Shortening Difficult Passages: Segmental (Barby-Bar) Practice

A most important learning trick is to choose a short practice segment. This

trick has perhaps the largest effect on reducing the practice time because of
many reasons.

Within a difficult passage of say, 10 bars, there are typically only a few note
combinations that stymie you. There is no need to practice anything other
than those notes. Let's examine the two difficult sections in Fur Elise and find
the most troublesome spots. This may be the first bar or the last five bars of
the first interruption (bars 45 to 56), or the final arpeggio in the second
interruption (bars 82 to 105). In all difficult segments, it is critically important
to observe the finger markings. For the last five bars of the first interruption,
the difficulty is in the RH where most of the action is in fingers 1 and 5. For
bar 52 (the one with the turn), the fingering is 2321231, and for bar 53, it is
251515151525. For the arpeggio in the second interruption, use the fingering
1231354321.... Either thumb under or thumb over (see section III.5) will work
because this passage is not overly fast, but I prefer thumb over because the
thumb under will require some elbow motion and this extra movement can
lead to flubs.
Practicing short segments allows you to practice it dozens, even hundreds of
times, in a matter of minutes. Use of these quick repetitions is the fastest
way to teach your hand new motions. If the difficult notes are played as part
of a longer segment, the longer interval between repeats and the playing of
other notes in between can confuse the hand and cause it to learn more
slowly. This faster learning speed is quantitatively calculated in section IV.5,
and that calculation provides the basis for the claim in this book that these
methods can be 1000 times faster than the intuitive methods.
We all know that playing faster than your technique allows is detrimental.
However, the shorter a segment you choose, the faster you can practice it
without ill effects because they are so much easier to play. Therefore, you can
practice most of the time at or beyond final speed, which is the ideal situation
because it saves so much time. In the intuitive method, you are practicing
most of the time at slow speed.

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