Will my fingers ever move fast enough?

[Soineanta]

Okay, so I feel like after lots of hard work I'm actually beginning to get a good handle on both sight-reading and learning tunes by ear. My repertoire is expanding daily, not just partially due to all you great folks! I know that if I'd never found this board, I probably would have (gasp) abandoned the tinwhistle as just a nice little instrument that you can't really do much with. Now it's one of my greatest loves. So many thanks to all you guys.
One problem remains. It's still difficult for me to get my fingers to move quickly enough and in the right rhythm while playing fast jigs and reels. Even if I know the tune by rote and can hear it perfectly in my head, my fingers won't always do it -- despite years of piano lessons. Certain tunes such as "The Rose in the Heather" just make me wanna scream!
Any words of advice, comfort, maybe a warm brownie or two...?

[Tyghress]

Speed comes with time and patience! You're doing wonderfully!

Can't do the brownies, but I'm good for moral support!

And of course you need to remember that speed isn't really your goal. Clarity and phrasing is.

One way that I've picked up some speed is by getting an inexpensive metronome. I start off about two 'clicks' down from what I think I can play competantly, and try to get three turns through the tune at that speed. If I can, without goofing too much, I ratchet the speed up a click for the next time I practice it.

Another thing I did was get the Amazing Slow-downer (lets hear it for RONI! hip-hip-hooray!) so I could learn from a CD at 50% speed, then slowly increment it.

The ultimate speeder-upper is playing with other people! Find or make a slow jam session.

Patience. . .patience. And time!

[mike.r]

If you mainly play on a D whistle,shifting over occasionaly to an Eb on difficult days can be a real moral booster.Take comfort in the fact that rose in the heather played fast is tricky on the whistle for most people and slowing it right down might refresh your confidence at the level you are at present. Mike

[Isilwen]

*Hands a couple of fudge brownies fresh out of the oven and a glass of milk to Soineanta*

Relax! One problem I see when watching other players is that when they try to play a fast song, they tighten up their muscles and become all tense. You can't make your fingers go fast if you've got them all tight and up in knots. Relax and let it flow, and it will happen.

_________________
"...I've journeyed far through Hill & Dale
To the East & West of which tales do tell,
But none is so fair as my Rivendell."

~The Whistling Elf, aka. Quellecristiel/Heather

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: The Whistling Elf on 2002-11-24 12:10 ]</font>

[susnfx]

Don't know how long you've been playing, but I know that after nearly a year if I play a tune I started out with I'm surprised to remember how difficult it seemed at the time and how I can play it at speed now without even thinking about it. Playing in sessions/with others still causes me to tense up, however, and I don't do nearly as well; have to keep reminding myself to RELAX.
Susan

[jim stone]

Lots of good advice already.
Also helpful--when you are having
trouble with a tune, play it line
by line very very slowly, repeating
the passages, and parts of passages
again and again. Very slow practice
is standard for gaining speed and
basically wiring the brain to
play the instrument.

When you have trouble with speed,
slow down, way down, sometimes.

[mvhplank]

On 2002-11-24 12:33, jim stone wrote:
Lots of good advice already.
Also helpful--when you are having
trouble with a tune, play it line
by line very very slowly, repeating
the passages, and parts of passages
again and again. Very slow practice
is standard for gaining speed and
basically wiring the brain to
play the instrument.

When you have trouble with speed,
slow down, way down, sometimes.

Exactly! Think "muscle memory", which only comes with repetition. So start slow and play it overandoverandoverandover until your fingers know where to go, seemingly by themselves. THEN you'll be able to pick up speed.

I think it might not happen if you try to read the music at the same time--for me, it creates interference. I know a fiddle player who maintains that if you need the "dots," you don't really know the tune.

I think it bears mentioning, even though this may not be the time to start a full discussion... I have been hearing about "fast-twitch" and "slow-twitch" muscle types--some people are sprinters, some are marathoners. My guitar-playing friend, a former marathoner, discovered he couldn't move his hands fast enough to play the twiddly way mandolin players sometimes do in lieu of "sustain."

