Slow Down Turbo!

I have some students that love to play as fast as they can. Although it's fun to see those little fingers fly and see the smoke from the bow, it doesn't get them to the end any faster. It actually slows them down. When learning a new piece, it is important to play the rest of the piece at the tempo you can play the hardest part the piece correctly. I tell my students this, but it's hard for them to play the piece "slow"so they can get the tricky passage correct and play them in the same tempo as the rest of the piece.

I know how fun it is to listen to the recordings of the Suzuki pieces, but the hard part comes when students try to play with the recording and they can't keep up. These tempos are a little too fast for most players, but with this app, you can slow down the entire piece so the student can play with the recording! This gives the student's fingers enough time to get where they need to so the bow can play them when it's time.

Music Trainer

This app is $3.99 and worth every penny of your investment!  It allows you to access your entire music library and it will save all the pieces that you slow down at the tempos that you choose. One of the great features of this app, is that you can "cut" the music in any way you like. Let's say your teacher assigns measure 21 as a preview spot. You can cut the music and it will play only measure 21. If you need to do that measure 10x a day, then you just push the "loop" button and you're well on your way to getting your 10x spot done lickity-split! If there is a spot like this in a lesson and I want the student to practice it at home, all I have to do is push the "share" button and it sends an email with the attachment. 

Slow Down Music Player 

This app will do the same thing as the Music Trainer app, but it will only allow you keep 3 pieces at the tempos you want. I had to do a lot of erasing and re-entering the piece I wanted and at the tempo I wanted. Although this app is FREE (and I am a BIG advocate of FREE-99), it has been definitely worth it to me to pay the money to upgrade to the Music Trainer app. No questions asked! 

I have seen great success with my students with these apps! They can play the pieces all the way through and not get tripped up by the tricky spots.