Up and Back-Up
The metronome is a wonderful training tool. In addition to providing steady tempos and measuring beats per minute, the metronome helps to structure your practice and boost tempo.
When the goal is increasing performance tempo, it is critical to be patient and to adopt this rule:
Start Slowly!
Practicing slowly, allows you the opportunity to focus on the details, which gives your ears and hands the time needed to diagnose pitch accuracy.
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Once the passage that you are practicing is accurate in a slow tempo, then you are ready to work on increasing the tempo, while retaining precision.
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Many musicians practice with a metronome and repeat sections by increasing BPM only. Although this does help to build speed, it does not include slower repetition review. One problem with only increasing BPM is that you may “hit a wall” — reach a tempo comfort limit.
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Structuring your metronome practice time to always include slower tempo review drills while increasing tempos, backs-up your progress.
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Here is how the “Up and Back-Up” method works:
Continue the “UP and BACK-UP” process until you pass the goal tempo.
Then perform the passage 3 times correctly at tempo.
