One of my adult students asked about how to stay in control when playing fast passages on the piano. She had found herself stumbling in brisk tempos, getting anxious, over-crowding the notes, and finally becoming so tangled up that she had to stop. The music essentially came to a grinding halt.
My advice to her, based upon any number of crash and burns that I had to deal with and turn around into fluid, confident playing experiences was as follows:
1) If you prepare a challenging passage or set of fast passages by practicing them very slowly with a relaxed, deep in the key approach, while shaping your phrases, and BREATHING through them as a singer would, you are on your way to inching up your tempo WITHOUT making any sacrifices in the musical or technical realm. You will work on making yourself just as PRESENT at your fast pace as you were when drawing out, prolonged, broad lines.
2) A PSYCHOLOGICAL state must be practiced–It’s not enough to know the notes, proper fingering, dynamics, harmonic outline and rhythm, etc. When playing very quickly, consider the OPPOSITE—Think relaxation and suspension of time. There are NO deadlines, or mandatory arrivals. You are in the HERE and NOW, experiencing a phrase’s SHAPE and CONTOUR, while your breath helps to SWELL the notes where needed, and keep them from running away. Cadences or resting points become places to taper and then infuse with new energy.
3) The framework is a bit like Yoga, but labels need not be affixed to the process.
BEING in the moment even at high speed, and SAVORING each curve and contour of a musical line help keep you on an even keel, not thinking ahead where anxiety lurks.
This short video best communicates what I have laid out as an antidote to crash and burn playing in fast tempo:
