Flying Fingers

Great technique is something we all want! How to get faster fingers? Not necessarily by just practicing slowly, and certainly never from just practicing fast. The key is to figure out which finger connection is not working, where the stumbling block is, and how to smooth that over. Some of my favorite ways to fix problems are: 1. Playing a passage at tempo, then decreasing the tempo so as you repeat, it gets slower each time 2. Red Light/ Green Light practice: Play one beat plus a note and then stop, start on the next beat plus a note and stop, etc, 3. Play the phrase from the last pair of notes flawlessly, and add one more note working to the beginning of the phrase, so now you are playing 3 notes, etc, until the whole passage is played. Notice how many of these solutions involve breaking it down into smaller sections! Look in the mirror to 'see' the fingers that are out of synchronization. For piccolo, make sure to pick up the fingers a bit more since the instrument is smaller: adding more curve to the fingers. These tips should help you get your fingers flying!