I have many problems so bear with me one moment please!

I have been playing the piano independently for 5 years, never really knowing what i was doing, never learning how to sight read properly, just teaching myself how to read notes individually. I eventually got piano lessons about 6 months ago, where my teacher started myself on grade 6. Now i wouldn't say i was struggling hurrendously but my main problem has always been that i cannot read rhythms correctly- he has tried and tried to help me but it's not kicking in, and i'm hoping to go to Uni to study music and composing, i love composing, but i'm extremely worried that i am going to have a horrible time if i cannot notate music!
Anybody know anygood books or exercises to get me going????????

Christopher Norton Jazz Books - some of them will be too simple but maybe this is a good thing! I find these books really useful when teaching more complex rhythms, especially with the two hands playing different, complex rhythms! I also found them very useful as a student, they really help with your counting too! Good luck! xx

if you want to get your rhythms right just take them slowly to begin with and don't get frustrated when you can't do it. Remeber to get better, you have to learn from failure. Otherwise, use a metronome to help you get the timing right. Hope this helps!

I know exactly what you mean- I whizzed through my early grades with no worries, but on reaching grade 6/7 standard i found it increasingly difficult to make progress as not just sight reading proved to be difficult, but even learning a piece was tough, as i would not quite get my rhythms perfect.
I remember counting in smaller beats. i.e. if the piece was in common time, rather than counting the 4 crotchets, id count 8 quavers, which meant that if the piece consisted of lots of quavers and some groupings of semiquavers i could very easily fit them in as i counted along. I admit it sounds rather methodical and boring- which yes it is. But after the initial stages of tapping and tapping some more, i found that many rhythms were repeated constantly in all kinds of pieces, and having sat for hours tapping most of them out i could grasp the piece much easier.
I do think to just get out some very early graded books helps astronomically. To sight read through grade 3 and 4 pieces, and then work up the grades, will help you improve, as well as allowing you to see your progress.
Certainly after increasing the time spent sight reading and sitting slowly tapping out phrases, I found my overall playing improved hugely as many patterns and sections were read almost subconsciously.
Anyway, thats my own personal advice and I highly recommend it!
Good luck,
Becky

Definitely - rhythm is a common headache amoung western players it seems. Our traditional notation is not particularly well suited to writing rhythms, especially with pieces that contain any kind of jazz or other contemporary influences. I suppose the rhythmic complexity has developed faster and to a greater extent than the notation!
While I was at Uni (studying popular music and recording) the course tutors recognised our problem in recognising rhythmic patterns as well as actually performing them comfortable, and for the first year of the course we were given an hour a week tuition in Latin Percussion. This covered everything from samba through to African bell patterns (which work in a bizarre form of 6/8). We all struggled with it at first, and had problems re-interpretting the written forms of some of the rhythmic parts, but within a few months we were understanding rhythm in general to a far greater extent. I know this helped me no end in all aspects of my musical life, and has certainly helped my piano sight reading. I would highly recommend anyone to do a short course in any kind of percussion instrument. Or if you can't find any local courses try to get hold of a variety of 'percussion-orientated' recordings, such as Latin American small groups, traditional African music, or Brazialian samba and try transcribing the rhythms, then replay them on a percussion instrument, such as a saucepan and wooden stick (don't laugh!!!). It's all about familiarity really, and the only way to get familiar is to repeatedly expose yourself to something. Try to understand how particular rhythms work. Dance more! It all helps.
And be sure you're not alone
Good luck!

Check out the BKA website (British Kodaly Association) they run day and weekend course that deals alot with rhythm, more for teachers but it can still help, it may be simplistic to start with it but that is where you can build to the more complex from.