Envision Yourself Playing Faster

Learning to play Irish traditional music as an adult is funny. As soon as you start to feel confident or think that you're making progress, you're made to feel like you don't know anything. Two steps forward, one step back. This happened to me the other night. I went to a session that I've been to at least a half dozen times before, but this time everything felt too fast for me. I couldn't get my fingers - or brain - to keep up. 

Granted, everything was speeded way up this night, and as a result I struggled through most of it and was often embarrassed by the offensive sounds coming out of my instrument. When I got home later that evening, I noticed that my arm and wrist were sore and fatigued from all the extra tension and exertion I must have been going through.

This did knock me back a rung or two. Fortunately though, I'm at a point in my development where instead of getting discouraged, I get motivated after an experience like this. Last night I was reading through Josh Turknett's The Laws of Brainjo book and came across a tip that I adapted into a practice technique this morning, which I think is going help. That is to envision yourself playing faster.

Take a tune that you are learning but don't have completely down yet. Record yourself playing a slow version of this tune. Play it slow enough so that you can get through it smoothly; slow enough so that maybe you can even add in some triplets. It's OK to look at the sheet music or tab when making this recording if that helps. 

Then put down your instrument and simply listen to the recording you made. As you listen, visualize yourself playing it, matching sound to movement and movement to sound. Think about the movement required to play this tune. How it felt. How those movements made that sound. This visualization practice + muscle memory practice + auditory practice combined. 

The next step is to transfer that recording to an app such as the Amazing Slow Downer that allows you to speed it up. Speed it up by 150% or 170% or 180% or 200% (200% = twice as fast) and listen to the recording now. Visualize yourself playing it smoothly at this speed. That's you playing on the recording, and now as you listen that's still you playing it this fast. It might be difficult to visualize it this way at first, because your brain may not able to process the tune being played at this advanced speed. Give your mind time to catch up!

In your imagination, visualize the pick strokes and fingerings you used to make this recording, and now visualize those movements at this increased speed. For me, this is different from "seeing" the score/notation/tab in your mind. What I'm picturing is the perspective of myself looking at the fretboard as I play the tune. Where my fingers have to go to play it. Keep that in mind as the speed increases.

When you're ready, turn off the recording and continue this exercise silently and internally, hearing the sound of the tune in your mind and feeling the movements required to play it. When you later pick up your instrument to play this tune, do you not only have it memorized better but can you now play it faster as well?

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