the software ones: that means you have to have the computer on, which means you gotta stop, put down the instrument, type at the keyboard, move the mouse, pcik up the instrument…
I bought a small Korg electronic metronome (includes a jack for an earpiece). It shows a visual (silent) beat, as well as an audible one. So I can set the tempo where I’m comfortable, and raise it incrementally until I’m at the speed I want.
Been using metronomes for years.
Well, from my own experience, speed can be obtained somewhat very fast, but that’s all you will have obtained: speed. You will get speed at the expense of rythm and phrasing. The worse mistake you could make is to try to play fast without having mastered what’s really important first. Bottom line, someone who plays fast doesnt mean he plays well. What’s really a challenge is to play well and fast.
To give you an idea, last summer I was playing with a concertina player in a pub in Miltown Malbay. Well, we were waiting for the “real” hardcore people to come, so I started a tune I knew pretty well, I think it was Banish Misfortune, but I played it [tried to] relatively slow and “with style”, a little like Geraldine Cotter or the likes would play it. Well, believe it or not, a known box player, Joe Burke, came and congratulated us. I don’t think it was really about the quality of the music, but more about the fact that we didnt emphasise on speed.
To finish, I think nothing’s more fun than playing fast, but this isnt what’s going to make you a great player.
I agree with Azalin.
I think the best way to
learn to play fast is
to spend a lot of time
playing slowly. Also,
when playing fast and
you have trouble with
a passage play it
slowly, many times
over. Get the fingerings
and transitions between
them just right, slowly.
Then go back to fast.
You know there’s an
adage for directors of
plays: ‘When a scene
is playing too slowly,
slow it down.’
On 2002-10-17 22:01, avanutria wrote:
Thurlowe I’d like to get a good metronome as I know I have a tendency to speed up during a tune. Can you recommend one? I’d like to get an electronic one with an earplug output and a volume control…
Hi. I just purchased one at Tom Lee HK and I’m very pleased. This one is real tiny and fits on your ear like an earring. Volume is adjustable by the distance to your ear cavity. It has selection for accents and pulses and speed. Made by Korg. If its available in Hongkong it must be available on the net too.
Tots
I just did a search and found the model number. Korg MM-1 metronome.
[ This Message was edited by: totst on 2002-10-18 04:00 ]
Though I advocate use of a metronome to help gain speed in playing, I agree with the school of thought that speed is not really the objective. Expression, rhythm and phrasing are all-important. Remeber, these tunes arise from experience and evoke emotional responses. When the tune is played at speeds exceeding the ear’s ability to distinguish the notes, the expressions of the tune gets lost. Then, why bother to play it?
On 2002-10-17 22:01, avanutria wrote:
Thurlowe I’d like to get a good metronome as I know I have a tendency to speed up during a tune. Can you recommend one? I’d like to get an electronic one with an earplug output and a volume control…
A year ago I bought a little Seiko 'nome and it’s great. The real plus is that it’ll beat in a variety of rhythms including the jig triplet (“dee dah dah”) which has been a huge help.
For god’s sake though, don’t go TOO fast - the music is meant to evoke.
One caution about metronomes:
I onced asked Conal O’Grada about using a metronome when I was working on a tune that was particularly hard to keep steady.
He recommended against it: using a metronome tends to cause two problems with trad music: first, it tends to eliminate the slight natural swing of rhythm of a tune; second, it tends to cause the player to only put accents (glottals, tongueing, cuts, whatever) only on the beat and never off-beat, which is where contrasting use of them can really bring a tune to life.
What I’ve started doing (only in practice, mind) that does seem to help is stomping one foot like an old hillbilly fiddle player. May look odd but it does help steady the beat.
Once you start learning the tune with a steady beat, you no longer need to stomp, or use a metronome either, for that matter.
Best wishes,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
What I’ve started doing (only in practice, mind) that does seem to help is stomping one foot like an old hillbilly fiddle player. May look odd but it does help steady the beat.
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
My whistle teacher, Jim Conway, recommends this also over a metronome, feeling that getting the beat in the body is the goal. I doubt he would say you need to phase it out. On one track of his new CD, as a matter of fact, his only accompaniment is his foot tapping (okay, maybe not stomping) on a block of wood. And, as he admits in the liner notes, Martin Hayes taps his foot all through his beautiful CD, The Lonesome Touch.
Carol Skinner
Evanston, IL
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the program Transcribe (Recommended by Bill Ochs) or the slow downer program I have seen mentioned.
With these programs you can increase the speed of the tune you are playing along with both preserving the tempo and feel of the music. Granted you will be playing family close to the recording that you are studding. If you want to do your own version you can record your self and increase the speed.
Using this method eliminates the need for a metronome and that annoying tick tick tick .
This (slow-downer software) is what I do when I’m learning a new tune. I set the slow-downer to maximum slowness, and keep increasing the pace by 5-10% every time I get it ‘right’, until I’m playing about 20-30% faster than recorded. I go ‘past’ the recorded speed cause I’ve found that if I can ‘keep up’ at that speed, i have a much easier time handilng the pressure and little inconsistencies that can happen when you’re playing live in public.
On 2002-10-18 10:15, Wizzer wrote:
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the program Transcribe (Recommended by Bill Ochs) or the slow downer program I have seen mentioned.
With these programs you can increase the speed of the tune you are playing along with both preserving the tempo and feel of the music. Granted you will be playing family close to the recording that you are studding. If you want to do your own version you can record your self and increase the speed.
Using this method eliminates the need for a metronome and that annoying tick tick tick .