As discussed in the previous post, repeating a mistake is the surest way to ingrain it. That’s why teachers are always telling pupils to take it slow.
Slow and right beats fast and wrong!
However, here are a couple of other points to think about:
If you wait until you can do eveything perfectly to go beyond a snails pace, you probably never will. And if you always play slow for too long, you may begin to believe that you can’t play faster. Playing along with a friend or teacher who can keep the pace even and play at different speeds is a good experience to have under your belt. There is a lot to be learned by what I call The Apron String Method. You develop feel and timing, rhythm and a little bravery this way. Just don’t overdo it.
Another little point to think about is fingeing. It is possible to play a tune pretty smoothly at a slow speed with the most apalling fingering – so look out!! The best way to avoid this problem is to start with good fingring. If you have a teacher, or other source of good advice about how to finger a particular piece, then FOLLOW IT!!!! (Seems so obvious, but a lot of people don’t.) Even better, try to obtain fingering exercises, practise scales and arpeggios, etc. This will help you to build up good fingering habits until they begin to be instinctive. Then you will tend to start out with better fingering.
The lesson that I have learned the hard way is that if I am finding a passage difficult, my fingeng is likely to be the problem. In my case, as an experienced player with decent technique, then I am probably using a poor choice of fingers for that passage, and I need to go back and see whether I can find a better fingering solution. That may be the situation with you, too.
However, if you are a relative beginner or have not learned a variety of useful fingering techiques, the problem may be your current capability. I notice that some players are real “avoid-a-holics” when it comes to certain fingering techniques. Whether it’s crossing fingers over and under thumbs, big reaches or finger substitution on repeated notes, they decide that they can’t or won’t do that! It may even be that they avoid using certain fingers altogether. This is where the value of those scales and exercises begin to show themselves. If you know that this is what you need, then stick to easy to moderate tunes until you have developed your skill at fingerning further.
Filed under: fingering, practise techniques, speed Tagged: | Accordion, accordion fingering, accordion practise, learning accordion
