Posts Tagged ‘Timing’
Five Tips For Acquiring Accurate Tempo
October 2nd, 2009
Time Signature
Tempo is the speed at which you play a piece. Keeping up with tempo can actually be one of the most frustrating skills to learn and execute, especially with fast piano pieces. I’ve put together five essential tips for improving your tempo capabilities.
1. Begin all pieces by counting carefully, especially for beginner piano players.
If you’re just a beginner, learning to count out load is the only way to find out your own idea of counting with time. You should also be able to understand the time signature at the beginning of the piece, which looks like a mathematical fraction. The top number indicates the number of beats per measure and the denominator indicates the note per beat.
2. Use a metronome to ensure accurate speed and beat counting.
A metronome is a ticking pendulum (electronic or manual) that indicates the exact tempo of a musical piece. No matter how much of an advanced pianist you are, you never cease to be amazed at how honest the metronome can be. I am always surprised at the errors I find in my own playing when I incorporate the metronome. If you use the metronome in your practicing process, you will undoubtedly improve. All serious piano players own and use a metronome.
3. Do not spend long amounts of time practicing with a metronome.
While metronomes are an essential part of musical practice, they can also be harmful to your technique if you use them for too long. It leads to something called, “mechanical playing.” In fact, if you play with the metronome for more than 10 minutes, your mind will start play mental tricks on you, which causes you to lose your accuracy. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself… If you have a metronome that makes a clicking sound, your brain will start to create anti-clicks that will indeed cancel out the metronome’s clicking so you will either begin to stop hearing the metronome’s clicks, or you will just lose the timing and accuracy of the clicks.
4. Never use the metronome as a substitute for your own internal timing.
The metronome is used for setting tempo and checking accuracy, and nothing else. When you find yourself exploring new ways of speeding up your playing of a piece, it is a process of discovering new motions that you feel comfortable with. If you actually set your metronome to such an intermediate speed, you will likely struggle and end up building up a speed wall that you can’t find your way around. New motion discoveries always prevail because the human hands are mechanical devices that have resonance at which specific combinations of movements will naturally work effectively.
5. Electronic metronomes are always better than mechanical metronomes.
Electronic metronomes are more accurate than mechanical ones. They can also make different sounds, use flashing lights, incorporate a headphone input, include volume variance, have memory functions, and are generally just less bulky and expensive. Mechanical metronomes look nice, but as they get older, they become less effective and sometimes they even need rewinding right when you’re in the middle of practicing.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
Get a metronome, if you don’t have one. My piano teacher used to have a mechanical one, and I found it annoying that she always had to rewind it. I use the Korg MA-30 Digital Metronome, and I find it very handy, extremely durable, and has a lot of great features. You can find ones on the Internet, such as the Ultimate Metronome. Whichever one you choose, put it straight to good use because it will definitely help you improve your piano playing.
Posted in Rhythm and Tempo, The Practice Routine | 
Tags: Counting, Korg MA-30, Metronome, Speed, Tempo, Time, Time Signature, Timing | 
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Problem Areas In Piano Practice
August 7th, 2009
I’m no longer in cottage country, so now I can get back to posting on a daily basis. First of all, I realized after a couple days that I got some great compliments from some people on some of my posts. I couldn’t believe it, and I was instantly enlightened. I hope you keep reading along as I go, and maybe even pass on my blog to other piano players who may be interested.
Anyways, right now I am trying to maximize my practice time for one particular piece that I have written about already, that is, Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy. I can pretty much play then entire piece, but I have a long way to go for perfecting it. I thought I’d share the list of various musical aspects I need to improve on with this piece.
Timing, Rhythm, Smoothness. I’m pretty sure I’m either stopping short on some notes or even taking too long on some others. I will need to use my metronome to really find out where this is happening. It’s going to be long and tedious, but it needs to be done.
1. Holding Notes. My piano teacher used to make me practice until my fingers fell off because I wasn’t holding my notes long enough. I probably won’t be as nit-picky about it, but I definitely need to check this out a bit more.
2. Rests. This kind of goes hand in hand with holding notes. I better be sure I’m not holding notes where the rests fall. Again, my teacher used to make me practice over and over and over until I got this. This was an extremely important area for conservatory exams. Those adjudicators just KNOW if you are holding too long or too short.
