Pulse - how do you teach it?

[green]

I found myself with an adult student who's primary weakness is pulse, she says she has never been able to get it, and when in the past on her exams it was the thing which was always commented on. I personally view pulse as the foundation of music, and talked a bit with her about the difference between inner pulse, that which arises from within when connecting to the 'narrative' of the music, the coordination of larger to smaller muscle groups, and all the dynamic and articulation which the music invites us to engage with on a technical and emotional level, and the pulse which most students grow up to believe is the pulse which they never can feel - that of a metronome. The metronome can give a learner the sense that it is something over-laid onto the music, like a grid, but inner pulse is liquid and elastic, and arises from a focused engagement with the content of the music in the process of playing. 

How do you teach a sense of pulse? 

[fleetfingers]

Hi green. I love what you wrote about pulse coming from within, and I think that it does help to get students to think this way. It will also help your student from feeling like she will never be able to "get" it. If she believes that she can, and that it is within her, just knowing that will be huge.

I will say, though, as someone whose primary weakness has always been pulse, she may need things to be broken down and mathematized. I think because I always played emotionally, I would speed up during intense parts (and get louder) and then slow down when I wanted it to be more dramatic. Anyway, my point is that I didn't understand that being strict with the timing would actually help me to achieve the emotions I wanted to convey to my audience. And, going even further, I didn't even understand that there was supposed to be a steady beat. I know it sounds dumb, but sometimes things have to be dumbed down for certain people (including me on this topic  ) in order for them to understand. And since she's an adult and still not getting it, I would think that she might be in this category.

Have her listen to recordings of herself. She may not even realize when or how much she is varying the pulse until she hears it. She may not be able to change anything until she understands how the sound is different when playing vs. when listening.

[p2u_]

How do you teach a sense of pulse?

At the piano, your student probably sits still with a rigid torso, blocking energy flow. She should first of all learn to move to music (dancing, etc.) away from the piano and focus on unblocking her energy. This is not meant as advertising (there is nothing to buy there anyway), but please have a look here:
https://pulsepatterning.com/faq.html
After reading the FAQ, click on Home, Technique and then on Application. This will give you some ideas in what direction to work.

Paul

[danhuyle]

Listen to known songs and get them to pay attention to the pulse. Almost all the pop I've listened to are in strict meter. None of that rubato.

[lostinidlewonder]

Some things I've found that helps attaining natural beat.

- Learning to clap steady beat.
- Reading rhythm and how to count them in many ways (eg: numbers, rhythmic solfege, counting individual note values)
- Listening to a lot of music and following the score.
- Accompanying other people (not only with piano but taping with percussion, singing with the radio, singing in choirs etc).
- playing x notes vs metronome beats
- Playing a lot of music with strong pulse support vs melody,
such as support 3/4 time Waltz pattern C (EG) (EG), C (EG) (EG) vs a melodic line.

[timbo178]

A few quick comments to add ...
1) I think all people have a sense of pulse, they may just be unconscious of it. We all walk to a steady pulse. There. Proof :-)
2) I completely agree with the idea of learning to move to a steady pulse, or to music that has a steady pulse. Dancing is such a fun way to feel the pulse with the body. (Reminds me, take a look at Red Bull Flying Bach - choreographed dance routines to fugue!Awesome!)
3) It can be hard to tell that you're not keeping a steady pulse. Earlier this year, my teacher told me my tempo was all over the joint for a particular piece, while I thought I was relatively steady. Had to do a tremendous amount of work with metronome.

[green]

Yes it is remarkable to find after alot of work withOUT metronome, when turning on the metronome how off we often are. I just learned the Mozart K545 1st movement for a student, and have found getting it up to tempo with a metronome has completely thrown me off, or rather i'm shocked at how off I am in places.

I have been playing along with these 'jazz' play along Cd's recently for improvisation, and its been an almost ecstatic experience having such a bouncing 'alive' rhythm section (bass, drums, piano) behind you that I see how good it feels when we do play 'in time'. But this is quite different to playing with a metronome, a jazz rhythm section is 'alive', and its moving you through the harmonic structure in real time, would be nice if they had these for classical music.