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Half-speed practice: the 50 to 100 percent tempo ladder

How do musicians practice a song at half speed? Loop one phrase at 50%, play it clean, and climb. Here is the ladder and how I run it in Practice Player.

Why half speed works

At half speed your hands have time to land each note. Speed comes after the motion is right.

Keep the ladder narrow: one phrase, one speed, until it is boring.

Set 50% and loop one phrase

  1. Open the song, tap Points. Play or scrub to the start of the phrase. Tap the + riding above the playhead. Do it again at the end.
  2. Tap the first point and pick Set Start. Tap the second and pick Set End. Looping is on by default. The loop icon next to play toggles it.
  3. Tap Controls and drag the speed slider to 0.5x. The minus and plus buttons move it 0.01x per tap. Use the slider for the big move and the buttons to land it.

Pick a phrase short enough to hold in your head. For most people that is about two bars. If you are not sure, go shorter.

Controls tab with the speed slider dragged left to 0.50x
Controls tab. Drag the speed slider left. The readout shows 0.50x.
Advanced Settings with Speed Range (Min Speed, Max Speed), Pitch (Units, Step) and Point Tap
Advanced Settings. Min Speed goes down to 0.2x.

Count in at the slowed tempo

Turn on Metronome Count-In. If the app doesn't know the song's BPM, set it (it assumes 120 until you do). The count-in scales with the speed, so a 120 BPM song at 0.5x gives you four clicks at 60. Every loop starts on a count, so you don't drift.

You can pick how many beats it counts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 or 12. I use 4 for most things and 8 when the phrase starts before the downbeat.

Controls tab with Metronome Count-In switched on, the BPM slider at 120 and Count-In Beats set to 4
Switch on Metronome Count-In, then set the BPM and how many beats it counts.

Climb: 60, 70, 80, 90

  • When the phrase is clean at 0.5x three times in a row, go to 0.6x. That is ten taps of the plus button, or a nudge of the slider.
  • Same rule at each step.
  • If a step falls apart, drop back one.
  • At 1x, widen the range. Set Start on an earlier point and Set End on a later one. Or go back to Beginning and End. Play the phrase in context. If the way in or the way out is rough, that wider phrase is the next ladder.

The speed and the loop are saved with the song, so if you stop at 0.8x today, the song opens at 0.8x tomorrow.

Track your practice

Practice Player keeps practice stats: a daily goal, your current streak, your longest streak, and a weekly view. Each point's details screen also shows Total Practiced, the time you have spent on that one phrase.

Set the daily goal to something you can hit on a bad day. Ten minutes a day on one phrase is a fine goal.

Practice Stats, Goals tab: Daily Goal, Practice Reminders, Current Streak, Longest Streak, Total Practice
Practice Stats, Goals tab. Set the daily goal here.
Download

Practice Player is free to download, with a paid upgrade for unlimited songs and points.