Automation
Students and teachers alike often speak of developing “muscle memory”, a term I dislike as it implies a sort of disembodied experience of playing the piano; as if the muscles “take over” and the brain is free to think of what’s for dinner during a performance.
Instead, I like to think of “automation”, a term I borrow from the great Russian pedagogue, Grigoriy Kogan. Taking an example I’m currently working on, Chopin’s devilishly difficult prelude in B-flat minor, Op. 28, No. 16, one cannot possible consciously think and command each individual note at the proper performance tempo. To get to that point, early study must focus on each finger being given a strong signal both when to play and when to relax. Some methods of practice, all subsumed under the category of SLOW, include varying dynamics (I find pp most helpful here), lifting each finger high from the metacarpal joint and playing forte, and playing with absolute legato from the surface of the keys (even the release being only to the surface of the key and no higher).
To increase speed, the key is not to think of each motor movement faster, but actually to think slower, as Kogan writes in A Pianist’s Work:
What was perceived before as ten thousand notes, demanding to be properly reproduced, ten thousand "wills"64 transform into several hundred "chains," each of which requires only one initial command, which includes all sound motive "operations." Therefore, the "commands" become rarer, separated from each other by (relatively) significant time intervals.
This can be accomplished by playing in increasingly larger groups of notes, from 2s, to 4s, to 16s, and onward. In some pieces, like the aforementioned prelude, groups can be felt in up to four measures, greatly increasing the freedom one feels in performance. I love Kogan’s analogy of a general leading an army without micromanaging every soldier, though retaining the right and ability to single out individuals when necessary.
Other obstacles exist in fast playing, but automation is foundational.
