Why does my music teacher insist on slow practice? | iServalan | Digital Conservatoire

Why Slow Practice Is Crucial to Excellence ......and is often misunderstood. It is sometimes framed as remedial, cautious, or something you endure until you are “good enough” to go faster. And it is, in many ways, all of those things. But the advantages of purposeful slowing down cannot be underestimated. When you slow a passage down, you are not merely reducing speed. You are changing how the brain experiences the music. Gaps appear where none existed before. Tiny weaknesses are now revealed and can be adjusted. Transitions become visible. Movements that once blurred together can now be felt individually. "What am I doing wrong?".... becomes "now I can solve this little thing I do which I am not happy with." This is why slow practice is used by elite performers across disciplines — not because they lack skill, but because they understand how learning consolidates. Fast practice relies heavily on momentum. Slow practice relies on awareness.Slowing teaches you how to breath the music.  There is a crucial difference between muscle memory and narrative memory. Muscle memory allows the body to repeat actions. Narrative memory allows the brain to understand why one action leads to another. Slow practice builds the latter. Glenn Gould was famously meticulous about tempo in the practice room, often working at speeds far removed from performance. He understood that speed, when it arrives too early, conceals instability rather than resolving it. This approach aligns closely with the Suzuki principle, though it is often misunderstood. The goal is not perfection through discipline, but fluency through familiarity. When the body knows what comes next without anxiety, speed emerges naturally, inevitabley. Listening and predicting add an advantage to players that put them ahead of the novice. Speed is not something you add like a condiment.
It is something that appears when nothing is in the way. Slow practice is not about being fearful and should never be shamed.
It is about giving the music time to organise itself in the mind and the body.Speed runs the risk of hiding mistakes which then become learned and embedded, the mistake is now an irreversible habit. This is fatal for exams and performances.This is especially important for children and neurodiverse students who should be led by the slow example well before flashy, nimble virtuosity. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Why does my music teacher insist on slow practice? Slow
practice is crucial to excellence and is often misunderstood. It's
sometimes framed as remedial, cautious, or something you endure until
you're good enough to go faster, and it is in
many ways all of those things. But the advantages of

(00:23):
purposeful slowing down cannot be underestimated. When you slow a
passage down, you are not merely reducing speed. You are
changing how the brain experiences the music. Gaps appear where
none existed before. Tiny weaknesses are now revealed and can
be adjusted. Transitions become more visible. Movements that once blurred

(00:47):
together can now be felt individually. What am I doing
wrong becomes now I can solve this little thing I
do that I'm not happy with. This is why slow
practice is used by elite performers across disciplines, not because
they lack skill, but because they understand how learning consolidates.

(01:11):
Fast practice relies heavily on momentum. Slow practice relies on awareness.
Slowing teaches you how to breathe the music. There is
a crucial difference between muscle memory and narrative memory. Muscle
memory allows the body to repeat actions narrative memory allows

(01:35):
the brain to understand why one action leads to another.
Slow practice builds the latter. Glenn Gould was famously meticulous
about tempo in the practice room, often working at speeds
far removed from performance. He understood that speed, when it

(01:56):
arrives too early, conceals instability rather than resolving it. This
approach aligns closely with the Suzuki principle, though it is
often misunderstood. The goal is not perfection through discipline, but
fluency through familiarity. When the body knows what comes next

(02:19):
without anxiety, speed emerges naturally inevitably. Listening and predicting add
an advantage to players that put them ahead of the novice.
Speed is not something you add like a condiment. It
is something that appears when nothing is in the way.

(02:40):
Slow practice is not about being fearful and should never
be shamed. It is about giving the music time to
organize itself in the mind and the body. Speed runs
the risk of hiding mistakes, which then become learned and embedded.
The mistake is now an irreversible habit. This is fatal

(03:03):
for exams and performances. This is especially important for children
and neurodiverse students who should be led by the slow example,
well before flashy, nimble virtuosity. Copyright twenty twenty five Sonny
de la Maree, The Continuum Approach