http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/starberry/Mi...581191497666322

Can anyone help It just confuses me

Can you keep the beat going in your head and then play on the off beat - ugh that sounds more complicated than I mean..........

Have you tried doing it away from the instrument? ie clapping or tapping.

Slow it right down.

Have you got a metronome you can play/clap along with? If you can hear/feel that beat and tap/clap/play in between the beats, then you'll have it.

Have you got a recording of it you can listen to?

I have a recording...

I can't do it with crochets...I just can't keep the beat going

I usually say to myself "and one" (the "and" is the rest and the "one" is the note).

Have you tried slowing it down and just playing the two bars that are bothering you? or just clapping it along with a beat? if you don't have a metronome there's one online.

Mentally break the notes up into quavers - then it becomes easy and makes sense. So you count 3 for the dotted crotchets, 4 for the tied crotchets, 4 for the minims etc. Try it.

Violinia

I suggest you play everything in quavers to start with: three notes the same for the dotted crotchet and two for each crotchet/pair of tied quavers.

Like this: C#EAAAG/FF'F'EED/DC#C#CCB/BbBbBbBbAA/G#

Do this several times, so you really feel the relative lengths of the notes. If you can, record yourself playing it like this, and then play the written rhythm over the top of it. Keep doing it until you're absolutely sure of the rhythm. If necessary, then you can speed it up.

That might be a good idea Violinia. I've tried practicing it in quavers, but not thinking in quavers...

Sigh. I am stupid. This is one of my recital pieces...

Great minds, Violinia...

You're not stupid!

That's also a good idea! Thankyou

Sorry - misread Violinia's post. I really am stupid.

I'll try tomorrow!

You're NOT!

My suggestion would be something similar to andante's: play an F on the beats in between the notes written on the offbeats; i.e. starting at bar 2:

F F' F E F F D | F C# F C F B |

Of course, this might involve some horrendous register hopping . If it makes it any easier, play an upper F rather than a low F on the beats. Hope you get it sorted one way or another .

That's a banned word in this house. 'Mistaken' will do very nicely.

Thanks YAP!

It has to be perfect for next week.

Gah

Nicki you're not stupid!!! No way!!! Let us know if you manage to sort it out - I'm sure you can.

Violinia

I need to get it right by next week!

And there's absolutely NO reason that you won't. So there

And you will!

If you count 1 & 2 & 3 & 1 & 2 & 3 & then apart from the first F in those 2 bars, everything else is on the & until you reach beat 1 of the bar after the underlined bit......

Is it accompanied and does rhe accompaniment help?

Yes, and no

What has worked for me with this kind of thing is to use a metronome as follows

Set it to a speed which represents quavers at a slow speed and practise like that.
Then use the 2 beats to the bar feature to represent the crotchet beats with quavers if you see what I mean so you get used to playing on the off beat when there is a distracting crotchet beat
Speed up a bit like that
Switch to having the metronome beat the crotchets only.

Hope this makes sense I find it easier to do than to explain.

Best of luck

1. I'm sure you'll be absolutely fine Nicki.

2. Had I not been out most of yesterday evening, and thus seen the post earlier, my advice would have been very similar to Andante's and Violinia's - this is exactly the way I deal with such passages.

erm ....... when i have a block like that i put words to the music

If I ever have a pupil struggling with any rhythm, I always get them to count the rhythm out using this method. Once you have the hang of how it is played and sounds you can go back to the correct time signature so as not to lose the overall rhythm.

I'm not sure if anyone has said it yet as I have not had time to read the whole thread so I apologise if it has been said - what about putting it into Sibelius and listening to it

I have done that

I did some tootling last night and it seems to be getting better.

Just slow it down a huge amount and count aloud in quavers.


EDit: Flute hahahaha. Ok count in your mind.

Erm, I think we may be talking about different things here - my method just breaks the longer notes down into multiples of the shortest note needed, but the time signature and pulse remain the same.

One of tomorrow's hymns has a rhythm a lot like that.......I'm going for an approximation.
I wish he wouldn't choose that one... I can't play it very well and no one ever sings it!

Just out of interest which hymn is that ?

I am a New Creation

I once heard the Calypso carol played in straight-rhythm The opening line was something like:

dotted crotchet quaver quaver quaver quaver quaver | dotted crotchet quaver dotted crotchet

Isn't that how a calypso rhythm goes??

Glad it's improving, Nicki!