USRPT

When I learned Bach’s second cello suite in college, I began by learning to play each note at 60 beats per minute. Then I learned to play each note at 63. Then 69. Then 72. This took a very long time, and the result turned out…okay.

In the July 2018 issue of National Geographic, writer Christine Brennan explains how, while most swimmers train for races by swimming long, slower distances, champion swimmer Michael Andrew consistently trains at race pace to acclimate his body to that high level of intensity. This unconventional method is called Ultra-Short Race-Pace Training (USRPT).

This got me thinking. I believe we musicians could benefit from more USRPT training - more performance-tempo repetitions - even if those repetitions are sloppy or out of tune at first. If we consistently acclimate our bodies to the fast-twitch muscle memory needed to perform fast passages, then we can focus more of our slow practice as a problem-solving tool to address and fix issues that come up along the way.