Speed Practice Notes

I was going over a couple of the more challenging passages of one of the pieces that I am going to perform as a member of the North York Concert Orchestra. I was told that the best way to get through fast/difficult passages is to slow everything down. Now, I've known about this for the longest time and have used this always. Go through it slow and once you are comfortable, pick up the speed. What I was not aware of until as of late, is that you must practice slowly but as if you were playing in real time. That is to say in a double bass setting, keep your bow strokes short and quick and keep both your hands moving quickly. I have always made the mistake of practicing slowly but with a technique that would not help me when the tempo picked up. I was always getting my hands used to playing long and heavy when practicing for speed. What I should have done was to practice "speed training". I'll get into this a little later. Anyway, you can always learn something new regardless of where you are in your playing.