3 ms·

> If you only play the piece fast, the piece will deteriorate as mistakes inevitably get introduced and never get fixed. I know this and I experienced it firs

• tgbugs 5y ago
  The underlying motor sequence is learned and probabilistic based on prior sequences that you actually played. Therefore if you introduce a mistake early it will be one of the set of motor sequences that can occur following the start of the sequence. The faster you go the less time you have to anticipate and correct an upcoming mistake. This can happen at even fairly low speeds as soon as you cross the threshold where you can no longer consciously determine what motor movement happens next in the sequence. An extremely overly simplistic model would be something like, let's say you play a sequence 10 times and make a single mistake. You now have a 10% chance on any future run of making that mistake. However if you do, then you probability of making that mistake goes up in the future. Assume that you can reduce that 10% slighly by applying top down (conscious) attention if you play at some reasonable pace. Playing faster means that you can't use any top down feedback to reduce the probability of the incorrect sequence from occurring. Under stress (e.g. during a competition) you may not be able to dedicate enough attention to keep the incorrect sequences in check, so the mistakes reappear at the worst possible time. This also happens if you get angry because you made a mistake. The best way to avoid this is to never make a mistake in the first place.