🎹👂 Your ear is LYING to you about tempo {video}

Published 14 days ago • 1 min read

I've been playing Amy Beach's "Dreaming" at the same tempo for years.

It felt like an andante tempo, as the composer wrote.

Then I heard Greg Anderson play it slower. I'm talking seriously slower. 🐢

And I stopped mid-scroll and was mesmerized, because something clicked that I didn't want to admit.

My tempo wasn't wrong because it wasn't Andante. It was wrong because I'd never questioned it.

Here's the thing nobody tells you about tempo: it doesn't just live in your fingers. It lives in your ear.

You don't just have muscle memory, you have ear memory. And once a tempo feels "normal," slowing it down, even slightly, is some of the hardest practice work there is.

Harder than learning new notes. Harder than fixing a fingering.

In this week's video, I'm walking through exactly where I am right now with this piece. (It's still a work in progress.)

Isolating the melody. Constantly resisting the pull to speed up the triplets.

🎯 And the specific moment where slow practice stopped being harder and started to feel easier.

This is part of my Road to Vigo series. Still waitlisted for the August competition in Spain, still preparing like I'm walking on that stage.

👀 Watch it here!

If you've ever had to unlearn a tempo, a fingering or a habit that felt right simply because it was familiar, you already know what I'm talking about.

What's the one you're working on unlearning right now? Hit reply and tell me.

Play On,
Lisa Spector
Piano Practice Strategist
Founder, Piano Ninja Tricksters Club

PS: If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm playing part of this Vigo prep live on Saturday, July 25. "Fire, Fantasy & Gershwin" is a Groupmuse house concert where I get to play through my competition program for you. Get your tickets here.

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