Vivace Influenza

This practice issue is not extremely common. Students with vivace influenza can get stuck playing a piece at one tempo – fast. Once this speed is established, the student will have great trouble playing at a slow tempo. This quick tempo lockdown sometimes happens to all, and sometimes only a few, pieces from the student’s repertoire.

The student with vivace influenza is having trouble playing slowly. Although vivace influenza and presto infatuation may appear similar at first, upon closer inspection you will be able to deduce whether the student can’t play slowly or doesn’t want to play slowly. They may complain about playing slowly or try to avoid it, but the underlying cause is one of difficulty with vivace influenza.

We often use the metronome to help students achieve a quick tempo. For the student with vivace influenza, however, the reverse may be useful. Start by assessing what tempo the student is currently playing at and have her play a section of the piece with the metronome at this tempo. Next, adjust the metronome mark down 3-5 bpm and have her repeat the section at this tempo. Continue this process until you are below the tempo you wish your student to practice at, or until she gets frustrated with the process.

Ask your student to adjust this process slightly for home practice. She will likely not have the patience for as many repetitions as you did together in the lesson, but she can do a modified version over several days.

For the modified version your student should begin at the tempo she is comfortable playing at, and repeat, getting a little slower each time. Assign how many times she should repeat the section (3-5 times is normally best). The next day she should repeat the same exercise, this time starting at the second last tempo she used the previous day. The table below will give you an idea of how one section might progress over five days of practice.

	1^st bpm	2^nd bpm	3^rd bpm	4^th bpm	5^th bpm
Mon.	100	97	94	91	88
Tue.	91	88	85	82	79
Wed.	82	79	76	73	70
Thu.	73	70	67	64	61
Fri.	64	61	58	55	52

Download and print 'Reverse Metronome Ladder' tracking charts like this one at: www.pianophysician.com/bonus.

Play a short section of the student’s piece at a slow tempo. Play the same section again, this time asking her to play along with you. Stick to your chosen speed rigidly; do not get swayed by your student's playing. (If you don’t have two pianos you can play an octave lower while she plays an octave higher.) Repeat this process for the same section a few times, and then ask her to play the section on her own. Move through the piece in this way, one section at a time.

If you feel your student will not be able to reliably play each section slowly at home after the in-lesson exercise, try recording each part for her to play along with. Use a smartphone, iPad or other device to quickly record each section during the lesson and email it to the student or her parents for use during practice.