Allegro Anxiety

I have found allegro anxiety to be more common in adult students, and in shy, nervous or quiet children. This fear of playing quickly is often rooted in a fear of making a mistake. Students who associate playing incorrect notes with negative feelings or punishments may never want to let go enough to play allegro.

It’s admirable to want to play a note-accurate performance, but it can get in the way of the student’s sense of freedom at the keys. By never playing beyond a moderate speed, not only is much of the repertoire unavailable to the student, but they can also never experience what it is to let go and allow the surge of adrenaline to carry them through a performance.

The metronome can be a great aid in the conquering of allegro anxiety. By steadily increasing the tempo just a few marks at a time, the student is untroubled by the gradual increase and can eventually get all the way up to the performance tempo.

Begin with a small section of the piece at a tempo the student is very comfortable playing at; 60 bpm is often a good starting point. After each successful play-through, increase the tempo by 3-5 bpm. If the student struggles at a new tempo for three attempts, decrease the tempo.

You’ll find that at some point the student will plateau and the tempo will hover back and forth around a certain bpm mark. Take a note of this tempo on the music at this point and give your student her practice instructions.

Assign ‘Metronome Ladder’ work to one or more sections of a piece the student is working on. The student can use the ‘Metronome Ladder’ without much alteration at home, although younger students will need the help of an adult to set the metronome.

The student should begin each day with the metronome set 5 bpm higher than the previous day’s starting tempo. She should then proceed to repeat the section she is working on, increasing by 3-5 bpm each time. Once she plateaus she can make a note of the final tempo for that day and move on to other practice. The table below will give you an idea of how one section might progress over five days of practice.

	Starting Tempo	Tempo Increases	Plateau Tempo
Sat.	60 bpm	5 bpm	80 bpm
Sun.	65 bpm	3 bpm	83 bpm
Mon.	70 bpm	5 bpm	85 bpm
Tue.	75 bpm	3 bpm	93 bpm
Wed.	80 bpm	3 bpm	98 bpm

You can find printable 'Metronome Ladder' tracking charts like this one at: www.pianophysician.com/bonus.

This prescription may make some anxious students very uncomfortable so use your best judgment to read your particular student’s demeanour and reactions. Make sure you pick out a level of duet that is very easy for your student. Choose a book that is several levels below her current playing level.

Explain to your student that you’re going to be playing these duets together just to get a rough idea of how they sound. You might tell her that these are new books that you can’t find recordings of, and you’d love her help sounding them out since you can’t play them by yourself. Tell her it doesn’t matter if every note is right or not, only that you don’t stop or go back but keep going the whole way to the end.

One of the most important lessons from ‘Duet Sight-reading’ comes after you have finished playing. If you slip or fudge over a few notes – as you likely will when sightreading – ask her whether she noticed you making any mistakes during the playing. Does she know where you played some wrong notes?

Have a discussion about why it still sounded good despite those mistakes, and how you kept going at the fast tempo in spite of those errors. Your student can learn a lot from seeing how even an advanced pianist makes mistakes when playing quickly, and how easily you can laugh it off. Continue this sightreading duet practice at every lesson and your student’s mindset might just start to shift enough to throw caution to the wind with her regular repertoire.