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Technique question: Speed

4K views 19 replies 18 participants last post by  Pete Thomas 
#1 ·
Hello fellow saxophonists!

I'm fairly new here, so I apologize sincerely if this has been asked before, but how do I play faster?

I've been watching videos of older jazz musicians and taking note of their technique, some keep their fingers on the pearls and other's don't. So I wonder if there is something I'm missing when it comes to playing faster.

Any advice would be great, even odd practice methods. (I actually encourage those, they're the most fun to do!)
 
#4 ·
I use the analogy of putting your hand on a desk and rolling your fingers. For me, I can go the fastest when my fingers are curved slightly and there is just enough tension to roll the fingers but no more. If I try harder and increase the tension to try to go faster I actually slow down. The key is just enough tension and no more. The other thing is that if I roll my fingers flat that slows them down also. Or if I try to roll them with some of the knuckles inverted (like the first 2/3 of your finger is curved backwards) that slows me way down also. If I lift my fingers way off the desk while rolling that also creates a lot of tension and slows me down. In summation:

1.Natural Curve to fingers
2. relaxed with just enough tension to get the job done and no more
3. no excessive movements away from the keys
4. and lastly go slow so that you can focus on these things and then speed up slowly.

That being said, there are all sorts of guys who play fast and don't do these things. you might think that is a justification for doing whatever. I relate that to the movie Happy Gilmore" Adam Sandler played golf with a hockey technique and was a complete mess BUT he got the job done somehow. that doesn't mean everyone should play golf with a hockey technique however if you see what I am saying.......That's my opinion anyways. I have quite a few video lessons on my site if you want more information on this subject. Just do a search for "technique" Steve
 
#5 ·
What Steve said. A couple more points: if you relax your hand and hold your wrist flat, you'll see the fingers have a natural curvature to them, as Steve describes. This is the most relaxed, natural position of the hand, and on a horn with good ergos, you can kinda drape your fingers over the keys and they'll settle on the key touches without moving from their original position. Your goal should be, when moving the finger, to move it as quickly as possible from open to closed, without using excess tension. Try to make the keys exist in a binary state, either open or closed, minimizing to the point of non-existence the transitional period in between. When it's time to open the key, assuming your natural, relaxed hand position maintains your fingers touching the pearls lightly, simply stop pushing and your finger will return to its original position. When you think about LIFTING the finger is when you find it flying away from the pearl, but if you simply push down, then stop pushing, the finger won't be tempted to come back up.
 
#9 ·
Want to play faster? Need to play cleaner. Want to play cleaner? Play slow.
Don't worry about speeding up. As your muscle memory develops you'll find you'll be able to rip stuff out at any tempo.
Also keep your fingers as close as possible or touching the pearls - saves excess movement.
 
#10 ·
To play fast, practice slow... BUT!!! Key to this is making sure that the transitions between notes, when practicing slowly, are themselves very fast and accurate. In other words, if the MM is 240, each eighth note lasts 1/8 of a second (up to speed). If you practice it at MM 30 (and, no, this is not necessarily too slow, depending on the context), then each eighth note lasts 2 seconds. But you need to change from each 2-second-long note to the next as quickly as possible, with no fumbles, bobbles, split notes, etc. From the standpoint of speed, what is happening during the note is not so important, it's the changes between notes that are important. So you take them one at a time, so each one is perfect and quick. Then you can gradually decrease the amount of time each note lasts, and the transitions between notes will remain clean and rapid. Eventually the passage goes up to MM240 and everyone thinks "wow, how does he play that so fast and cleanly?" Practicing slowly with bobbles, fumbles, and split notes is not the answer. Practicing slowly enough that you can play it perfectly cleanly is the answer.
 
#11 ·
1. Keep a consistent finger speed regardless of how long you are playing a given note.
2. Keep your fingers on the pearls (visualize keeping your fingertips superglued to the pearls).
3. Keep your fingers curled (a straight finger is a slow finger).
4. Only press hard enough to close the key. If you are pressing too hard, you will find that your distal interphalangeal joint (DIPJ, or the finger joints furthest from your wrist) will begin to extend slightly. This is unnecessary movement that will also slow you down.
5. When working a particular passage, there's a couple things you can do. I like to start with playing the entire passage (with proper articulation) at a tempo slow enough that you can play it perfectly while following points 1-4. Once you master the above at a slower speed, you can start increasing your tempo little by little until you are playing at full speed. There's no point in practicing so fast that your form breaks down.
6. You can also break down complex phrases into smaller chunks that are more easily mastered, then stringing the chunks together little by little until you have the whole phrase perfected.
 
#17 ·
A quick tip ..use a mirror to make sure you're keeping your fingers close.
Check out good or great players playing fast either live or on youtube and check out exactly what they are doing with their hands. it's usually the same thing as the other players.

Also I think of the movement of my fingers as either closing or opening the key and I practice in a slow deliberate manner....ssslllooowwww ..deliberate.
I make the opening of the key as deliberate as the closing .
I try not to just fling my fingers around.

My old clarinet teacher in Buffalo NY, John Sedola studied with Simeon Bellison (he is a legendary clarinet player/teacher) and Sedola said that Bellison told him "Move your fingers like little soldiers."
 
#18 ·
Learned this for piano, and it works on sax for me as well:
After getting the passage under your belt at a slower tempo, do it with dotted rhythms throughout.

1) Dotted 8th followed by 16th; 2) dotted 16th followed by 8th.

This lets you practice going quickly between half of the notes while not having to stress out about the other half. It should be combined with other practice techniques, but is nice to add to one's arsenal.
 
#20 ·
Each hand has four fingers, but the speed you play at can only be as fast as your slowest finger.

So try this out: lay your hand on table or against a wall and move your index finger up and down evenly as fast as you can.

Now try the same thing with your ring finger: you may find it is noticeably slower.

I haven't put this totally to the test, but there could be a certain logic to concentrating on physical exercises that bring your slower fingers up to the same speed as the fast fingers. You can try this on the saxophone: you may find that your D to E trill is slower than your F to G trill. If so - there's a good place to start practising: get the D trill as fast as the F.
 
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