Tipper Collection 2nd Half

In this final Volume of our Slow Down Series I’m going to share with you two more ways to adjust the Playback Speed for practising.

Free Tool Alert! – Global Speed Extension for Firefox

Step 1: Firefox Browser required so if you don’t have it on your computer, download that first.

Step 2: Download the Global Speed Browser Extension HERE 
This is a FREE browser extension by POLYWOCK.
Once downloaded you will see a black puzzle piece in top right corner of browser 

Step 3: Open your Audio or Video. Compatible with nearly all video and audio streaming sites including Youtube, Netflix, Twitch, Spotify, podcast sites, etc.

Step 4: When you click the PUZZLE PIECE icon in the top right hand corner a drop-down menu will appear. Click on Global Speed (as seen in mage below)

ABILITY TO ADJUST TEMPO BY AS LITTLE AS 1%
Change the tempo by tapping the arrows to the immediate right or left of the main tempo number in the middle. This allows you to adjust the speed by as little as 1%. 

HOW TO DOWNLOAD AND USE GLOBAL SPEED – STEP BY STEP SUMMARY

NEED THE IMAGE ABOVE BIGGER?

To make the image above larger simply hold down the Command Key and tap the + button on your keyboard. Or right click on the image and choose ‘Open Image In New Tab’

SLOW DOWN CLIP SPEED IN EDITING SOFTWARE

Already have Editing Software?
Most editing programs will also have a speed adjustment function. 
If you have a video or audio editing suite, like Camtasia or something similar, you will have the ability to adjust Clip Speed

Drum On! 😀

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‘Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.’

– E.F. Schumacher –
via Bruce Gandy’s book ‘Performance: Delivering Your Own Awesome’

Our friend and bagpiper, Bruce Gandy, stays with us when he comes to Scotland so we were fortunate to be one of the first people to get his book, Performance.

There is so much great advice inside and one of the gems he suggests is, ‘learn to love the discipline of practice’. 

Isn’t that a great way to think?

After posting last week’s blog I was inspired to get my fiddle out for the first time in a while and truly embrace that idea with my fiddle practice.

Do you know what tool I immediately went to? 

The Amazing Slow Downer!

The first track I dug out was Buddy MacMaster playing King George The Fourth strathspey from his album, Judique On The Floor. 

When I was home in Cape Breton last summer I caught up with legendary songwriter, Allister MacGillivray, who is most widely recognised for writing Song For The Mira.

Allister shared some fascinating behind-the-scenes tales of when he was producing that very album of Buddy’s, featuring John Morris Rankin on piano. Buddy wanted himself and John Morris to be in the room together, recording both instruments at the same time. 

We also caught up on how our kids were doing, bonded over our mutual love of tracks with irregular time signatures and he had me completely engrossed as he described the long, pain-staking process of getting his first music books typeset and published compared to how easy it is nowadays.

Our son, Cameron Stewart, and Allister MacGillivray at his shop,
Apple On The Wharf, on the Sydney waterfront. (July 2022)

I found an old piping book in Allister’s shop, Apple On The Wharf, that made my jaw drop.

It’s an entire ‘you’ll never believe it’ story in itself and will have to be shared in its own blog post another time. 

As I cracked my fiddle case open that image of Buddy and John Morris in the studio, with Allister on the other side of the glass ready to press record, flashed in my mind.

I have fond memories of teaching with Buddy at the Gaelic College and John Morris playing piano with us in our Halifax Police Pipe Band concerts in the early 90’s.

It is not lost on me how fortunate I was to grow up around such musical Greats.

After tuning my fiddle and digging out my sheet music I realised I didn’t have the King George track on my phone so below I’ll show you exactly how I got it from my laptop into the ASD app on my phone.

YOU’LL DEFINITELY WANT TO TRY THE LOOP TOOL 

The Amazing Slow Downer is best known for its speed and pitch-adjusting abilities, but the LOOP TOOL is one of my other favourite features.

You see, I get you because I am just like you. 

