Rythmic precission

[nicolaievich]

Hello people.
I am having a bit of problems with rythmic precission. What I mean is that, for example, playing fast scales (mostly) it's very difficult for me to get uniformity and clarity. I think this is because I spent a lot of time playing romantic music, and now I returned to some Mozart or Scarlatti pieces, and this is pissing me off 
What excercises do you recommend for this?? and what's the better way to improve this specific technique?

Thanks in advance...

Nicolas

[crazy for ivan moravec]

try working on the passages of the mozart you're learning. do it very slowly, one note at a time, making sure they're all even in sound and in length. also, try not to use the metronome for now. work on improving your pulse by having a metronome in your mind, say, subdivide the 16ths you're playing into 32nds in your mind. or you can also syllabicate it like "ta-ta". basically, try to do lots of mathematical practice of the piece. don't think of music for now, get that precision of rhythm, observe all rest and note values, etc.

this is how i do it.
hope this works for you.

[rimv2]

Hello people.
I am having a bit of problems with rythmic precission. What I mean is that, for example, playing fast scales (mostly) it's very difficult for me to get uniformity and clarity. I think this is because I spent a lot of time playing romantic music, and now I returned to some Mozart or Scarlatti pieces, and this is pissing me off 
What excercises do you recommend for this?? and what's the better way to improve this specific technique?

Thanks in advance...

Nicolas

put the metronome at about 200.

Play one note per beat.

Get used to the feeling of note progression.

Switch to around  100bpm.

Play two notes per beat.

Continue until you can divide no more

[rc]

I suspect it's often a matter of careful listening. It seems I'm able to play incredibly easy at will, it's just a matter of the will. I mean, the fingers are already capable.

Sometimes I also think we can also be too hard on ourselves, hearing unevenness on the microscopic level when in fact noone else would notice or care.

[g_s_223]

You could try the technique of dottting the (alternate) scale notes, i.e. 3 semiquavers, then 1 quaver. Then do this with the reverse accent, i.e. 1 then 3 semiquavers. Retain the original fingering.

This approach of deliberately introducing rhthmic variation might allow you thus to control it, and so later allow you to remove it when it is not wanted.

[nicolaievich]

Thanks for your comments, I am going to try this stuff, and I think it will work.
May be rc is right and I am being pretty hard with myself, however those exercises always help.

[bernhard]

Also remember two important facts:

1.   When a pianist plays a fast passage and it sounds completely uniform and clear, such uniformity is mostly an illusion. We “hear” uniformity, but actually there is quite a lot of variation in it. You can easily confirm that by listening to the midifile of a scale written on a notation program – it will be mathematically uniform – and comparing it to a scale that is played by a pianist – which is not mathematically uniform, but will sound much more so than the midifile generated by the computer. So do not try to impose a “mathematical uniformity to it (by using a metronome, for instance) since it will actually sound non-uniform. Instead, rely on your ears to check if you are creating the illusion of uniformity.

2.   This second point is far more important. You do not want to play uniformly. You want to sound uniform, and in order to sound uniform, you must move in a most irregular way. If you consider a scale for instance, the passing of the thumb must be speeded up and the movement of consecutive fingers must be slowed down if you want the scale to sound uniform. However, language tends to confuse us here. The teacher says: “you must play more uniformly”, when what he actually means is: “You must play in such a way as to produce a more uniform sound”.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.