I’ve been working on increasing speed, so that I can play in sessions.
The sessions I go to play quite fast, sometimes for the sheer joy of speed.
These three things seem to help.
Play very slow. So I take a metronome down to 50 bpm and play tunes
very slow. I also take the tune apart, find difficult passages, even two or three
note combinations, and play them dead slow.
Play fast. I need at some point to play outside my comfort zone, speed wise.
A bit like training to run long distances fast–you do most of your work slow
but some mileage is devoted to speed. The session itself provides the challenge
and, for a few days after the session, playing fast is easier.
Relax. I try always to relax more as speed increases. Any tension anywhere in my
body slows me down and makes me less accurate. Sometimes the tension is in my legs,
for instance, so I relax my legs as I play fast.
If you play by yourself, start a tune comfortably slow, or even slower, then gradually increase speed a bit with every repeat. At some point in this process you’ll notice the difficult bits, as you start falling over them, or mess up the timing there. Ease off and carry on.
I’d be careful with that - your fingers might memorise flubs you don’t even realise when rushing through a tune at a speed you’re not absolutely comfortable with. We tend to overhear our own mistakes while we’re actually playing. IME the only way to practise playing fast is to play slow… but as always, YMMV.
I used to favor fast playing, believing that was how they all did it…
…of course, that’s not at all true.
but the maxim i’ve known all the years i’ve played (46 of them now…and willingly still counting)…
“if you can’t play it slow, you can’t play it fast”
of course, that doesn’t get to your question, Jim.
if you must play fast – to keep up with the others of course – then the best advice I’ve given is to remove or pare your ornaments way down.
The difficulty players who can perform a tune fine at slow speed have at higher speeds is the inability or practice to put the same number and style of ornaments into the faster tune. They fumble, flub, even muck up tunes for the sake of the fancy stuff. Most fail.
Strip the tune to its raw basics when playing faster than you are comfortable playing. It uncomplicates your life and allows you to get in with the others.
But…when you start a set (and please do a set…not just one tune by itself…it’s better that way)…do play at your own speed. And insist the others follow pace. if they dont’, simply put the flute down and walk to the bar for a drink.
your point will be well-made in no time.
Well said I found that if i can play a tune moderately fast with ornamentation i can usually play it quite fast with no ornamentation whatsoever and get the satisfaction of joining in without the “flub”. I can never play extremely fast and i don’t like to anyhow. Sorry to use terms like that but i have no formal music training.
It might have something to do with my personality in that i have trouble just jumping in but, as a relatively inexperienced player, i HAVE to play the tune at the faster pace it is played at my local session in order to get a feel for how it is played fast. I practice mostly as i should (slowly, increasing speed until i find a part that i have trouble with) but i need to play it fast also, with or without ornamentation.
I found it easiest to record the tune at the session, slow it down on with the appropriate app and then work up to the speed it was played at. That’s my crummy strategem - rely on technology
I find that jim’s three stratagems help, and dm’s “strip the tune to its raw basics”.
One warning that I am going too fast is that the swing/lilt/whatever starts to get smoothed out inconsistently - fingers won’t go fast enough to give some notes their proper value. I find that slowing down but playing with an exaggerated swing (for a reel, say) helps me get a better rhythm when I try going faster again.
Adding slightly to David’s excellent advice about ornaments (and with the caveat that I play for dances and so don’t get to choose to play at a slower tempo, even if I’m out of my comfort zone…)
With a new tune, I play it through slowly several times to get the “feel”. Although the spirit of the thing might not emerge until it hits a certain tempo. But it’s important to get an idea of how it should sound and feel under the fingers. Then increasing speed somewhat with each repetition until “sticking points” emerge. That’s what I call them anyway, the places where it falls apart.
Then I take that phrase and isolate it. Work on it slowly again and again a ridiculous number of times, only picking up speed when it’s very solid. The isolated part can be as small as need be - even just a few notes that happen to have awkward transitions. Take breaks - the mind has to absorb it. Come back and it’s better than if you hammered away.
When that part fits well, notch the speed up and another sticking point emerges. Isolate that part and repeat as necessary. Sort of like woodworking when you’re fitting parts together snugly.
One other thing that might not apply to sessions but does to dances - and this might get some flak, but for what it’s worth. Some tunes are real “fiddle tunes” and take advantage of quick cross-bowings we can’t do so well on flute. If you’ve just got to play those at the fiddler’s tempo, look for the places you can simplify without clashing. Sometimes this isn’t a bad thing but a blessing in disguise, as it leads to interesting musical blends and leaves you far less frantic.
Yup. Think like a flooter. NB the turn in On the Shores of Lough Gowna. The fiddlers love that low to high triplet. I find it a good place to take a breath and then cut the second low note to get it to ‘pop’ out. 'Course, YMMV.
That is absolutely true, and not only with flute, but any instrument. I found this very true for myself, being someone who tends to want to speed up things and play them at a normal or faster pace from the start. It’s definitely better to get it down slowly first.
Definitely push the speed bit by bit to get to the speed you want to play it at, but jumping into a high speed as soon as possible before perfecting the playing of the tune at a slow speed will definitely do exactly as megapop has stated. Very good advice.
I think a ‘straw man’ may be inadvertently being set up here. jim’s first line makes it clear that playing more slowly is what he has been doing. Some of us don’t “want to speed up things and play them at a normal or faster pace from the start”. And some of us (speaking for myself here) are quite happy to miss out some fancy bits so that we (and others) can hear what other instruments are doing and help keep our timing tight with them on what we are playing.
I am not convinced about the relevance of the “fingers might memorise the flubs” bit. That can happen at any tempo and any tempo can be “too fast” if we can’t hear that we are getting it wrong. And for session playing I am not sure that fingers memorising anything (even, say, the internal rhythm of a roll) helps to fit in with what the ears are hearing at the time.
This might sound a little odd, but I feel it’s important to critically listen to the music at the proper pace in addition to the things stated above. The more you are emmerced in listening to and trying to play the music at speed the easier it becomes. Trying to play along with recordings helps with timing, phrasing and hearing what the musicians are doing. Starting with a slowed down version to begin, and then, as other have said building up faster:
“ play through slowly several times to get the “feel”. Although the spirit of the thing might not emerge until it hits a certain tempo. But it’s important to get an idea of how it should sound and feel under the fingers. Then increasing speed somewhat with each repetition until “sticking points” emerge.”
Learning a tune from sheet music and then playing faster until it’s up to tempo, and then going to a session and letting it rip won’t lead to an enjoyable session. In a session one needs to listen to the other musicians and adjust to them. When you don’t have people to play with, I think playing along with recordings is a good way to transition into a session as long as you listen to what the other players are doing.
Seconding both above remarks.
It’s really about the feeling of the tune after all.
I suspect most of us play our best when we can totally forget about the notes per se.
Getting to that point is an interesting journey.
And yes indeed, if you’re playing with others in a session or anything equivalent, unless you’re leading off the tune, you may encounter a different version; so of course you’d want to make what you do enhance things rather than insisting boneheadedly on playing exactly what you practiced in the solitude of your rooms. But if you can play your version up to speed and listen to what’s going on around you, you’re that much closer to figuring it out.
I found that if i can play a tune moderately fast with ornamentation i can usually play it quite fast with no ornamentation whatsoever and get the satisfaction of joining in without the “flub”. I can never play extremely fast and i don’t like to anyhow. Sorry to use terms like that but i have no formal music training.
