On tempo, speeding up vs. not rushing

ShiroKuro

I’ve been talking with my teacher about tempo a lot lately, because I have developed a tendency to rush that I don’t think was as much of an issue a year ago at this time …. And it’s not even that I speed up in slower pieces. Ironically, it;s with a fast piece I’m working on. It has a section, about two pages worth, where the LH and RH play basically entire pages of 16th notes, so the piece is already fast, and then that section is even faster. But when I get to that section, I was speeding up even more. Partly this is a problem bc it means I’m more prone to little mistakes and inaccuracies, but mostly my fingers keep up and I can play it well enough. But flying through that section too fast takes away the more compelling aspects of the piece. So we’ve been talking about tempo and how to slow down etc..

He said that there’s some connection in terms of how musical tempo can be influenced by heart rate, so when you perform, if you’re nervous and your heart is pounding, you might find yourself playing faster than usual because of that.

So I was thinking about that and I thought it was a little curious because I’m not performing, I don’t feel nervous when I’m practicing alone and I don’t feel nervous playing in front of my teacher. But I realized that maybe my tendency to rush is connected to how busy I am. This semester, in addition to my normal teaching responsibilities and research projects, I have a few additional tasks I wouldn’t normally do, and I have to give several big talks, two each month in Feb, Mar and Apr. (Feb is already over, yay!) So I have to have kind of this “go! go! go!” intensity all the time to get everything done.

But by the time I sit down at the piano at the end of the day, I’ve been “go! go! go!” All day long, and I think I’ve been letting that intensity carry over to my piano practice sessions. But I didn’t notice it until after my teacher and I had this long talk about tempo, and I think I especially didn’t notice it with pieces that are already up-tempo, bc they’re supposed to be fast, so that little faster, rushing bit was less obvious to me.

But lately when I sit down to practice, I’ve been sort of actively trying to slow myself down, slow my brain down, and remind myself that there’s no hurry, no deadlines for these pieces… then I get out my metronome and let the slower beat click out for a few measures worth before I start to practice. Then I turn the metronome off and start to play, and it seems to help me not to speed up or rush.

I've also been playing that 16th note section with the metronome on the whole time, and actually playing with the clicks, feeling myself stay in that “just right” tempo, also seems to help calm my heart. Now after about a week of doing that, when I play that without the metronome, I’m not rushing and I can feel myself sort of “in the pocket” of the tempo. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s cleaner and more accurate as well. 😅

It’s also kind of a nice reminder that no what what the level of difficulty of a piece we’re working on, some of the core elements are basically always the same, particularly the importance of finding the sweet spot in whatever the tempo is, and really feeling that tempo, and enjoying it rather than flying through.

Sgisela

ShiroKuro I've also been playing that 16th note section with the metronome on the whole time, and actually playing with the clicks, feeling myself stay in that “just right” tempo, also seems to help calm my heart. Now after about a week of doing that, when I play that without the metronome, I’m not rushing and I can feel myself sort of “in the pocket” of the tempo. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s cleaner and more accurate as well. 😅

For me, I find one of the most useful things about metronome practice is to slow me down— whether it’s in the initial learning phase when it can be hard without that external input to practice as slowly as I should, or later on, when the work to ‘get it to tempo’ means that there’s a part of me that keeps trying to push the tempo faster, beyond where it needs to be. The metronome can be very helpful this way.

You may also want to play around with the visual metronome on your iPad. I’m sure ForScore has this capability. Instead of the clicks, you get a flashing screen outline. It’s a different experience and worth seeing how you feel about it.

Player1

Tempo is definitely connected to your heart. Not your heart_beat_, but to your heart itself.

And maybe a little bit to your soul.

ShiroKuro

Player1 I definitely agree that tempo is connected to heart and soul!

But at the same time, physically, it makes a lot of sense that it is also connected to your heart beat, and to your sort of overall mind set, level of calm etc.

And I really felt how just reminding myself to s l o w d o w n ... reminding myself that it's the end of the day, that my piano time is not the same as my work time.... just letting go of that high-pressure feeling, made a huge difference.

I think these are different from the heart and soul that you're talking about.

Player1

ShiroKuro

Music isn't just dots and marks on a page to be played as is. If it were, there wouldn't be any personality in it and we'd all sound like MIDI recordings.

Tempo, cadence, timing, and all the rest aren't music. Those things may be involved, but music comes from the heart and soul of the performer.

pianoloverus

Why not just practice certain pieces or passages with a metronome if steadiness is an issue? Even if, for the sake of argument, your newly hectic work schedule has some relation to your speeding up issue, determining if that's the cause (which is close to impossible) isn't going to change anything.

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus Why not just practice certain pieces or passages with a metronome if steadiness is an issue?

Because you can't play with the metronome all the time 😀 Joking aside (well, not really joking), I believe I said that I have been playing through this section with the metronome, and that certainly has helped, it's sort of like re-setting my internal expectations about how fast this section should feel. So yes, the metronome has definitely helped.

