Slow or normal speed for practicing/learning?

[sabasgr68]

When I´m learning new licks or riffs to play I usually start slower than normal speed to build muscle memory, accuracy and precision, to understand what I´m playing and to make it mine, and to make sure I´m playing all the notes involved, and then gradually scalating up to normal speed until I play it well.

Of course, it all depends on the complexity of what I´m learning, sometimes I can practice and learn the part at normal speed.

Is it a good method, or is it better to practice at normal speed, so you´ll build muscle memory and accuracy at the speed that you´ll play it?

What´s your approach to it? Thoughts?

[mickey]

I think it all depends on what you are trying to learn to play. If it moves along at a tempo faster than your ear can hear a new piece of music then by all means slow it down!
If you can easily learn it without slowing it down, by all means do it that way. There are no hard fast rules, no right way/wrong way. Just whatever works for you with the particular tune.

[tonebender]

Sabas, I have heard and seen you play. Whatever you're doing just keep it up because it is working quite well.

[toomanycats]

It depends.

Some things don't sound right if they're not up to speed. A perfect example is one I'm working on right now, Van Halen's "I'm the One" from their first album. It's got this swing to it that does not sound right when slowed down. You can't capture the essence of how it moves, and the licks don't make sense, unless it's up to speed. On something like this I'd rather play it at tempo while I'm learning it, flubs and all, rather than playing it slow and dead, ya know, with no life and zing to it. The tightness will come later after much repetition.

Other things I often learn slowed down. For example, 32nd note, mechanical type passages do not tend to suffer from being learned slowly.

[BatUtilityBelt]

In other endeavors, I had to tell a lot of people "Where you're going is more important than how fast you get there". The way I think that applies to guitar is that you need to know what you're going to play before you play it. In my process, that means first hearing it correctly in my head, then mapping it to the fretboard, then letting my fingers figure out the muscle memory. The beauty of that approach to me is that I seldom teach myself mistakes I later have to unteach myself. As @toomanycats says, I'm sure some pieces must be approached at speed. If I could approach a song like "I'm the One" at speed, I would be much more talented than I am. I'm sure Eddie could play whatever he wanted the moment he thought it up, but most of us are not Eddie. And as @mickey says, do what works for you.

[sabasgr68]

Well, I consider you guys good players, and you´ve been playing "seriously" more than I for sure, so I value your words. So it seems that either way will work, just depending on the song or what I´m trying to learn.

I agree with @mickey , @toomanycats and @BatUtilityBelt ; if I can "see it" and hear it correctly in my head, I should go at normal speed, as it will be more natural; if not, then the other way. So, @tonebender , I guess I should keep doing it , as you say Thanks for the encouraging words!

This is not to say that it doesn´t take me some time to learn songs correctly, even if I can see it.

"I´m the one" is well out of my league (my respect to you!), and I agree with you, @toomanycats , it seems to be a song that is better learning it at normal speed, building it up by repetition, than slow. It wouldn´t make much sense at slow speed.

My method seems similar to yours, @BatUtilityBelt . I start working on it inside my head before I start working on it on the guitar. I usually try not to watch YouTube tutorial videos before I try my own approach; if I´m not getting it correctly, then I go to YouTube and watch several videos and then I use what I see better. I have a long list of songs I´d like to learn and play. I also think that I should jam a lot more, letting my inspiration do the work and not only play covers, I think it will help developing other playing skills.

[tonebender]

I used to have a trainer device that would play a CD slower without distorting the sound or changing the pitch. It was to help learn solos note for note. It came in handy a few times trying to figure out what someone was playing. I did not use it much.

[sabasgr68]

I used to have a trainer device that would play a CD slower without distorting the sound or changing the pitch. It was to help learn solos note for note. It came in handy a few times trying to figure out what someone was playing. I did not use it much.

I think I remember one of those devices. Was it from Tascam? It was years ago...

I use software for that, Riffstation. Very useful. You can change speed and/or pitch as you wish. I like it a lot. You can also isolate some channels in the spectrum (left-center-right), and even save the audio file. It's no longer available, but the makers made it available free and full before taking it out of the web. In case you want it, or anyone here, I can share the file via google drive.

PS: Got it. Was this the one you had? Tascam Guitar Trainer

[tonebender]

That is it, Tascam!

For me I learn things slowly then once I have it down I play it too fast. I need to control the tempo better.

[glasshand]

I feel like slow is very useful for learning things at first, especially when you're trying to learn a solo with about a million notes per second! But don't stay there too long; you always want to be pushing yourself just a little.

The software I really like for slowing music (which has a bunch of other features too, like looping, panning left/right, EQing, etc.) is Amazing Slow Downer: https://www.ronimusic.com/

[sabasgr68]

I feel like slow is very useful for learning things at first, especially when you're trying to learn a solo with about a million notes per second! But don't stay there too long; you always want to be pushing yourself just a little.

The software I really like for slowing music (which has a bunch of other features too, like looping, panning left/right, EQing, etc.) is Amazing Slow Downer: https://www.ronimusic.com/

Yes, that´s how I usually do it. I even like to listen to songs at slower speeds for amusement, just to appreciate it with more detail.

That software looks cool - although it´s paid -. For what I need, RiffStation has been working well for me so far.

[Partscaster]

FWIW, yutub settings allow for playback speed to be slowed, with no pitch change, to 3/4, 1/2, .25, and sped up too , for those who may not be snapping their teeth off fast enough.