I have heard it said that it is good to practice pieces slowly. Then, increase speed over time. Along with this is added that if one tries to practice a piece up to speed immediately they will end up being sloppy playing the piece. This has to do with muscle memory is what had been said. Troy said regarding pick speed this is not true. If so, how should one practice a piece of complex music? What would be the generic steps that should be taken?
I don’t know what complex music you mean, but for me something complex would be the head of ‘Donna Lee’. In which case I would take it a section at a time and figure out which parts are challenging at tempo. I still start slow and build speed over the course of the time I practice it for the sake of the fretting hand.
But I’d say the important thing is to isolate the parts that cause your picking hand trouble and try to figure out a way of playing them efficiently - a feeling of smoothness and ease should be there. If you can play a smooth and fast tremolo this can act as a kind of benchmark for the feeling you’re going after. I don’t know what level or stage you’re at so all I can say is that a good thing would be to experiment and see what works i.e. feels smooth and fast and relatively easy.
I might add that I pick in a relatively idiosyncratic way and use economy picking…
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Hi, James,
I am fairly idiosyncratic as well. I classical fingerpick but also work with pick and thumbpick depending on the project.
I really find the work Troy has done to be very helpful for me and helped me find some clarity regarding my picking issues. I was curious if there was work regarding the interaction of the left hand and in regards to the coordination that might impact how I approach learning a piece. I am a very detail oriented guy and the way Troy breaks things down is just wonderful, very pragmatic, down to Earth, and therefore useful. —Thanks, Mr Grady.