Even if, for the sake of argument, your newly hectic work schedule has some relation to your speeding up issue, determining if that's the cause (which is close to impossible) isn't going to change anything.

Well, considering that I've been playing piano for 25 years, and I've not previously had this experience of habitually speeding up or habitually playing too fast, trying to figure out what else has changed makes a lot of sense to me.

Stub

I'm in pure musing mode here. When I'm driving down the highway when traffic isn't an issue and I don't have cruise control on, I often find myself gradually slowing down. My spouse responds to those conditions in the opposite direction, lol. I wonder if some of the rushing/slowing phenomenon is linked to personality type.

I can see how looking at a full page or two of sixteenth notes in both hands would send the speed message. That you were already in a heightened adrenaline state would only add to that.

ShiroKuro

Stub I can see how looking at a full page or two of sixteenth notes in both hands would send the speed message. That you were already in a heightened adrenaline state would only add to that.

Yes indeed! to both points, esp. the "speed message." I think it's a psychological thing, where I was subconsciously thinking "oh this part is supposed to be fast, so..."

BTW to your comment about you and your spouse and driving... I am definitely the sort of person who would drive slower, but that's because I hate driving! 😃

But I think my work stuff has had me in "heightened adrenaline state" for a while now, so I'm glad I sort of identified it and have been able to slow down when I'm not actually doing work stuff!

ShiroKuro

Player1 I don't disagree with your comments, but I feel like we're talking past each other here.

rach3master

ShiroKuro Even the most well-prepared student can fall victim to rushing in a high pressure (performance) situation. What can help you stay in control is to mentally feel or count the pulse of the smaller subdivision while you're playing, be it the 16th or 8th note or what have you.

ShiroKuro

rach3master What can help you stay in control is to mentally feel or count the pulse of the smaller subdivision while you're playing, be it the 16th or 8th note or what have you.

I think this articulates what happens! Because when I play with the metronome, I can feel myself get ahead in between the clicks, so when I'm not playing with the metronome, I try to ... play each note to its fullest value... Which is maybe a weird thing to say, but somehow it seems to help counter the tendency to speed up.

I mean, I guess I'm not saying anything new... "play each note to its fullest value" is basically just saying "don't rush" ... but with more details....

😅

ShiroKuro

@rach3master

feel or count the pulse of the smaller subdivision

I do think though, that with 16th notes, this is harder to do, so maybe that's why this piece is so easy to speed up with.

ShiroKuro

Sgisela Thanks for this comment! This is how the metronome has been benefiting me with this most recent piece, exactly as you said, to help me slow down or stay at a slower tempo. And as I think I said above, that really helps me to "reset" my internal tempo for this piece.

I don't think I've ever used a metronome for this purpose.... I've used it to help me speed up, and I've used it to help me get rid of gaps or pauses in the learning stage. But with this piece, I've already learned it, and playing too slow wasn't the problem.

It's interesting how I've played the piano for almost half of my life now (yikes!) but this never came up before!

re the visual metronome, do you use it when you're also actively keeping your eyes on the score?

pianoloverus

ShiroKuro Sgisela Thanks for this comment! This is how the metronome has been benefiting me with this most recent piece, exactly as you said, to help me slow down or stay at a slower tempo. And as I think I said above, that really helps me to "reset" my internal tempo for this piece.

I don't think I've ever used a metronome for this purpose.... I've used it to help me speed up, and I've used it to help me get rid of gaps or pauses in the learning stage. But with this piece, I've already learned it, and playing too slow wasn't the problem.

It's interesting how I've played the piano for almost half of my life now (yikes!) but this never came up before!

What you've described is the most basic and common use for the metronome, i.e. keeping the tempo steady.

Sgisela

ShiroKuro re the visual metronome, do you use it when you're also actively keeping your eyes on the score?

I’m going to be honest; I don’t use it much, but I brought it up because it is available and I think it’s worth seeing whether you like it. When I do use it, it’s most often after the piece is pretty well learned. I am keeping my eyes on the score, and I tend to use it when I want to have some external input about tempo but I don’t want to be hearing the metronome as I’m playing. For me, I feel like I have a little more flexibility with the visual metronome than with the audio metronome—feels like the stimulus to keep exactly to the beat is not as strong with the visual metronome, while still providing some guidelines.

ShiroKuro

Sgisela Interesting. I might try it, but I've always sort of had the expectation that the visual metronome is not going to work for me. Of course, that's based on zero evidence, so... 😅

thepianoplayer416

Do separate counting exercises from time to time. Turn on the metronome and tap along so your brain would internalize the beat.

I'm more conscious playing slow pieces too fast than the other way around. When starting fast /technical pieces we usually play under tempo and need to go faster. Faster doesn't mean speeding up as we play than keeping a steady pulse. Otherwise we'd start messing up the piece.

Learning a slow piece in the beginning is going to feel manageable. After a while when we know the notes it's going to feel really slow so need to follow the metronome to make sure we're not speeding up.