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So I just started to get back into metronome work with scales. I’ve gotten to over 500 bpm (4 per tick) and I’m starting to have trouble tracking the ticking sound and syncing things correctly. I can sync my hands without the metronome, but with the metronome I tend to drift off track. I know that any concert pianist can play scales hands together at well over 500 bpm, but how did they get there? Did they advance using a metronome the whole time? I was thinking about using a stopwatch app. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
-Nick
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If I understand you right, you have the metronome at 500bpm (which metronome is that??) and you play "4 per tick" so 2000 notes per minute? That is 33 notes per second. Is this sustained speed or very short bursts?
I think that someone needs to brush up on his basic arithmetic skills!
Moreover, no metronome that I have seen can be set at 500 bpm's. If my basic arithmetic skills are sound, that's a smidgen of a bit of a shade over 8 beats per second.
As someone else pointed out, this is a claim of playing 33 notes per second and we're being asked how to increase scale speed?
Hi Nick, I'm assuming you mean quarter note=125 and playing scales in even 16th notes. At faster speeds, as long as you can mentally imagine what even 16th notes sound like at that speed, the only "secret" to increasing speed is figuring out what goes wrong when it goes wrong. Not just "I can't do it faster than 125" but something specific about what happens when you go faster. Like "Finger 4 plays too close to finger 3" or "I'm not pressing this key down all the way" or "I am having trouble remembering the fingering HT" or "My thumb isn't arriving on time" or "My thumb is too loud" or "The 2nd 16th note in each beat sounds a little early/late".
Heather Reichgott, piano
Working on: Mel (Mélanie) Bonis - Sevillana, La cathédrale blessée William Grant Still - Three Visions
I am neither a professional nor a teacher. Also, English is not my mother tongue. Nonetheless, I'll try to share my (silly) views any way ;p
The ways how you move your hands (see 1 below) and how you set your fingerings (see 2 below) will affect the speed. I forgot where/what occasion I learned about these: may be talking with friends, may be reading a magazine/book.
1. Do you place your thumb below the palm when you shift? That is, for example, in C major RH ascending, you put your thumb below the palm to play F after your middle finger played E, or similarly, thumb to play C after ring finger played B. Or do you quickly shift the hand horizontally (to the right) after attacking the notes? Not sure if this describes well: the former will make the horizontal hand moving plane looks a sea with waves, the latter will make the sea look relatively calm.
2. Again, using C major RH ascending as an example, do you maintain a fingering of 123-1234-123-1234-123-1234-etc or have you consider something else (weird!), like 12345-12345-12345-etc?
Regarding 1 & 2 above, how a player may choose will depend on which scale (or arpeggio!) he/she is going to play and how many octaves. Have I experimented myself? Yes, hard to use, but they work for me in some occasions (scale/arpeggio passages in a piece).
Let me check if I get this correctly . If I understand you right, you have the metronome at 500bpm (which metronome is that??) and you play "4 per tick" so 2000 notes per minute? That is 33 notes per second. Is this sustained speed or very short bursts?
By 500 bpm, 4 per tick, I meant that the metronome was set at 125 bpm. I thought it was pretty unambiguous because the alternative, 2000 bpm, is impossible. I'm surprised how many people misunderstood. I thought it was clear.
Originally Posted by symphonicdance
I am neither a professional nor a teacher. Also, English is not my mother tongue. Nonetheless, I'll try to share my (silly) views any way ;p
The ways how you move your hands (see 1 below) and how you set your fingerings (see 2 below) will affect the speed. I forgot where/what occasion I learned about these: may be talking with friends, may be reading a magazine/book.
1. Do you place your thumb below the palm when you shift? That is, for example, in C major RH ascending, you put your thumb below the palm to play F after your middle finger played E, or similarly, thumb to play C after ring finger played B. Or do you quickly shift the hand horizontally (to the right) after attacking the notes? Not sure if this describes well: the former will make the horizontal hand moving plane looks a sea with waves, the latter will make the sea look relatively calm.
2. Again, using C major RH ascending as an example, do you maintain a fingering of 123-1234-123-1234-123-1234-etc or have you consider something else (weird!), like 12345-12345-12345-etc?
Regarding 1 & 2 above, how a player may choose will depend on which scale (or arpeggio!) he/she is going to play and how many octaves. Have I experimented myself? Yes, hard to use, but they work for me in some occasions (scale/arpeggio passages in a piece).
I play all the scales using the standard fingering. And to answer your question, it's a combination of both: a tucking motion combined with a sideways motion of the hand.
Last edited by Nicholas Mihaila; 03/07/1603:39 AM.
Follow my mixed gaming and musical ambitions through my YouTube channel:
This book has a section in it with a method for speeding up scales. It's free to download and might be worth a look I haven't used it myself but it sounded interesting.
This book has a section in it with a method for speeding up scales. It's free to download and might be worth a look I haven't used it myself but it sounded interesting.
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