Start much slower than feels sensible
The right starting tempo is the one where you play the passage perfectly, every time, with no tension. That is almost always slower than you'd guess. If you're getting it right four times out of five, it's still too fast.
Move in small steps
Raise the tempo 4 or 5 bpm at a time and play the passage three times cleanly before moving up again. If a mistake appears, drop back two steps and rebuild. This feels slow on day one and feels like magic by day five.
Try clicking on beats 2 and 4
Once a passage is comfortable, set the metronome to half speed and treat the clicks as beats 2 and 4. It forces you to keep time internally rather than leaning on the click, and it makes everything groove.
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