Two important factors of speed
Speed is an important part of virtuosity; in fact, most people seem to think of it as a key defining quality of virtuosity.
That’s not true, of course, virtuosity is more than just about moving fast.
For me, it’s about attaining a deep level of understanding of a task, achieving a mastery that enables you to perform it efficiently and with least effort.
But speed is important, not in and of itself, but because it provides a good indicator of your level of mastery.
If you have good speed, it’s likely you also have good technique, otherwise, you would not have had that speed in the first place.
The thing about speed is that it’s a completely natural part of the human condition. We were all born with it.
Yet why is it so hard to attain it sometimes?
I’ve found that the problem can usually be attributed to two factors.
The first is tension. (By tension, I’m referring here to the nonfunctional excess tension caused by stress or tightness in the body, as opposed to functional tension, which is an essential part of effort.)
This is no secret. We’re all familiar with the negative impact of tension on performance.
Yet, despite this, I’ve seen all too many players trying to play with their hands clenched in a claw, seemingly oblivious of the tension this is causing to their body.
Or players who are so intent on making their hands follow some arbitrarily prescribed rules on hand positions, and who seem to be equally unaware of the tension these rigid positions are causing to their hands and body.
And then they wonder why they can’t develop speed.
Under these conditions, no matter how hard they practice, they will never get speed because the conditions for speed are not there.
If you leave the handbrakes in a car on, no matter how hard you pump the gas, the car will only move sluggishly. That’s what tension does to you.
The second factor is alignment, and this is an even more critical factor.
To enable your body to work freely and optimally, it’s crucial you align your body properly, so that the different parts of your body working together and not against one other.
Take for example, the right hand.
It is important, when you position your right hand, that the thumb and the fingers work together.
When you pluck with the thumb, that plucking motion should not interfere with your fingers. Likewise, when you play with the fingers, that plucking action should not get in the way of the thumb too.
I’ve seen players, when they play with the thumb, the plucking motion in the thumb would impact the whole hand, causing it to rock out of position. And the same happens with their fingers too. When they pluck with the fingers, the plucking action would also cause the hand to move out of position.
This is a relatively simple point, and yet the impact it has on your playing can be disastrous.
So as you work on speed, don’t ignore the big picture.
1. Keep your hand and fingers super loose with minimal tension.
2. Align your thumb and fingers properly, so that movement in one does not impact the other.
Coming back to what I said at the beginning, speed is an inherent part of the human condition.
This has always been the bedrock of my philosophy and is the basic rationale for the AOV.
To tap into your natural speed, all you need to do is free up your body and allow it to function naturally.
Don’t impose any arbitrary conditions on it, don’t try to force it into any rigid and unnatural positions, allow it to work naturally, and you will find that you will have all the speed you need.
January 31st, 2012 at 10:43 pm
The excess movement of the hand was a big problem for me, although I could not detect it for myself–it was pointed out to me. My thumb strokes involved my whole arm (although it was a small motion). Once I solved that, speed, accuracy, and tone all improved.
February 1st, 2012 at 12:26 am
I think it was Bruce Lee who said, “It’s not daily increase but daily decrease.” I find that the more we practice something, the more refined our movements become, and eventually we get to a point where we’re only doing what we need to do and no more. That’s the state where we all strive for, complete economy of movement where not a single motion is wasted. When that happens, speed, accuracy and tone, as you said, will all improve automatically.