Tempo

[rc179264]

How can I improve my tempo?

[pianoman53]

What do you mean with that? Being able to play faster, being able to keep a more steady tempo, a more flexible tempo..?

[faulty_damper]

Tempo is a musical reference.  You should never play faster than the tempo allows.  But you actually mean speed.  Practice is the only way.

[rc179264]

I mean how do I keep in time more. Thanks

[hfmadopter]

I mean how do I keep in time more. Thanks

Rhythm and pulse are related, how fast you execute that is tempo.. Learning to keep the pulse of the piece in time can be helped greatly by counting. You do that first at a very slow tempo, much slower than indicated on your score. When it all comes together you can increase tempo a little at a time until you get the piece up to speed.

[faulty_damper]

I mean how do I keep in time more. Thanks

So you mean timing.  There are underlying issues that could cause timing to be off. One is simply neurological, you don't have the ability to keep time in your body even if it's in your mind.  Practice is the only way and this includes mental practice.  You need to be more specific if you want specific advice.

[keypeg]

A first step is to see what is stopping you from having good timing, because there can be hidden things.  For example, before I took my first lessons as an adult I had played for years, and note values for me were: quarter note - two of them in a half note, commonly as "a beat"; eighth note - two of them in a quarter note, two in a beat; any note with more flags than that = FAST.     When I realized that, I slowed down, figured out what I didn't know, how to calculate things in various ways, and fixed that problem.

Another thing that can get in the way is if you are a poor reader and have to pause for some of the notes, or if you have poor fingering which makes a passage awkward.  So again, address that problem.  You have to know what notes you will be playing, have smooth fingering, know how to anticipate moving your hand into a new position in time.

These are just some examples.