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Old 07-23-2014, 04:12 PM
jthorpe jthorpe is offline
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Default Tempo for learning songs...

Recently I read something about committing songs to memory at 60 bpm was a good idea!

So I decided to put this theory into practice - lo and behold, it is great and seem a very steady tempo to work at committing tunes to muscle memory whilst being at tempo!

BUT

I cannot immediately take to a song and play it at any kind of tempo - I actually fumble around all over the place - getting used to chord fingers, picking patterns etc. so it actually takes a lot of NO TEMPO (no proper tempo at least) practice to get me to the point where I can even consider playing at a tempo (no matter how slow 60 bpm is)!

Do any of you guys/gals experience this also?!
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Old 07-23-2014, 04:48 PM
StringFive StringFive is offline
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I tell all my students when learning a new thing: "Slow and perfect is better than fast and sloppy."
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Old 07-23-2014, 04:59 PM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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60 bpm is rather an arbitrary mark - quarter notes, eighths, sixteenths.... Play at a comfortable tempo, and that will depend on the song.
I vary the tempo somewhat on learning new material - helps finding bottlenecks, fingering, timing, etc.
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Old 07-24-2014, 03:46 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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The ideal tempo for any song is the speed at which you can play the hardest parts. You just have to put up with playing the easy parts as slow as that!

Of course, that means it's the hard parts you need to practise most, to get them up to speed.

But when practising with a metronome, set it to the speed at which those those tricky parts are playable. Then for the easier parts (which might feel too slow), focus on better articulation, tone and expression. Make every note count. That's what slow metronome speeds are for (as well as training your time-keeping of course).
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Old 07-24-2014, 06:16 AM
Pualee Pualee is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jthorpe View Post
I cannot immediately take to a song and play it at any kind of tempo - I actually fumble around all over the place - getting used to chord fingers, picking patterns etc. so it actually takes a lot of NO TEMPO (no proper tempo at least) practice to get me to the point where I can even consider playing at a tempo (no matter how slow 60 bpm is)!

Do any of you guys/gals experience this also?!
I fumble fumble fumble... don't keep time, and don't worry about effects like vibrato/slide/hammer ... whatever, I just get to the notes and see where I can reach them. After a handful of times, I feel good about where to play the notes, and I start counting, very deliberate and slow. I coun't down to the shortest beat in the song (triplet, eight, sixteenth, etc) and make the timing perfect. Then I go back and think about should I hammer, or slide here. Is there an easier fingering? Eventually I get it so it is all comfortable and sounds like the page reads... then I ignore the page and play it how I like it

It takes a long time, but in the end, it is more committed in memory by how it should sound and feel. If I miss a note or nuance in the music, it is ok, because in my mind, I know when and how it should resolve, and how I can cover up... I actually write the interval of every note, and every note name above and below the music. This really burns the theory in my mind (and helps me learn the fretboard). When you have the theory down, and you know where the phrase is going... you can cover a mistake really well... so that nobody knows its a mistake... you can also jump back in the song at any point if you lose your place for a split second.

For instance... I know a phrase is 2 measures, starts on the 3rd and ends on the root... and is in the major key of B. I can make the rest up... but I do try to stay to the music... but a missed note will not distract as I will work it in with the rhythm and phrase. Depending on how wrong the note is, I'll slide to the right one, or maybe just use it as a 16th on my way to resolving something else. Sometimes, instead of ending the phrase on your songs root.... your aiming to end on the chord's root (maybe the IV). Anyway... everything is individual. Take what you can, toss the rest. Try different thing until you find what works for you. And always be open to a new technique.
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Old 07-24-2014, 06:27 AM
HHP HHP is offline
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I play mostly instrumental music and one problem with learning at too slow a tempo is that the tune doesn't sound right or sound the same. When learning something new, I get some parts down quickly and more difficult passages less so, but I always try to get that passage up to performance speed before moving on.

Once memorized, playing at faster tempo becomes part of the daily practice regime. You have to practice speed as much as any other part of the tune. One by-product of this is a case where someone asks you to play a tune very slowly, half speed or less, and you find that just as hard as speeding up.

Keep in mind, at higher tempos, any mistakes go by so quickly most people don't notice them.
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Old 07-24-2014, 09:42 AM
amyFB amyFB is offline
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1. look up any chords patterns I don't already know, and practice them a little bit.
2. play through all the chords in the progression, but disregard the tempo, rythm or melody. just count four beats for each chord, change smoothly to the next one, and when all chord changes happen smoothly, then
3. put the metronome on half the desired tempo and see if i can get through the piece at the correct rhythm and chord changes in the right places.
4. slow the metronome more if even one error or sloppy spot.
5. perfect it at slowest, and inch up 3-5BPM, get perfect again, inch it up another 5bpm, rinse and repeat until I have reached the optimum tempo.
6. work on finding ( inside the chord shapes) all the single notes for the melody line using the same method as above.

METRONOME IS MY BEST MUSICAL TOOL-FRIEND (my firm opinion)

yours in tune!
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Old 07-24-2014, 10:47 AM
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I go crazy slow. I'm sure someone walking by my house would think I'm in a heroin stupor. If I'm working on, say, a fiddle tune, that I might one day perform with the quarter note at 220, I’ll work at 80. But I usually use the metronome to mark the just the whole note, so I'd have the metronome on 20. That's actually a lot harder than it sounds -for me anyway. If it's maybe a jazz tune that I might want ultimately to be at 120 for the quarter note, I might also use something like 20 to 30, but then marking the half note (typically the 2 & 4). Don’t know if that makes sense.

I was probably three and a half decades into playing guitar before I really got the power of super slow practice. It’s an enormous regret for me. I spent a lot of years just wanting to hear myself playing tunes at or close to tempo. I’d practice improvising over tunes at tempo and probably sound pretty good to the outside world, but really not making conscious melodic decisions, not real listening to every little harmony… really just jamming. Now days I love making students play, say, ii,V,I’s at comically slow tempos. Maybe they’re trying some new idea about superimposing an arpeggio over one of the chords. You can literally see them filing that new concept away in their brain in a deeply different way. The difference is insane.
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