"I recently wrote this to one of my current students. I thought it might be useful to pass on:
"Getting stuck in the process is natural. When studies were done with classical musicians, the musicians that succeeded the most were the ones who, when they initially sat down to practice material, played the study right way the first very time. Blind repetition has its place but unless it is paired with an awareness, a kind of inner “audiation” or “hearing” of the sounds you are practicing, your struggle will temporarily persist.
The unanimous recommendation here is that there must be some tempo (very slow - maybe one note per second) at which you can make no mistakes and are not pausing to “hunt” for notes you are already hearing. You start to think ahead. Ultra slow tempos feels dumb, like you are not learning anything. But notice while using a metronome how very hard it is to do. There is a tendency to rush the beat. Remember that the spaces between the notes are just as, or even more important than the notes themselves.
If you want to play fast, you have to play slow. When we meet again, remind me to suggest some right hand strategies for responding to the left hand.
Keep your patience and develop your concentration. Growing neurological pathways are like growing fingernails or hair. It can’t be rushed." "
Pat Cloud
