Tackling Fast Passages

Have you ever played a fast passage and struggled to make it to the end without tensing up, slowing down, or fumbling your fingers? Fast passages are tricky. They require quick fingers and excellent coordination with the bow’s movements. If you are struggling with fast passages, try out these strategies in your next practice session:

1. Play in the Middle of the Bow

   
   

   Bow placement could make or break you when it comes to fast passages. When playing in the middle of the bow, the forearm is the only part that moves; opening and closing your arm from the elbow. The simplicity of this movement is ideal for achieving faster speeds. In contrast, playing in the lower half would slow things down significantly because it involves moving the upper arm (a bigger motion). The upper half would make you feel stuck since your arm is already opened. Not to mention, more effort will be needed to get a strong sound when playing closer to the tip.

   
   
   
   

2. Open Strings

   
   

   Taking the left hand out of the equation and practicing the open strings can be helpful in some (but not all) situations. Training the big muscles first and focusing on the bow will improve coordination when you go back to incoroporating the left hand. I recommend trying it for passages that have a repetitive pattern (e.g. A E E A, A E E A, or E A E A, E A E A) or don’t require a lot of string crossings. It will be more difficult and confusing to try this with “random” string crossings (e.g. E E E A, E A E E, A E E A), although, it can be done if practiced in small chunks.

   
   

   

   Repetitive String Pattern

   

   Random String Pattern

   
   

3. Unit Practice

   
   

   There are a couple strategies for practicing fast passages in small units. Each one involves stopping the bow (represented by // in the examples below) to give the brain more time to think about what the bow needs to do or which finger needs to be placed.

   
   

   The first strategy is “unit practice by beat”. For this exercise, consider each 16th note to be one beat. Stop the bow (represented by // in the examples below) after each beat and look ahead to the next note. When stopping after one beat is comfortable, try stopping after two. Progressively add more beats as your comfort level increases (4, 8, 16, etc).

   
   

   

   Unit Practice by Beat

   
   

   Strategy number two is “unit practice by string”, which involves stopping the bow before each string crossing. Moving to a new string can slow you down, but physically knowing where string crossings happen will allow you to play with greater clarity and dexterity.

   
   

   

   Unit Practice by String

   
   

   The last strategy is “unit practice by position”. Shifting can also slow you down when playing fast passages. For this exercise, stop the bow before shifting to a new position. Sometimes, I like to combine strategies and I will stop before each string crossing AND new position.

   
   

   

   Unit Practice by Position

   
   

4. Rhythms

   
   

   Practicing with different rhythms can be a huge help to increasing dexterity. If you lengthen the rhythmic value of one note, it gives your brain more time to think about the quick notes that come after. Here are a few rhythms you can try the next time you are working on a fast passage:

   
   

   

   
   
   
   

5. Practice Backwards

   
   

   When you have passages that are long and quick, it’s easy to tense up and get fumbly near the end. This is where practicing backward can help. Start by playing the last four 16th notes of the passage. When it feels comfortable, back up and start on the preceding group. Continue to do this until you have worked your way back to the beginning. The ending will feel more comfortable because you prioritized it.

   
   

   

   Fast Passage Example

   

   Example Practiced Backwards