Overview
If you want to play a song faster, start by speeding up a small chunk. We’ll practice with a key riff from “The Devil Went Down To Georgia.”
Learning Steps
In the video I’m speeding up by 10 bpm each repetition. However I recommend more like 3-5 bpm for students. You want to get to the point where you’re working at your edge. Try to speed up a tune a little bit every day.
As people go faster, they tend to use more energy and force. Do the opposite. Use less energy and force as you go faster.
It helps to breathe and relax the body!
A counterintuitive approach to playing faster is to play it “ridicu-slow”.
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Further learning
The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Seven Ways To Play Faster On The Fiddle
I’m pretty slow in my violin playing and my instructor and I were talking about the best approach to speed up. And your timely email arrived today and now I have more instruction on speeding up. Yay!
Great news, Jody! Glad it lines up with what your focusing on.
Here’s another post on this topic to keep the flow going:
https://fiddlehed.com/blog/slow-down-to-speed-up/