3. Wrists and Fingering. The piece is all about the flowing of the fingers and wrist action, and some of the notes jump pretty far between piano keys, so I need to slow it down a bit and practice not only getting the right notes, but getting the right flowing motion as well.
4. Arpeggiated Chords. These chords on the second page in the fourth line are slightly difficult to execute with perfection. Either I play them too slow, too fast, or too much at the same time. This is another area where I need to work slower.
5. Thumbs. I think I am banging on some of the keys with my thumbs too hard. I can hear the louder notes coming through the piano when I do this. I need to work on softening up my thumb movements.
6. Key Signature Change. On the third page, the key signature changes from D flat major to E major. All of a sudden I go from working with five flats to four sharps. This part is tricky and I also have some weird fingering that I may need to look at.
7. Diminuendo. This means kind of a gradual slowing in pace as you progress through the bar. There is one on the fourth page at the end of the key signature change. I usually practice this part too fast.
8. Damper Pedal. Oh, the stupid damper pedal. Yes, I have the bad habit of using the pedal to take care of a lot of things, such as holding my notes. When I’m practicing this piece, I usually completely forget about how long I’m holding down the pedal and all the notes get mushed together. I need to work on lifting the pedal in the right places.
9. Dynamics, Crescendos, Decrescendos. Finally, the last thing I always work on is the dynamics. This piece is mostly played in pianissimo (meaning very soft) but there are a few crescendos and decrescendos I need to work on. For those of you unaware of the meanings, a crescendo means “gradually getting louder,” and decrescendo means “gradually getting softer.”
So, there are a lot of areas of this piece that I still need to work on. Like I said, perfection can be a killer, but without it, it probably won’t sound exactly the way it should sound.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
Even though I picked out all these areas that I need to work on for this specific piece, virtually all piano pieces cannot go without these musical attributes. If you are practicing a piece, you can probably pinpoint a lot of these similar problem areas. Maybe yours doesn’t have any arpeggiated chords, but maybe it has some trills. Or maybe you find that your thumbs work fine, but your pinky fingers are weak. Whatever they are, it sometimes help to make a list just like I did, so that you are fully aware of what problem areas you need to work on. Don’t be afraid to recognize that you have problems to work on, as every pianist always will have problems. When learning piano, there is always, always, always room for improvement.
Posted in The Practice Routine |
Tags: Arpeggiated Chords, Chords, Clair De Lune, Claude Debussy, Crescendo, Damper Pedal, Decrescendo, Diminuendo, Dynamics, Fingering, Holding Notes, Key Signature, Key Signature Change, Notes, Rests, Rhythm, Smoothness, Thumbs, Timing, Wrists |
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The Importance of Rhythm in Piano
July 27th, 2009
What is Rhythm?
By definition, rhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds. In plain English, that means the framework of repetitive timing in music.
Many piano players who struggle with rhythm believe that only gifted musicians can truly master the aspect of rhythm in music. In reality, establishing the correct rhythm in music is merely dependent on accurate counting and reading music.
Rhythm can be difficult to master because it’s indications are not shown throughout the entire piece, such as the time signature, which is only shown at the beginning of the piece or passage. Another indication would be the difference between a sonata and a prelude.
And so, music is created by manipulating these rhythmic attributes, making rhythm one of the most important and essential elements in music.
I, personally, have struggled with rhythm for my entire musical life. Difficulties in achieving rhythm are directly related to reading music wrong. For me and many others, this is often the case when I begin reading and playing the music with both hands. There is simply too much information to process, too much hand-eye coordination, too many notes to figure out, and rhythm gets left behind.
I experienced this problem mostly with sight reading. When I had to play a passage on command, my rhythm was a disaster. I was too preoccupied with getting the notes right and coordinating my right and left hands.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
If you find yourself struggling with rhythm in your pieces, I would advise you to purchase a metronome. A metronome is a ticking pendulum that leads you through the exact tempo of a music piece. Just set the ticking speed of the metronome to the speed indicated on the sheet music, or if there is no indication, just find a speed that you feel comfortable with. Personally, I recommend the Korg MA-30 Ultra Compact Digital Metronome
Posted in Rhythm and Tempo |
Tags: Counting, Metronome, Practice, Reading Music, Rhythm, Speed, Timing |
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