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Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2020 10:16 am
by SJunior22
Hello Fellow Players!

Here's a tip to help improve your sense of time/rhythm: KEEP COUNTING OUT LOUD! Do it because you're teaching your subconscious to do it for you. However, your subconscious is a very slow learner so keep counting out loud. Eventually, you will (after many hours of counting out loud) start to hear your own voice counting (dont worry, its just your subconscious mocking you). Also, dont just wait til piano practice to count - listen to your favorite music and try to find the rhythm and count along - this will make your subconscious work overtime.

Bonus tip: For those who suffer from critically-challenged sense of time/rhythm - go to bed with a metronome or even your loudest clock ticking away. A basic clock will teach your subconscious 60 beats-per-minute (bpm). Count along with the seconds (1, 2, 3, 4) then repeat. Eventually move to half notes in between the seconds (1 and, 2 and , 3 and , 4 and) then quarter, eighth, and sixteen notes. Soon you'll get so bored, you'll fall asleep, but your subconscious wont - it will hear it continually as you sleep.

You keep counting and soon you will discover one day that you are counting without realizing it (and thats the final level, congrats!)

Again, I hope these tips will find a home with someone who can benefit and become the time/rhythm master they always wanted.

Cheers and keep on counting!


Disclosure: The piano is my 3rd instrument - I began playing Drums at age 5, Bass Guitar at 37, and now Piano in my 40s.

Re: Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2020 10:56 am
by andrewwegierski
Thanks for the post!

Re: Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:20 am
by zoey
I had a friend who did this while he was learning the piano.

Re: Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2020 10:04 am
by pavel
SJunior22 wrote:
Fri Jan 31, 2020 10:16 am
go to bed with a metronome or even your loudest clock ticking away..... you'll fall asleep
:) no, I cannot sleep in such a environment, I have to have dead silence. Anyhow, thanks for the tip.

Re: Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 9:09 am
by SJunior22
Hello Pavel!

I used to be the kind to need complete silence as well. As I got older, I had too much "static" running through my mind as I tried to goto sleep. I soon became one of those types that now needs some sort of noise to fall asleep.

However, if you need a better tip to suit your sleep-style, how about you tap your fingers along with your heartbeat. Chances are, its going to be 60 bpm or less. Do that until you fall asleep - the point is to get your subconscious to work all night on fixing your timing issues. Hope this helps you or someone else out there that has a similar way of going to sleep.

Re: Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:42 pm
by Lola
Hi everyone! I’ma newbie. I now play guitar just for pleasure after a year of music lessons (till the music store closed down). So I know the treble clef (not bass clef however) but have ALWAYS had trouble with timing. I’m only on level 6 in the PS rookie course but I’m totally frustrated due to my awful timing to the point I think I am not cut out to play a musical instrument. I guess I was too hasty in getting the lifetime membership as I am not finding this program fun due to my inability to time the notes correctly even though I slow it down from 144 to the 70’s. I want it to be more like a playground but it’s very stressful to me at this point. I invested in an 88 key Casio Privia last week to learn piano and don’t want to regret my decision as I love playing songs from my many Fake books.. all in the key of C ..although they are timed only from memory of songs I recognize, not the correct timing I’m sure.

Re: Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2021 12:10 pm
by SJunior22
Hi Lola!

First off, dont feel alone or you're not cut out to being a musician. Some of us are born with the ability to sense rhythm, others have to develop it. I sense you have work on it and you are amongst MILLIONS of people who have walked that path. There is a reason why you joined PGS and you said it "I love playing songs." Thats all it takes. You smartly joined PGS for a lifetime because you knew deep down, you were going to be playing piano for the rest of your life. Keep those reasons forward in mind as you work on your sense of rhythm.

Achieving a sense of rhythm as second nature isnt going to happen overnite. In fact, I'd advise you to lower your expectations to years instead. Keep working on it hour by hour, day by day and for every moment you spend on that ability, you will be one step closer to achieving your goal. Enjoy the struggle, dont let it take your power away. Do it for the musician that lies deep within you.

Accept the challenge and crush it!

I hope this helps you a bit and I wish you all the best, I'm cheering for you! :D

Re: Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 12:08 pm
by Lola
SJunior- thanks for the encouraging words. Although I am an older learner, I will take those words to heart and even though I know it won’t come to me naturally, in due time, with lots of hard work and lots of practice ( which I do) , I, too, can hope that one day that rhythmic clock in me will start clicking.

Re: Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:21 pm
by rickm
Yes, counting out loud is a good one. I also suggest to people to tap their foot and/or bob their head.

This issue comes up frequently on the Facebook group. Over time I have realized that many beginning students are getting their timing only from chasing the moving cursor on the screen. Because of this, people even complain about the cursor speeding up and slowing down, which of course is due to the varying lengths of each measure. They think this is a bug!

People need to move away from relying on the moving cursor, to actually listening to the backing track and/or metronome and really feel the music, while tapping the foot of course.

There are many things for a beginner to learn all at once, so generally I think that Anything Goes at the very beginning in order to keep them interested and having fun, and not get frustrated to the point of quitting. But this ramp up needs to be kept as short as possible. Don't rely on all the aids for too long. This includes note names and finger numbers. There are people that were halfway through Intermediate and realized they've been relying on these things all along and haven't learned to read notation at all. A couple even went back to the beginning of boot camp and started over without note names and finger numbers, for example.

Re: Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few.

Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 1:54 am
by Colleen322
Trouble with keeping time? Here's an idea...or a few. it's very helpful thank u