Should I practice slow or fast?

In this article, I will make the argument that you need to practice both fast and slow.  By only playing one way, you are impede your musical progress:

What Speed to Practice Music?

One of the things I’ve heard the most over the years is, “Practice Slooooow.”

However, is this good advice?

Why Practice Slow?

If you practice slow, you can make sure you don’t create bad habits. I forgot who said it, but one of my favorite quotes is, “Practice it so slow that you can’t mess it up.” The point being is if you are constantly messing something up, there is a good chance you are playing it too fast for your skill level.

The slower you play, the more you can observe what you are doing. The faster you play, the faster all of the notes and motions go by, making it nearly impossible to pick out every little thing you did.

By going slower, you can make sure you are making the right motions, have the right timing, and so forth.

For example, practicing with a metronome fast doesn’t do much good (unless it’s just pure speed work) because you can’t even hear if you are behind or ahead of the beat.

At a slower pace, you can REALLY concentrate on your tone, making sure all of the notes sound clean and clear.

Why Not To Always Practice Slow?

You are teaching yourself to always think slow.  Slow thinking doesn’t have much use in a jam session or during performance. 

When you are sitting there with a TAB or playing through a song, attempting to play it perfectly, this is not how a jam environment is.  A jam environment is a more quick paced, think on your toes environment.

If you want to run a faster mile, you can’t continue to run a slower mile.  If you want to lift 50 pounds, you can’t continue lifting 45 pounds.  The only way to go faster or put more on the bar is by attempting to go faster or heavier!

Lastly, it is proven with body motions that your body doesn’t necessarily make the EXACT same motions when moving from slow to fast. In other words, your body may make certain motions at a faster pace that it doesn’t slow and vice versa. They aren’t 100% the same.

Why Practice Fast?

You are training yourself to think fast.

You are training your fingers and mind to push themselves.

You are teaching your body what it feels like to go faster. Here, you are introducing those faster motions mentioned above.

You have to teach yourself to relax at a fast pace. This is something you have to work on and attempt.

Why Not To Practice Fast?

Playing too fast too soon can lead to sloppy, error-filled playing.

More likely to injure yourself if your technique is bad or if you play too fast for too long

Playing too fast often means the person is playing with inaccurate rhythm

Playing fast is usually where tension creeps into the body (which you don’t want).

Wrap Up

You need BOTH of these in your practice.  My advice- Set aside some time in each practice session where you grab a roll, a few bars to a song you know well and try to go faster.

This is the one time where you will hear me say this- Forget about the tone, that it doesn’t sound perfect….just try to move your fingers and mind quickly.  You are trying to impart a QUICK feeling into your mind and hands. 

At the same time, understand that this should not be the bulk of your practice session, just a small portion each time. Where many many people go wrong is by playing too fast too soon and introducing lots of errors in their playing. Others only practice slow and then wonder why they can’t keep up at the local jam. Try them both!