When I’m learning a tune on the fiddle, I get the same irrational thoughts:

. . .  the ones where common sense has left the building

. . .  when you get so excited and into the music that after only two tries through a part your heart says ‘Let’s go faster!’

. . . even though you haven’t managed to play that part without error even ONCE yet that voice still says ‘OK. let’s try it faster now.’

. . . that voice that says, ‘I want to be awesome. . . . yesterday!’

I know and love this classic tune, King George IV, so much that I hear that little voice in my head that says, ‘Ooh, this is so fun – let’s go faster so we can sound like and feel like Buddy’. 

But even at 45% tempo, my crunchy little fingers can’t quite move at the same faster speed as my bow when I hit those 16th notes in the last bar of Part 1.

And I admit . . .  a small piece of me wants to play the first three bars faster and just fluff through the hard part at the end. AND I KNOW BETTER!!! I teach NOT to do that. Can you relate?

THAT is how I know how you feel and what support you need for your music journey because I am just like you.

Although I am a music teacher, I have a very strong ‘student’ brain.

Sharing Music From Computer to Mobile to Use ASD App

Last week my iMac bit the dust so I’ve been working mostly from my very old laptop and mobile phone until my new computer arrives.

I don’t have the Amazing Slow Downer software on my laptop so I’m going to show to exactly how I got the track from there onto my ASD phone app.

This week I really felt the benefit of using the LOOP TOOL to focus on Part 1 of King George so I thought I’d share how I did that with you. 

When I start talking about the Amazing Slow Downer I sound like an evangelist because I just love it, especially how it helps me meet my students where they are at. It will do the same for you. 

Many others must agree with me because the ASD YouTube video I made fourteen years ago is among the top 12 most viewed ASD videos on YouTube.

Years ago I would ask my husband, Mark, to record a set of tunes for me at five or six different tempos so I could use them for teaching.

The introduction of the Amazing Slow Downer allowed me to record him once, with a metronome, and then adjust the original audio to however many different track tempos I wanted.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for novice players, of accompanying instruments in particular, to be able to hear the melody as they’re learning a new score so they can truly understand how it goes along with the melody maker.

Playing along with a backing track also makes you feel like you’re getting somewhere and is much more encouraging and interesting to practice with. 

There is nothing quite like seeing one of your seven-year-old drum kit students performing at a music workshop in front of their classmates and parents playing Uptown Funk – even if it is at 67% tempo –at that moment they feel like a ROCK STAR! 

You can also change the pitch if you want. The very juvenile part of me loves putting the Barra MacNeils Christmas albums on and cranking the pitch up. Seriously, if they put their Xmas albums into the ASD and resold them as the Barra MacChipmunks versions I would totally buy those too.

Amazing Slow Downer by Roni Music: The full version is £14.99 on the UK app store and £12.40 for Androids in the Google Play store.

It’s also available for computers, but the software is more expensive so I’d recommend the app for most users.

I am not an affiliate, just a happy customer.  

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‘There are no races in music.
Practicing slowly means you have time to think about what you’re doing,
analyze your hands and your state of mind as you go,
and sort out problems as they come up. 

If you’re going too fast,
you’re skipping over the little details
that the great players of the world pay attention to.’

– Matt MacIsaac –

That quote from my buddy, Matt MacIsaac, bagpiper and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, pretty much says it best, doesn’t it?

Playing slowly actually takes a lot of control, but reaps a wealth of benefits.

Just try playing a certain rhythm or exercise along with a metronome at a slowed down tempo and set the timer for a minute. You would be SHOCKED at how difficult it can be if you’re a novice music student.

Most musicians or music teachers will have an abundance of metronomes and slow downer tools at their ready for practising or teaching. 

The decision to use one resource over another might depend on: 

• whether I’m using a computer or mobile device
• if I have access to internet or not
• if it’s a video or audio
• where I have the file stored and how easy it can be imported to a particular app or software
• or whether it’s a tool my student will have access to once they go home. That way I can demonstrate how they can use it. 

In this Volume #2 of the Slow Down Series I’m going to share with you how to use the VLC Media Player app.

