Hello
My weakest area when playing the piano is timing. Anyone used any good techniques to help this improve. I find it difficult to play and count at the same time. I think this is why I seem to stick to things I know...BFN Mike

Try playing with the metronome first, then see if you can manage playing without it at the right speed.

Car Expert

How about when you walk down the street, count rhythm in your head with your footsteps so you learn to count rhythmically in your head. Bit obscure I know but if you can keep time in your head well, maybe it will help.

So pleased to hear it's not just me who does that.....

How is your rhythm when you're not thinking about playing at the same time? i.e. can you clap back a rhythm that's clapped to you and can you clap a rhythm that you see st sight? Perhaps a good place to start would be to get some music and instead of sightreading it just clap the rhythm (or tap one hand on each leg if it's two hands together that you're struggling with) and build up from there making sure you count (or at least have a mental tick) as you do it. If you need to go back to really simple things to enable yourself to count as you clap the rhythm start from wherever you can do it.

New Forum User. Hello, nice to be here.

Now onto timing. Are we talking straight 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 etc. here or are you trying to play Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" or Claude Debussy's "Claire De Lune"?

If you are having difficulty with the basics of timing, e.g. the 4/4 time signature, then I feel you need to listen to music and count the bars as you listen. This will bring you hopefully to recognise tempo. Also, as mentioned a metronome would be handy. That is if you are using an acoustic or what I refer to as electronic acoustic piano, i.e. Yamaha Clavinova, P60, Casio Privia etc.

If you are using a Keyboard then many will have a built in metronome, and you may also be able to use a percussion facility to guide you along. I know that (for instance) the Chopin Ab Waltz was not composed to have a drumkit with it!! - but if you have a keyboard like (for example) the fantastic Casio WK, then you could use the drum accompaniments to help you keep in 3/4 time.

Onto the harder stuff! I think we all have mental blocks on certain pieces. Is there anyone in this Forum who learned Claire De Lune by actually counting the bars?? (You didn't did you!!) To this day one of my impossible hurdles is that great pop piece from about 1977 called "Oh Lori". Brilliant melody, all the jazzers did it including the BBC Northern Radio Orchestra. Can I get the phrasing and tempo? 28 years later the answer is still no.

Ditto!

I never walk down the road humming in time to random pieces.

Hello
Thanks for all the tips....I will start walking straight away...
I have a clavinova and will start using the metronome more..
Thanks Mike

The first thing my teacher has me do on new pieces is to draw lines through the beats in each bar - very helpful once you get a piece that's crowded with hemidemisemis and the like!

If there are semiquavers,for example,change the crotchet beats to quavers ie 4 crotchets,count 8 quavers in the bar,so the semis are counted as "and". Write the timing in,slow the piece right down and isolate problem bars.

There are other postings on more difficult rhythms.Try the search button.

Absolutely agree with AP, clapping the rhythm and not having to concentrate on hitting the right notes at the same time is a real help to rhythmically challenged musicians.

Try also (when you are more confident) tapping the pulse with one hand and tapping the rhythm with the other, which helps to get the relationship between pulse and rhythm cemented. If you can't feel/understand the pulse then it's very difficult to play rhythmically, if you know where the pulse is then you have something to "hang" the rhythms on, otherwise they are just random groupings of notes!

When you are more confident try sight-reading pulse with both hands. (ie tapping the relevant rhythm with each hand.)

There have been a few good threads recently:

http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopi...ndpost&p=113413

http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopi...ndpost&p=126962

http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopi...ndpost&p=153081

http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopi...ndpost&p=134489

I struggle with triplets myself