How to speed up a hard passage with a metronome

Begin a little below the tempo where the passage starts to fall apart. Play it cleanly two or three times, then raise the metronome by about 4 percent. Keep climbing while the playing stays clean, step back when it doesn't, and finish the session a little below your highest tempo. Tomorrow, begin a few steps lower than where you stopped.

That is the whole method. The rest of this guide covers the details that make it work: how to choose a starting tempo, why the steps should grow with the tempo, and what to do when progress stalls.

1. Choose a short passage

Work on two to four bars that contain a single problem: a shift, a run, a string crossing, a fill. Begin a note or two before the difficult spot and end a note or two after it, so that you practice getting into it and out of it as well.

Playing a whole page slowly is a fine way to learn the notes. It isn't an efficient way to build speed, though, because the easy bars use up repetitions that the hard bar needs.

2. Find your edge, then start below it

Play the passage at a few tempos until you find the one where it stops holding together. That tempo is your edge. Then set the metronome about 15 percent lower. If your edge is 84, begin around 72.

Your starting tempo should be one you can trust today. Clean doesn't have to mean perfect. It means the pulse holds steady, you don't stop, and you play the same notes the same way each time. If the first round feels like an audition, start lower. There's no shame in it, and it will save you time.

3. Measure steps in percent, not BPM

A step of 5 BPM feels large at 60 and hardly noticeable at 160. Steps of 3 to 5 percent feel about the same at any tempo, which keeps the ladder even from bottom to top.

Take smaller steps near your edge or in exposed passages, where even a small change in speed changes the coordination. Larger steps are fine when you're warming up on material you already know.

4. Climb with a rule

Decide before you begin what earns the next step. Two or three clean repetitions in a row is a good rule, because a single lucky pass tells you very little. After each round, make one of three choices:

• Climb when the pulse, the motion and the shape of the phrase all hold.
• Hold when it works but takes too much effort or concentration. Another round at the same tempo is real progress, not a delay.
• Step back when tension creeps in, the rhythm blurs, or the same mistake returns. Go down a step or two and climb again.

Here is one session on a passage with a goal of 96 and an edge at 84:

This is a tempo ladder: a short series of tempos you climb in order, with a rule for each step. For more on choosing steps and knowing when to hold, see Tempo ladder practice.

5. Finish below the top, and come back tomorrow

End each session with one relaxed pass a step or two below your highest tempo. What you play last tends to be what you remember, so let it be clean.

In your next session, begin a few steps below where you stopped rather than at the peak. Reaching a tempo once is a good day. Being able to find it again from a cold start is a skill. Violist and researcher Molly Gebrian puts it clearly: get it right slowly first, spread the work across several days, and let sleep do part of the job. Two short sessions on two days will usually serve you better than one long one.

6. When the ladder stops climbing

Nearly everyone reaches a tempo where nothing more seems to happen. Pushing harder in the same way rarely helps. Some teachers point out that the motion you use slowly may simply not work at speed, and that past a certain point you need a different motion rather than more repetitions of the same one.

Try changing one thing at a time and notice what moves:

• Shorten the passage to the two or three notes where it breaks.
• Make the steps smaller, 1 to 2 percent, around the sticking point.
• Change the rhythm: play it long-short, then short-long, so each pair of notes gets its turn at speed.
• Try a short burst above tempo, just a few notes at the target, then go back down the ladder. It gives you a feel for the faster motion.
• Watch the motion itself. If your hand or arm moves differently at 84 than at 72, the slow version may be teaching a movement you won't use at speed.

If none of this helps today, stop at a clean tempo and return to it tomorrow. Plateaus are a normal part of learning, and they usually pass.

7. How long it takes

There is no fixed timetable for bringing a passage up to speed. It may take several sessions or longer, depending on the passage and how familiar its movements are. Progress is rarely steady. Some days you'll begin higher than you finished, and some days lower. Judge your progress by your starting tempo over a week rather than by any single session.

Keep the slow tempos in your practice even after you reach the goal. An occasional slow pass shows you whether you truly know the passage, or only know how to play it fast.

Try it now

Open the free online metronome, set it to your starting tempo, and raise it by one step after each clean round. There are presets at 60 BPM and 90 BPM if you'd like a quick place to begin.

Let the app run the ladder

Changing the tempo by hand between rounds interrupts your concentration. Gradus: Metronome for iPhone plays the whole ladder for you. Each block holds one tempo for a set time or number of beats. The paid version lets you choose the count-in sound. To move the whole ladder up a step, raise each block yourself, or use the one-time unlock to lock the blocks together, so changing one moves the rest by the same ratio and your steps stay even. Gradus is coming soon to the App Store.

Related: How much to raise the metronome each time · Tempo ladder practice

Sources: Molly Gebrian's practice research, summarized on Violinist.com · "Why start slow fails"