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| Author |
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| 25 new of 42 responses total. |
jaklumen
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response 8 of 42:
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Dec 20 08:10 UTC 2002 |
resp:4 I recognize the name James Bastien-- I've used his books.
resp:7 Yes, play your scales slow until you master the fingering.
Fingering is so crucial to smooth playing. *chuckle* Eventually you'll
find out what the Hanon scale studies are all about. I'm glad I wasn't
a piano major-- I would have had to master them eventually. I replaced
them with the Segovia scale studies, hehe (for guitar). Hmmm.. lost my
last copy. I'll need to get a new one.
Remmers is right about patience. I really had to learn it all over
again when I started guitar. I had forgotten that my piano skills were
developed over years. Still, I had the love and used it to get where I
am now-- I've had to work without an instructor and I am so ready to
get one again. Don't lose that love.
One thing that you will eventually want to do is get some recordings of
master pianists to get a sense of expression. If you can view concerts
on television, so much the better-- you can study their technique. But
this is down the road.
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mynxcat
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response 9 of 42:
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Dec 20 14:53 UTC 2002 |
This response has been erased.
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albaugh
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response 10 of 42:
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Dec 20 16:31 UTC 2002 |
Re: speed: *Accuracy* is far more important than speed, and here is why:
A music teacher of mine once taught me something I have found to be true:
By repeating your mistakes, your are actually "practicing" your mistakes, and
you therefore get "good" at your mistakes and they can then become permanent.
That is, if you charge right through the easy stuff and then always slow down
or stop at the hard part, your "muscle memory" will learn and remember that
behavior, and it will be a plague to cure. So with your scales, play them
sickeningly slow until you can plan them accurately every time. *Then*
increase the speed, bit by bit, until you can play them accurately at the
higher speed, and so on.
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mynxcat
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response 11 of 42:
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Dec 20 16:41 UTC 2002 |
This response has been erased.
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scott
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response 12 of 42:
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Dec 20 17:49 UTC 2002 |
I don't know if you need a metronome yet, but what you could do is just use
it when practicing scales. Start by counting 2 or 4 clicks per note in the
scale, and eventually work up to one note per click and beyond.
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orinoco
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response 13 of 42:
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Dec 20 22:15 UTC 2002 |
It's useful to be able to play with a metronome. It's also useful to be able
to play without one. In my experience, playing with a metronome doesn't
really help your rhythm when you're playing without one, or vice versa --
they're two different skills.
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cyklone
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response 14 of 42:
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Dec 20 22:26 UTC 2002 |
Huh? I seriously doubt that to be true or people would have stopped using
metronomes years ago. Indeed, I have run into many musicians who seem to
skip metronome work, as reflected by their serious inability to keep a
steady tempo. And for any group with a *good* drummer, the non-drummers
should be playing along just as if with a metronome. I guess I just don't
understand your point, so maybe you can give some examples. Are you
thinking about recording/performing with a "click track", which is often
done to keep everything in synch with prerecorded tracks (although
sometimes a "click" will be used for initial tracks as well)?
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scott
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response 15 of 42:
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Dec 20 22:39 UTC 2002 |
Ditto #14 - playing with a metronome is very useful in when you don't have
a steady beat to play with. And I've worked with drummers with that problem,
and it sucks.
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mynxcat
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response 16 of 42:
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Dec 21 00:02 UTC 2002 |
This response has been erased.
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cyklone
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response 17 of 42:
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Dec 21 01:36 UTC 2002 |
At some point, yes. When I started playing music, I was in bands with good
drummers almost immediately, so they were my metronomes. Later, when I
wanted to develop better practice habits in non-band situations, I used a
metronome. There are also a number of tricks you can use when you get
more experienced, like setting the metronome for the back beat (beats 2
and 4 of a four beat bar) or setting it only to hit the first beat (again
out of a four beat bar). Since you aren't playing in a band, you might
want to start right away, for the "good practice" reasons mentioned
before. I would also suggest isolating each hand sometimes and play only
one hand or the other with the metronome. I say this because I have notice
most musicians tend to be slightler faster or slower with one hand or the
other.
Having said all this, you should also remember that certain styles of
music involve tempo changes and nuances, either as a matter of
interpretation or as called for in a score (mostly in classical music).
Still, it's a very solid foundation, and most musicians that don't have
rock solid rhythm will always sort of suck no matter what kind of chops
they otherwise develop.
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albaugh
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response 18 of 42:
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Dec 21 02:21 UTC 2002 |
Since scales are boring yet a necessary "evil", you might as well get all the
boring drills "out of the way" at once - after you have learned the scale
fingering and have convinced yourself you can play them repeated correctly
at a snail's pace, maybe that's the time to introduce the metronone.
Set it for a *steady* snail's pace, verify your scale accuracy, and then dare
to increase the tempo a bit.
