[Music] Have you ever watched a professional classical
or a jazz pianist fire away these lightning speed notes? And you're wondering how possibly
can someone do that? In this short video, I want to break down the technique of playing
fast notes. And by the end you will have an idea of what to practice and what to
do to achieve these kind of fast and lightning notes. Playing fast notes is not
difficult once you analyze the technique. Playing fast notes will require some time
to hone this skill but let's break it down so it doesn't feel so overwhelming. The
main difference between fast notes and slow notes is that in fast notes there is
just less of a time gap between each note. Let's say, I use the example of a C major
arpeggios. The difference between.... Versus... versus it's just that there is less and
less time between the execution of each note as we get faster. So every time you catch yourself
thinking "Oh gee! Playing lightning fast notes is really overwhelming and I can never do it." I
want you to stop that train of thought and just remember that playing slow and fast are actually
roughly the similar thing. And just tell yourself that when you play something slow, you're actually
already on your way to playing it fast. You just need to reduce that time gap between each struck
note. Now that we know that, let me play for you two examples and you tell me which one is the one
that sounds better. Option 1 is like this. [Music] Option 2 is like this. So again, Option 1 is
[Music] and option 2 is [Music]. If you said option 1 sounds better, then you are correct.
What's actually better about number 1 rather than number 2, number 1 is a lot cleaner. You
can hear each and every single notes. So [Music] even though the speed was fast you can hear
every single [Music]. Option 2 however [Music] is what I would describe as very muddy playing.
Where the supposed outcome is however due to a lack of control and technique. We played in a very
muddy way where that precise sequence of notes... ...seems to be blended and
muddled up. Where it's perhaps mashed together rather than one after the other. Rather than... [Music] Option 1 has
something called "Clarity". And if there's one word I want you to take away
from this video of the secret to playing fast notes it's CLARITY. You need to
always aim for clarity. So how do you play fast notes on the piano? The secret is
that you need very, very small movements. So, for example, in that C major
arpeggios that I just played you want to stay very, very close to the
keyboard. It's almost like your fingers are not even really lifting away from the
keyboard at all. Obviously it does a little bit but try to think of your fingers and
hands being so sticky that they're just stuck to the keyboard. And there's there's
no kind of space to come out like this... You're wrong where your fingers are flying away so
much from the keyboard. What we want to do is stay really really close
- close fingers and low wrists as well. Okay not high wrist, low
wrist close to the keyboard. Perfect everything down to the last minute
details. So remember, very small movements fingers close to the keyboard and low wrists. Keep
everything very nice, very loose and just execute them one after the other. A really good way to
practice fast notes is to try to do them in your scales and arpeggios. So I did just then for you
- the arpeggios. And you can try it on scales too. [Music] Trying to practice for a faster speed in
your scales and arpeggios is probably going to be one of the better things to do to work on finger
speed. I just feel like scales and arpeggios are the perfect template to practice to work on fast
notes. It improves my finger agility, it improves my coordination. It's just a really good thing to
practice scales and arpeggios. In this channel we always talk about not pulling things too quickly.
Right, to play things at a speed where we can control. However sometimes in piano you also
have to pull from the opposite end. Yes it's good to play it slow and controlled. But sometimes
it's also good to challenge yourself to play fast. Can you handle the speed of playing fast? Playing
fast notes is a perfect stress test for your piano technique. When you see these amazing pianists
on YouTube or Spotify just pull out all these amazing incredibly fast notes, the reason they're
able to do that is because the piano technique is able to withstand this incredible stress test
which is fast playing. When you're playing fast, everything has to be optimized. Everything is on
the line. The slightest bit of, let's say, tension will disable you from playing fast. We were
just then talking about small movements. Right, so everything has got to be very, very small. And
that's because you really have no time to lift your finger up to come back down. Just think about
Usain Bolt trying to sprint the 100 meters. Right, he's not going to want to do this kind of
skip jumping as he's sprinting. He's going to want to sprint completely forward. And
that's this idea of you have to completely optimize your movement. When You're playing
fast, there's just no time to come up and down. Everything has got to be on the surface.
Everything's going to be very, very small to practice fast notes. It's also really important
to practice with a metronome because the metronome is able to give you a very clear-cut speeds
whether that's 70, or 80, or 90 BPM. It's really important to keep track of how fast you
can play and just try to push that very slightly every month. These days I use my Soundbrenner
watch. I Can feel the beat directly on my wrist. So I use the metronome to keep track of how
fast you can play. Something while it's always prioritizing accuracy, if you remember a keyword
in the beginning of this video was "Clarity". So always prioritizing clarity and accuracy even
when you use your metronome to go up in speed. You must be able to hear every single note and
I really mean every single note. Let's talk about some quick common mistakes to avoid when
you are practicing and honing your fast notes playing. [Music] Now I get it. Some of your pieces
are going to require the use of pedal. However when you are practicing which means not performing
when you are practicing and holding different parts I recommend you to take away the pedal
because taking away the pedal will immediately shed light on how clear and how clean your notes
are. In the fast parts [Music] to take away the pedal. Try to listen to each and every note. And
if you currently can't hear every note, so for example, let's say that part I played there. If
it sounds something like this at the moment... Where it's not very, very clear-cut
and the sequence of notes isn't clear, we just need to slow down the tempo and try
to work at a speed where we can control. Remember, very close to the keyboard, very small
movements. Common mistake number 2 is playing too fast. If you're currently playing too fast and
you can't really hear every single note, one of the hard things about playing piano is that you
not only have to execute something complex in your right hand, in your left hand, sometimes you have
pedal as well. Which means you're using your right foot. But on top of all these different mechanical
actions, you also have to listen to yourself. You have to listen to see if your notes are clean and
clear. So sometimes when we try to play too fast, unfortunately our notes are not clear. I recommend
you to slow things down and play at a speed that you can control. Remember that when you play too
fast and the notes are out of control and they're unclear, you're actually doing yourself a massive
disfavor. I rather you forego the speed for now. Come back to a speed where you can hear every
single note. And if you just keep practicing that, playing at a faster speed will counter-intuitively
come faster to you. Next mistake to avoid and watch out for is "Tension". Playing fast, remember
I said before, is a type of stress test for your technique. And if your technique is not relaxed,
it's not proper. You may start to feel a lot of tension when you start to play fast. And when that
happens again, you probably know what I'm about to say. Probably time to slow it down and play at a
speed that you don't feel any tension for that you can control and hear everything very well. We've
come to the end of this fast notes tutorial. Let me know in the comments what you thought about
it. If you have other piano questions too, please feel free to write them down below as well.
Catch you in the next piano tutorial. [Music]
