Play Slow To Go Fast - Myth?

[greghagger]

It sounds counter-intuitive, but to play fast you must first play slow. This is so important and I find myself repeating this a lot to bass students.

 

It's human nature to want to get stuck in and master a bass line as quickly as possible but if you don't break it apart and work on the tricky sections first, it'll take a lot longer to master. 

 

So, if you find yourself struggling time and time again with a few notes in a riff or bass line then this is the approach that you need to take.

 

I explain this simple but effective concept in more detail in my latest YouTube lesson and give you some important tips to help with playing fast.

 

 

[ezbass]

A lot of things go better when you 'slow down', especially sports. If you slow down, you tend to relax, if you're relaxed, there is less tension, which in turn allows you move faster. The same is surely true for playing any instrument.

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 11/11/2023 at 15:34, ezbass said:

A lot of things go better when you 'slow down', especially sports. If you slow down, you tend to relax, if you're relaxed, there is less tension, which in turn allows you move faster. The same is surely true for playing any instrument.

While this is true and a good point, I think OP's point is actually much more trivial and obvious, which is the fact that you will find it easier to start slow and then speed up, rather than going full speed right away, when learning new relatively fast paced stuff.

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[greghagger]

On 11/11/2023 at 14:34, ezbass said:

A lot of things go better when you 'slow down', especially sports. If you slow down, you tend to relax, if you're relaxed, there is less tension, which in turn allows you move faster. The same is surely true for playing any instrument.

That’s a very good point. I find a lot of similarities between practicing sport and music. If you gointo something new at full speed you tend to tense up more so relaxing is very much a focus.