Hey
I have a slight problem with sightreading, I can read the notes fine and my hands know where they are going but I am terrible at keeping in time and playing the right rhythm. My teacher has had me working with a metronome to try and correct my timing which is getting slightly better. I have been using the Improve you're sightreading books, which as I say have been helping my note reading. Does anyone have any suggestions at how to get better at reading rhythm's and playing in time?
Thanks
PSL

One of the problems with reading is that the symbols on the page obviously represent different note lengths but don't show different note lengths (if that makes sense - hmmm, probably not....... ). One of the things I did with my pupils was to use squared paper and to colour in the number of squares for each note length (in different colours) and using the shortest value as the base unit. So for example, (with quavers as the shortest value), a crotchet would be 2 red squares, a minim 4 pink squares, a dotted crotchet 3 green squares etc. The pupil could then see the note values as visual note lengths to help him/her to understand the rhythm.....(I know it sounds complicated, but I got the idea from cuisenaire rods for Maths) Unfortunately I don't have any written examples - pupils have them! - and don't know how to scan otherwise I'd try to show you what I mean.

I have always found rhythm names (ta, ti-ti etc), when spoken/thought in time with a steady pulse, to be incredibly effective.

Learn some of Bartók's Mikrokosmos. Some of the problems with reading rhythms occur when one thinks too hard about playing them. Bartók's use of non-conventional rhythms forces one to develop an instinctive approach: when a piece is written in (3+3+2/8), one can't think about it, one has to just play it, precisely the technique needed for sight reading.

I lend this to pupils for this very reason, but, sadly, I have yet to find a pupil who will play them willingly.... An ex adult pupil of mine who used to feel very guilty when good weather kept her away from the piano, used to take sightreading books out into the garden and literally 'think' her way through pieces, rhythmically - and it did seem to help. You could combine this type of thing with what Cyrilla suggested, and then a semiquaver, visually, for instance, would just start to imply the 'dee' in 'dum-dee-dum' if it was dotted quaver/semiquaver/quaver - i.e. a dotted rhythm.

It can make life easier if you break things down a bit when sightreading as well - thinking of two groups of four quavers in a bar, for instance, instead of four crotchets. It makes fitting in the semiquavers easier whilst maintaining a steady pulse.

Wow thank you very much for the replies! Very much appreciated and I will defo try those suggestions tomorrow.
As for timing what are your views on using a metronome, my new piano teacher is very for it where as my old one was totally against it, he thought it made your playing sound mechanical. I think it has helped me a little, just wondered what everyone else thought about it?
Thanks
PSL

A metronome can be useful. It's better to count along with the metronome though, so that you get to internalise the beat.

(You were born on my 22nd birthday BTW.)

I have to say I don't like metronomes much, and I use one only now and then.

It can be a useful way of
1) establishing a steady enough pulse before you start,
2) checking you're keeping a steady pulse as you go along, and
3) checking your speed. Again, just to establish the beat really.

With 1 I would switch off the metronome before starting to play. Start slowly, not at the 'finished speed'.
With 2 keep it on but this is something I'd do only rarely.
3 is more for when a piece is almost finished, maybe before a performance or an exam, to compare with a suggested metronome marking: also to build up gradually from a slower learning speed to a more normal one.

However, using 2 as a way of helping read rhythms in the early stages I feel often just gives you one more thing to think about and as such can be counter-productive. Pupils often find that it's difficult to keep WITH the metro when playing. If it works for you, fine, but don't fret if not.

1) is useful in helping with rhythm if you tend to start a bit too quick and then slow down when the music gets busy. Set a slowish beat, listen to the metro for a few moments and then hear the beat for a bar or two in your head before you start. A useful trick is to gradually lengthen the time between switching off the metro and starting to play - practise hearing that steady pulse in your head.

Hope something here might help.