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remmers
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response 19 of 42:
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Dec 21 12:43 UTC 2002 |
Metronome work has been very useful to me. I have a tendency to speed
up the tempo when I play; practicing with a metronome makes me conscious
of that and thus helps me keep the tempo steady when I'm *not* using
a metronome.
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jaklumen
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response 20 of 42:
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Dec 22 07:15 UTC 2002 |
resp:10 Accuracy and avoiding "practicing" mistakes is right on in my
experience. It's harder to play slower sometimes, especially when that
tempo doesn't sound enjoyable, but it's worth it.
A metronome is indeed a useful tool. Electronic ones will be the most
consistent. I'm not sure how useful tapping your foot to the beat is
alone, but I suppose if you do it with a metronome running you may be
able to internalize tempo better. It takes some coordination to do it
while you're playing, but I'm sure it will help.
resp:9 Teaching skills can be gained only after some time and
experience. You're fairly new to this, so you shouldn't expect to be
able to teach someone right away.
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cyklone
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response 21 of 42:
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Dec 22 14:55 UTC 2002 |
BTW, avoid battery operated metronomes and use one that plugs in. I once
had the bizarre experience of listening to my drummer practicing with a
metronome and still slowing down. It damn near drove me nuts until we
figured out the metronome was slowly reducing the tempo as the batteries
drained.
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mynxcat
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response 22 of 42:
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Dec 22 15:25 UTC 2002 |
This response has been erased.
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scott
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response 23 of 42:
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Dec 22 15:33 UTC 2002 |
I've never noticed a problem with my battery-operated metronome - that drummer
must have had some really crude design to actually slow down with low battery
power.
For that matter, I'm not sure I've ever needed to even change the battery in
my metronome.
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rcurl
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response 24 of 42:
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Dec 22 17:29 UTC 2002 |
You might enjoy the book
Piano Lessons: Music, Love, & True Adventures
by Noah Adams
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cyklone
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response 25 of 42:
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Dec 22 19:41 UTC 2002 |
Re #23: Well, this was about 25 years ago, so hopefully technology and
batteries have improved.
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dbratman
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response 26 of 42:
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Dec 22 19:57 UTC 2002 |
About learning the wrong note - my brother learned a particular tune
from a parody of the song which deliberately included a wrong note.
Now he can't sing the original song without putting the wrong note in.
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mynxcat
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response 27 of 42:
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Dec 22 23:05 UTC 2002 |
This response has been erased.
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mynxcat
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response 28 of 42:
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Dec 23 15:30 UTC 2002 |
This response has been erased.
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orinoco
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response 29 of 42:
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Dec 23 19:47 UTC 2002 |
re metronomes:
I see I've misspoken. I think here's what I meant to say.
Keeping good time in solo playing is one thing. Playing well with a drummer,
say, or following the tempo of a soloist you're accompanying, that's something
else. In the end you want to be good at doing both, but getting better at
one doesn't seem to necessarily make you any better at the other. There are
musicians who are great at following a beat but terrible at keeping the beat
themselves; there are musicians who can keep perfect time on their own but
are terrible at accomodating to other people's playing.
Practicing with a metronome is great for learning how to play with a
drummer. And there's other things it's useful for: double-checking your
tempos, gradually increasing the speed of your scales and whatnot, etc.
But for learning to keep a steady beat on your own (with no drummer, no
click track, no conductor, etc.), practicing with a metronome has always
seemed pretty useless to me.
Of course, that's just my personal experience, and I'm definitely a
low-level amateur, not a serious musician and certainly not a
professional. I'd be curious to see what some of the other musicians here
think.
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scott
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response 30 of 42:
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Dec 23 20:57 UTC 2002 |
Using a metronome seems useful for solo play, to me anyway.
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jaklumen
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response 31 of 42:
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Dec 24 08:10 UTC 2002 |
Well, Dan, that's why I suggested tapping your foot along with the
metronome. When you take the metronome away, keep tapping. I think
physically doing it helps internalize your sense of beat. Or maybe
following the flashing light on your electronic metronome might work..
There's also the TAP system.. are Midwesterners familiar with it? It
was developed in Bellevue (Seattle area) but I would gather many music
majors should have heard of it. The old system involved tapping a
button on a machine with a counter that was sensitive to an audio
patched tape player. You would tap out rhythms to various recordings..
I remember the theme from Sanford and Son and a selection from Wendy
Carlos's "Well-Tempered Synthesizer" being among them.
We were stuck with the machines at Central although a company called
MusicWare bought the rights and reengineered the system to a software
program. You should be able to find it online. It will cost you some
money unless you can prove you're a teacher or an educational
institution in need of it.
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cyklone
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response 32 of 42:
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Dec 24 14:10 UTC 2002 |
A variation on the "tap along, turn off" method: Pick a recording you know
has rock solid tempo. Count or tap along with it while turning down the
volume for a few seconds, then turn it back up. Gradually increase the
"volume down" time. If you are still on the beat after ten to thirty
seconds of silence you are well on your way to developing good rhythm.
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