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(Arak)
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1. Every time you play any difficult part `fluffed-up`, you are cementing links in your brain to ensure you keep doing it that way. EVery time you play something wrong, you will probably need to play it 10 times correct to UNDO the damage you have done in your brain. So DO NOT play anything faster than you can play it well! Top players never achieved their mastery of the instrument by fluffing thins up, only by many, many hours playing slowly and carefully, being scrupulously accurate.
2. Every note you play has a messy, non-musical sound between it and the notes before and after, partly as you gradually change the length of the air column, and especially as you tongue notes.
Let`s exaggerate to illustrate. Say you are practising slowly, each note lasting 10 seconds. Say .5 seconds of each note is the `mess`, and 9.5 seconds is good sound. In this case, only .5/10, i.e. 5% of your sound is a mess. When you speed up, say 1 second per note. The mess is just as long, still 0.5 seconds, so there is now only 0.5 second of good sound. So there is now .5/1, i.e. 50% of your playing that is a mess! Yuck!
The idea of slow playing is that you listen very, very carefully and not only improve your tone, but also SHORTEN the mess between notes, so that when you speed up (by shortening the GOOD sound), the mess is as insignificant as possible.
Extending the above example, with the well-practised player...
Playing slowly, each 10 second note is say 0.1 second mess (1% only). Playing fast, each note is 1/10, or 10% mess. That is a lot better than the 50% for the messy player.
To reduce mess, one must make the finger changes extremely well coordinated and fast, and also have the tongue interfering with the airstream during tonguing for as short a time as possible. One also needs excellent coordination for any changes in embouchure and breath support for note changes, particularly well spaced notes that are slurred.
This is NEVER achieved without the slow, conscientious, perfectionist practise, with great attention to detail. Sorry, no short cuts. And NEVER practise doing any thing badly. All you are learning is how to do it RELIABLY badly!
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