60 BPM is a Good Standard for Slow Piano Practice

Throughout all of the different stages of my own piano education, I was consistently surprised by my teachers when it came to slow practice. For some reason, it just didn't occur to me exactly how slow to go. My concept of "slow" was always getting redefined as I matured in my musicianship.

Fast forward to today, I have found that 60 beats per minute (measured with a metronome) is slow enough to deal with most things.

By the way, I don't just mean for you to arbitrarily practice your pieces and exercises at 60 bpm all the way through. Rather, you can use this approach to selectively to deal with problematic passages.

For example, if you always mess up when you play a passage with 8th notes or 16th notes, try applying that 60 bpm standard to each of these faster notes, instead of playing at 60 bpm for the quarter note. This will let you play extremely slowly and really get a handle on things.

This is what I mean when I say that this particular speed is slow enough to solve most issues. However, in order to take advantage of this practice strategy, you need to be able to play as slow as 60 bpm in the first place.

For more information and inspiration relating to this subject, check out my video below!

Timestamps:

• 0:00 Introduction

• 0:23 How to feel 60 bpm (without a metronome)

• 1:44 Many beginners can’t play slow enough

• 2:32 How to think of speed

• 4:14 Slow practice example

• 5:52 “Speed Wall” vs “Speed Floor”

• 6:35 Tension issues

• 8:11 Practicing at 60 bpm

• 8:45 Benefits of playing slowly

I hope you found this helpful! Before you go, be sure to check out some of the resources below.

Happy practicing!