I have been using the free VLC Media Player computer software for a while, but this week my sweet, elderly 27″ iMac is away getting repaired so I’m working mostly from my iPhone. 

Next week I’ll be introducing one of my promising, young snare drum students to his first big March, Strathspey and Reel so as I sat in bed with my coffee this morning I got playing with the VLC Media Player App.

I have a video of the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band playing the MSR at a recent practice and will be using it as a backing track while teaching. However, no one learns their first MSR at full tempo. So, I adjusted the playback speed of the video and took details notes so I could show you exactly how I did.

Mobile Device – Free VLC Media Player App in App Store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/vlc-media-player/id650377962

Computer – VLC Media Player Software : Free to download at https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.en-GB.html

 – How to Slow Down a Video Or Audio In VLC Media Player App –

I think it’s important that when you appreciate great music, to then share it with your friends.

So, in the spirit of sharing here is Matt MacIsaac’s YouTube Channel. You might want to use the YouTube Playback Speed tool I shared with you in Volume #1 of this series to play along with Matt in this big blast of reels. I clocked him at around 112 bpm. 

Pick up your instrument and play some music today because it might just make you feel good

. . . and who doesn’t want to feel good? 😀

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‘Sometimes to learn fast you have to slow waaaay down.’ 
– Tim Ferriss –

In my 42 years of drumming and teaching I have found one of the resources I use most are slow downing tools.

Whether I’m teaching drum kit, snare, bodhrán, bass or tenor drum, I use this tool to every week in my private school lessons.

Once you’ve learned an exercise, rhythm sequence or full score, it is so much more rewarding and encouraging to play along with the backing track.

However, many (if not most) tracks are simply too fast to play with at what I call the ‘Learning Tempo’. 

Taking our time to play with clarity and control may not sound as fun and exciting as playing along to tunes at rip-roaring speeds, but playing with control at slower tempos will set us up for full-speed success.  

Your hands love repetition, but they may get too tired looping a pattern at a faster pace. If this is the case don’t hesitate to simply slow down. 

Even inside my Keepers Of The Rhythm course, (the next level up from my Platinum Level 1) I break all down the rhythms into Level 2: ‘Learning’ Tempo, Level 3: ‘I Can Do It’ Tempo and Level 4: ‘She’s Crazy’ Tempo because I understand what my students need at each stage of the journey. 

Slow doesn’t mean we’re not capable of doing the rhythm faster.

We’re just choosing to play it slower in the pursuit of mastery.

In this first volume of the Slow Down Series I’ll share a tool I personally use a lot.

VOLUME #1:

How to slow down a YouTube Video: Mobile & Desktop

 MOBILE  

 DESKTOP  

BONUS

Here is the Playlist I promised you in my audio message.

I love creating Playlists of different time signatures for my online course members. 

Get your drum out, pick a track from the playlist and try out the YouTube Playback Speed tool to find the tempo just right for you. 

Drum on and smile at strangers. 😀

p.s. If you didn’t get the audio coaching I mentioned you’re missing out on the cool info I only share with my email list. 

When you sign up for all the good stuff here you’ll also get my Playing With Dynamics pdf 

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Keepers Of The Rhythm – Level 2, 3 & 4

Imagine…

. .. NOT JUST PLAYING bodhrán, but being exceptionally good at it.

. . . .Silencing the Negative Nancy in your head telling you ‘Other people are just naturally talented at it. It comes easy to them.’

. . . Trusting you wouldn’t DESIRE to be an incredible drummer if it wasn’t possible for you.

. . . No longer feeling embarrassed by the fact you haven’t done much to get closer to your musical dream because now you’re listening to your longings.

. . . Feeling like YOU again!.

. . . you know who I mean

. . . the YOU who feels so alive and blissed out when drumming that it’s like you’ve entered another dimension, where someone would get an electric shock if they touched you in that moment and all seems right in the world.

If something stirred in you when you read that, you are ready to LEVEL UP and become a Keeper Of The Rhythm?

Check out the SUPER DUPER IN-DEPTH, SUITE OF COURSES you get access to:

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