Hi,

I have a piece to play that has a three minute solo section that is a scalar semiquaver passage.

My problem is that the pieces goes at a fast allegro and seeing as I haven't been able to practice for a while (yeah I managed to buy a high stool so now I can play ) my semiquavers are turning dotted

I have tried the standard slow it down to a snails pace and then speed up gradually but it doesn't seem to be working.

Can anyone suggest anything, please?

Thanks
Michael

Why are you using a high stool...? Not sure if I'm missing something there, sorry if I am.

Which instrument and what is the piece ?

A lot of the skill in playing fast passages is to relax, get yourself into the right posture shoulders back and relaxed and to keep your hands and mallets close to the instrument in order to minimise unnecessary movement and to increase accuracy.

'Don't practice till you get it right. Practice till you can't get it wrong...!'

Its xylophone and a couple of pieces infact: Alla turca (grade 8 sylabus) and an audition piece "Borgy and Bess" in the test pieces for orch auditions

and I know this will probably sound basic, but how do you relax? My teach says that this is my main enemy. He says that my technique is brilliant but tension in my body is holding me back

please help

also i need this stool as i have an injury in my knee and cannot stand up

micky

I've had a go at both those pieces, and they're good fun! One way of trying to make the semiquavers straight is actually to play them in loads of different rhythms. So, play them all deliberately dotted, play them reverse dotted (scotch snap), play each note as a double and mess around with stuff like that. After that, try going back to just straight. It can work absolute wonders. It's also good when you're just trying to get used to a particularly difficult passage of music. I would imagine this technique would be more useful for alla turca than for porgy, due to the sticking in porgy already containing quite a few doubles.

I'm not entirely sure what you can do about relaxing, as I think I have that problem slightly as well. I haven't a clue whether it'd be useful but I don't know whether Alexander Technique would help?

I'm glad that you've found a way of practising, anyway.

Thank you!
and yes im glad i found a way too.

I have had an example lesson in alexander technique but can't really afford to commit to them yeh know?