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Thread: Practicing Rhythm

  1. #1

    Practicing Rhythm

    During a few decades of listening to auditions and evaluating performances, I have learned that many students have not been taught sufficiently about rhythm and its place in music. This is something I try to teach my students throughout their study with me. I don't think it's possible to oeverstate the importance.

    Get a metronome if you do not already own one (you can find a few on this page). Spend time with it every day. Also turn it off for some of you practice, especially when you need to play more freely in expressive passages. Also vary how you use the metronome. If you are practicing a fast 4/4 piece, start by practicing at the quarter-note tempo you like, and then practice for a while with the metronome set to half that tempo so it is clicking the half note. This may help to give you a more fluid approach. If you are playing a slower piece, also try having the metronome beat faster so it is clicking on the subdivision. You may learn things.

    Here is one example of a practice technique. There are four 16ths within each quarter note. They are always in the same place regardless of whether you are playing patterns of two 16th and an 8th, an 8th and two 16ths, or a syncopated figure of a 16th, an 8th, and a 16th. If you are having trouble playing the syncopated figure evenly, first play several patterns of two 16ths and an 8th. Then listen to yourself as you play the syncopated pattern. The two 16ths should be exactly the speed as the first 2 notes of the syncopation. Then play a few patterns of an 8th and two 16ths. When you play the syncopation, the last 2 notes should be the same speed as the 16ths in the figure you practiced. You actually end up learning the correct speed of the 16ths by hearing AND by the feel of doing it. But this is just an example (and probably not a great one). The point is to use the natural math that is part of music to figure out ways to check and teach yourself how to play rhythms accurately. Use something that is easy to do accurately to help teach you how to play something that is more difficult (but that is closely related).

    The best overall practice tip is to get out your Arban book and really look at the exercises closely. Some of them are set up similar to what I just described.

    As you learn these things better, they will become second nature so you don't need to concentrate so hard while playing in a group. And as you do play in an ensemble, listen to the rhythmic relationships around you. There are probably combinations of beats and afterbeats that your rhythms fit into. That is how you should be listening.

    Try spending some quality time listening to recordings of British brass bands. The best ones really have mastered the concept of playing with great musicality and precise rhythm. You can listen to some for free via podcasts at the Brasscast site.

    Some people think you get "mechanical" if you work too much on rhythm. This is wrong (unless you have improper practice techniques or don't care about musicality). Rhythm is just one of the building blocks that make up music, and you want all the blocks as perfect as you can make them.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
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  2. Practicing Rhythm

    Excellent, Dave

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    West Palm Beach, FL
    Posts
    3,853

    Practicing Rhythm

    That's great advice Dave. One of the many reasons they call the Arbans book, "The Bible".

    Nice avatar Keith. Nice pic of the one with "pearls" of wisdom too.
    Rick Floyd
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    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

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