Time Tips

 

For musicians, time is something that can be difficult to work on or conceptualize. For me, I struggled with how to improve my self of internal pulse for years. Through my searching and trials, I have found several exercises that work well for me. The key is to be present and in the moment while you work on it. In addition to this, you must be willing to start off very simply. Below I have included 5 tips that I hope will help you improve your time. 

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1. Off Beats

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The first tip is to practice with your metronome on the off beats, this will only work if you start slowly, and pay attention to the met. I would recommend starting this exercise with a scale that is easy for you, then play evenly over two octaves, making sure each offbeat lands exactly with the metronome. Ensure you do not hear the metronomes clicking as the downbeat, but really feel the downbeat. One way you can solidify this is by tapping your foot on each of the beats. 

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2. Beats 2 & 4 or 1 & 3

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The second tip is to put the metronome on either beats 2 & 4 or 1 & 3. While you do this try and really feel the other two beats, allow yourself to get into a groove, and start feeling the pulse. I recommend recording yourself to make sure that your notes are even. Similarly to tip 1, you can also play the subdivision to help yourself hear and feel the time, and space in between the notes. You can always do this with scales in any rhythm, or with an etude, solo, or excerpt. Whatever you decide it will make you a better musician. 

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3. 1 Beat per bar 

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The third tip is playing with the metronome clicking one beat per bar, this can be done with scales or any other music that you want. One way to achieve this with a metronome is to divide the beats per minute by 4 and use that, so if you want to play something at 100 set your metronome to 25 BPM. This is also easy with apps like Tonal Energy or Time Guru by turning off the click for the rest of the beats. When you are practicing ensure you are not speeding up or slowing down in order to line up with the click. Make sure you are playing smoothly and evenly throughout the measure. 

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“What one does is what counts. Not what one had the intention of doing.”

― Pablo Picasso​

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4. Taking the Training Wheels Off

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Taking the Training Wheels Off refers to starting with all of the subdivisions, and slowly removing them. This exercise has two parts, playing the sixteenth note subdivision, the next is playing the music as written. As seen below there are six settings to put your metronome on, start with the fastest subdivision, and alternate between articulating every sixteenth note and playing as written. Are you able to still hear the subdivision in your head? If not, repeat playing the subdivision. Do this, slowly taking away subdivisions until you are able to play in time with 4, 8, or even 16 beats between each metronome click. 

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5. How Far Can You Go 

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This tip is always a challenge and can be taken to extremes. What you do is alternate playing sixteenth notes and quarter notes, or you can change the rhythm to longer notes as well. Underneath you start with the sixteenth subdivision continuously going. As you get comfortable with this you then can lower the subdivision by half, repeat the subdivision you are playing over the met, while making sure you are even and square in time. This can continue until you have the metronome clicking ever 16, 32, or even 64 beats. This gets more and more difficult as you continue, and depending on what tempo you start on you can have less than a beat per minute. 

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