It doesn’t. It really doesn’t take long to learn at all. And this problem, if you have it, may not be with the student: it could be with the teacher.

Hear me out on this one. I’m a piano teacher. My students got to high levels quickly. But it took me a long time to figure out I may be the problem, not the student.

Now I did have some help. My final piano teacher was Russian, born as his parents escaped Leninism in 1916. They made their way to Australia, a cultural shock for the family from the center of music and arts in Russia.

But I was introduced to the piano techniques that made the Russian School of Pianism great. It was intermingled with another school or pianism, of the famous Polish teacher Theodore Leschetizky, who also produced an array of talented and famous pianists. Perhaps the most famous was Ignace Paderewski, who eventually became Prime Minster of Poland. But not before he earned millions in his lifetime as a concert artist, giving most of it away. One three-month trip to the USA paid him what was then a large fortune in the 1890s – $300,000.

Among these “schools of pianism” there were some real differences both in style and performance. But they were all united on one thing: to practice piano and learn quickly you had to practice slowly.

Now this is not just an idea for musicians. Many sports people use this as a method to train muscular coordination. The ability to hit a tennis ball powerfully means you need to find, and know how to use in an instant, the “sweet spot” on the racquet. This requires co-ordination of hand, eye, and feet to position your body so that when you swing your arm, the racquet will connect with the ball at exactly the right time and place.

Musicians, of course, don’t hit balls. But a pianist needs to train his fingers and arms to apply pressure to a key at exactly the right time, for the precise amount of time, no more or no less – to create the desired musical effect. It takes him some time to develop the strength and independence of the fingers so that he can produce the sound he wants whenever he wants it.

Like the tennis player or golfer, the position of his body weight relative to the way his hands sit on the keyboard, is an important factor. So all these things are coming together at a performance – but no one, except the pianist, is going through the mental gymnastics of listening, preparing, reacting to the sounds already created to give continuity to the musical effect that is being created.

The violinist, on the other hand, does not press keys. His battle starts, first of all, with learning how to hold his left arm up for extended periods without getting stiff. Then his right arm is moving back and forward, up and down, sliding the bow, bouncing the bow, using the upper part, or the lower part, all to create a musical experience for the listener. And the challenge for him, is not to let the wrong muscles get in the way and destroy the smoothness of his bowing action. This is exactly the same challenge the golfer faces on the green: don’t let anything interfere with the smooth movement of the putter to guide – not hit — the ball into the hole.

It is muscular coordination that needs the slow practice. When practicing slowly the brain is better able to grasp, and the muscular system better able to remember, the demands being made upon it. Then, subconsciously, the muscles are able to recall these demands in a split second when the brain sends the signal, “do this” or “do that.”

Slow practice, in other words, speeds up the learning process for those requiring the coordination of brain and muscles – nearly everything.

Take a young piano student who has a problem section in the music. That problem can disappear in about three or four attempts if the student will slowly practice what is required. That memory then remains, and the problem usually disappears. Chronic problems take longer to fix, but the key is not to develop the problems in the first place.

Slow practice nearly always eliminates the development of problem areas. And a child can learn pieces quickly, commit them to memory, then concentrate on the development of hand, arm, and ear to perfect the performance.

So if your child is slow in learning, look at the way she is practicing the right way. You do not need the music teacher to tell your child “slow down”. You can instill this habit at home. And if successful, the teacher is going to be surprised at the ability of your child to learn quickly and accurately.

That’s all it takes — slow practice.