How to Practice Troublesome Passages

repertoire training

a) play the whole song all the way through without stopping

b) notice where the trouble spots are; list them on paper (ex: bar #s, transitions between 2 sections, etc.

c) for first item on list, slow it down to where you can play it perfectly. Use your metronome’s tap feature to find this tempo & write it down. Then use the metronome to find the goal tempo & write it down. Gradually bring your trouble-spot up to tempo

d) integrate the trouble-spot with material that comes immediately before it happens, i.e. start 2 to 4 bars before the trouble-spot and play through it. Get that transition smooth and up to tempo

e) integrate the spot with the material that comes right after it as well, i.e. play the spot plus 2-4 bars after it

f) integrate the spot with both the material right before and right after it

g) integrate the spot with even more material before and after it (ex: if your spot is at 2 minutes into the song and lasts for 10 seconds, you might play from 1:30 to 2:40, thus covering 30 seconds on either side of the spot

h) repeat steps c to g using the next item on the list from step b

i) when all the steps have been completed with each item, play the entire song again at tempo without stopping

j) repeat steps b to i as necessary