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How a student practices can make all the difference in how they play at lesson time. When tempos are too fast, the tendency is to miss details in the music. Sometimes the issue is not tempo, but when it is, I may ask them to “Play it so slow that you can’t play it wrong.” If they start too fast on the second pass of the piece, I will provide a very slow tempo for them. As improvements usually occur immediately, to their amazement, an appreciation for slow practice starts to develop. Often the lesson has to be repeated for some more often than for others.
For those teenagers with vivid imaginations, I like to offer a scenario for them prior to tackling playing slowly a piece that has been particularly challenging. Here is one scenario I like to use. Imagine your favorite artist, fill in the blank, has asked you to play your current piece as the intro to one of their new singles which they believe is going to be the next big hit song. For your time you will be paid $500 for recording it in a recording studio. Studio time is expensive and mistakes cost money. You might have to go back and re-record entire sections of the piece. Because time in the studio is expensive, it will cost you $50 per mistake to go back and make corrections. (Obviously this would never happen in a real scenario.) Oh and by the way, your performance in the studio may affect your reputation as a recording artist with the studio and may determine if future work is available to you with other musicians. Then I might say the event is being video recorded for a new documentary movie about the band which will be aired live from the studio in select theaters around the world. Now it is time to record. Choose your tempo wisely and let's see how much you make for the day. Regardless of the outcome of their slow performance, I ask if they felt that the situation required them to concentrate in a more focused way than they had done before. Most of the time the answer is yes. What fun it is to see their facial expression when I say they should be concentrating that way each time they sit at the piano.