Anyway, I think even slow-twitch types can play a whistle as fast as they want to!

M

[AnnaDMartinez]

My arthritic old fingers won't play fast anyhow, so I don't worry about it! I envy youngsters who can!

_________________
Waiting for the Mothership...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Anna Martinez on 2002-11-24 13:24 ]</font>

[The Weekenders]

At some point, surrender your self-perception, similar to the breakthrough required to speak a foreign language. You wont be Soin the beginner but someone else.. If you have practiced enough, the notes will flow faster than you can imagine. Its like you have to stand in a different room in your brain and do the same task. You dont think you can do it from there, but you can, I assure you.

People often get stuck in the first perception and remain beginners in their minds for way too long. Always looking for new techniques, explanations, teachers, etc. Those become big diversions that contribute to the idea that you just cant do it and scores of people are ready to take your money and focused admirations for their own purposes.

At some point, you just dig in and take possession of your task.

You are playing a single-note melody instrument. People do phenomenal things with them. Surely, you will gain the ability to play well-practiced things quicker.

I set goals of who I want to play along with. I dont go at for it very long, but I set up the cd and just try every couple of months. I know it can be done, but not by me, just yet. Over a period of time, I have almost reached those goals and you can to.

Patience! Remember the word: YET, not CAN'T...

[Soineanta]

Thanks for all of the advice, and a special thanks to Heather for the delicious brownies! (Shh, dog, don't let her know you're the one who ate them... )

The metronome is a great idea! I still have one from my piano days, and I don't know why I never thought to use it. As soon as my family clears outta the house, I'll definitly try that.
I also tried to DL the SlowDowner demo, but for some reason it malfunctioned and I haven't gotten it to work. Looks like I'll have to just buy the whole thing, DARN.
Patience is not one of my better virtues. I tend to get really frustrated at myself if I'm not progressing as fast as I'd like, which I know probably hinders my progression rather than helps it. So I'll try to keep the word "patience" in mind more from now on.
In answer to the "how long have you been playing", its been a little over 8 months now.. so I know I have plenty of time to work on this craft.
Anyway, thanks for all the words of wisdom, now I'm off to *patiently* practice!

[jim stone]

8 months--you are just beginning to
get good enough to feel frustrated!

Another thing that I've found helpful
is to practice the tune without
ornaments. I find that when I play
at speed I tend to 'skip over' the
tune a bit--it doesn't really register
in my brain, as it were--and I fill
in the rough places, where i
don't quite have the
fingering down, with ornaments.

The point is to really hear the tune,
to hear it very simply, meditate on it
--note by note,
the intervals
between the notes, the tune
at its elemental level,
right down to the bare
bones. That's really hard to do,
it turns out, and technique (speed, ornaments) can get in the way. Occasionally I
realize that I can play something
more simply, and then it often
sounds much better.

I rather
think this is the secret to a whole
lot of things.

I notice that one of
the things that distinguishes the
best musicians seems to be an
extraordinary simplicity and directness
with which they approach their
instrument and the music they play.
Well, that's something we all
can do, I think.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jim stone on 2002-11-24 16:24 ]</font>

[mike.r]

On 2002-11-24 16:17, jim stone wrote:

I notice that one of
the things that distinguishes the
best musicians seems to be an
extraordinary simplicity and directness
with which they approach their
instrument and the music they play.
Well, that's something we all
can do, I think.

How true this is.A great example of this is Paul McCartneys recorder playing on The fool on the hill...Peter Asher taught him the basics and he somehow managed to bypass years of practice to make the instrument do as he wanted with a minimum of effort with as you say Jim,an extraordinary simplicity and directness. Mike

[Isilwen]

I'm glad your dog... er... you liked my brownies.
_________________
~Quellecristiel/Heather

The Whistling Ambassador for the Elven Community: working to promote the use Irish Whistles in Elvish music and Low Whistles as weaponry.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: The Whistling Elf on 2002-11-24 21:04 ]</font>