Speed

I don't really know if I'll be able to play faster.  I'm working on Andersen Eighteen Studies for the flute; the first three etudes went fine.  I did one each week, and practiced enough so I could play them well at my lesson.  But last week, when I played the fourth etude,  my teacher said I should play it another week and play faster.  I know she had played it at a tempo faster than I took it, but I was playing at the tempo I felt I could handle--that is, play it correctly.

I don't really know what the best strategy is for playing faster while maintaining accuracy.  As soon as I speed up beyond my comfort (competency?) level,  I start making mistakes.  Playing fast badly doesn't seem like a good strategy--but I guess I have to go through that process if I want to get to the next level of competency.

This week I set the metronome at quarter note=138, and tried to keep playing through the mistakes.  I found that my right fingers, especially R3 (right ring finger), were having trouble keeping up.  And I was feeling considerable pain in my right hand--around R2 as well as my thumb.  To help with the right hand fingering, I placed cotton-filled plastic cream holders in between each finger to stabilize them; that helped a bit.  But I'm not there yet--I can't play at that tempo without making mistakes.  There's one fairly large segment (the middle) where I especially have problems; I practiced those 14 measures more often, but it's not as simple as just fixing certain passages.  It's also the cumulative effect of trying to play 64 measures, all eighth notes, at an allegro animato tempo without making a mistake.

I really don't know whether my fingers are up to it.  And I don't know if I'm being a pessimist/defeatist or a realist in saying so.