how slow is slow?

[yiigggg]

PRACTICE SLOW!! I've heard numerous people give this advice. One thing they never clarify is just how slow "slow" is. Does practicing an excercise slowly mean practicing just slow enough that you can play it cleanly, as in playing at your limit? Or does it mean practicing it even slower, and if so, how much slower?

[Blutwulf]

Practice as if you are sitting over an alligator pit, and if you make a mistake you will fall. Whatever speed you play at in order to survive, that is the speed at which you should practice. It does no good to speed up and ingrain mistakes by rote.

[Jed]

If we practice to the point of perfection irrespective of speed, then we will learn to play perfectly regardless of tempo. I practice slowly enough (1/8 notes @ 60-80 1/4 note / beats per minute) so that even a minor articulation, timbre or tempo is noticeable. Playing well slowly is much harder than playing more quickly, playing slowly reveals things that would go un-noticed at faster tempos.

[EricV]

Blutwulf gave a pretty good example. =)
Its tough to narrow down "slow", cant be expressed in bpm really, it depends on the note durations, how difficult it is etc.
It should be slow enough that you can play through the exercise or song relaxed, making each note sound good, and playing only the right notes, avoiding unwanted noise, without tensing up.
This might require to, say, play that 8th note riff youre supposed to play at, say, 140 bpm to like 70 bpm, or whatever.
It really depends on what we are talking about. The idea is to slow it down that you can play whatever it is all the way through CORRECTLY, and commit the whole thing to your "muscle memory".
Hope this helps
Eric

[Chim_Chim]

how slow is slow? Play at a speed that's slow enough for you to think at.

:cool:

[bluepowder]

start off at the speed where:
(1) every note is absolutely clear
(2) there is absolutely no mistake when you play it

any faster and you're gonna mess up the lick....any slower and you're really wasting your time(technique wise only)......:D

[JonR]

As Jed says, play slower than your comfortable speed. And try not to race.
You can take it down below 60 bpm. Set it at 40 and trying playing one note per click - or one note exactly between each click.

What this does is force you to imagine beat subdivisions, creating faster rhythms in your head between the clicks. This matters because you need to develop your own reliable internal clock, not rely on what you hear all the time.

Even at more relaxed speeds (60-80, 8th notes) - assuming you can play faster if you want to - you need to relax into "the pocket"; be comfortable without the urge to race the tempo. Focus on the articulation of each note, give it its full weight and length (maximum legato) and a good tone - enjoy the sound of each individual note.

At medium or fast tempos, set the metronome to click on every other beat (ideally 2 and 4), or just one beat out of a 4/4 bar (ideally 4).

So for a 120 bpm tempo, set the metronome to 60 and hear it as beats 2 and 4. Again, you're having to fill in 1 and 3 for yourself.