Keeping the tempo

[kghayesh]

My teacher keeps telling me i am having trouble keeping a steady tempo throughout any piece. I try hard and keep in my mind that i should stick to the tempo but i always miss..........

When i try to play with the metronome, i stick to it for 3 or 4 bars, then i lose everything and get confused between the continuos tapping and the music. And if the piece is in compound time (6 8 or something) i don't stick to it at all .

I have started when i was 16 and i have been playing for about 2 and a half year, does this have to do with that??

Please HELP!!!!

[xvimbi]

I don't think it has anything to do with when you started playing the piano. Your rhythm gene does not express well, I guess. Just kidding!

First, specify with what you mean "I always miss." Are you too fast? Are you too slow? Are you erratic in your rhythm?

In the meantime, here are some suggestions:

First, you must make sure is that you really know your music. I found this aspect to be one of the major causes of all sorts of problems. You must know well in advance what note(s) come(s) next. If you have to think about what's next, you'll end up with hesitations.

Second, try to play all your pieces with a constant tempo. Do not speed up in sections that you can play well and slow down in sections that are not quite mastered yet. The slowest part determines the overall speed. Do not use any tempo rubato until you have completely mastered your piece in strict tempo/rhythm. Stick to that religiously.

Third, work on simpler sections. Try keeping the rhythm/tempo with hands separate first. Do all kinds of exercises during the day. Clap to the rhythm of any piece you hear on the radio. Play drums with your thighs while you ride the bus. Analyze the rhythm of anything you hear around you; no need to sit at the piano to make progress.

Use the metronome, but only to check your internal feeling for rhythm; do not become dependent on it. Initially, you'll use it a lot, but you should try to live mostly without it in the long run.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Good luck.

[quantum]

One of my professors in 1st year had a good soloution for this.  Walk.  Unless you have some sort of physical disability, it is very hard to walk unevenly or out of tempo.  This is a natural even pulse that your body is familiar with. 

Take a particular rhythm from your piece, you walking will set the tempo, now clap the rhythm within your walking tempo.  This is a great excercise as it can be performed at times of traveling when you least expect to be productive at learning your music. 

[ludwig]

Something I do for my students is to record their pieces at a pretty slow tempo, so they can play with it at home just for practice, until they get the rhythms right... I know this is a process of imitation, but I do think it has its benefits, I usually do this when they don't realise they are not in time, but know the rhythms (like know how to clap them)... If its a rhythm problem I don't suggest imitating a tape...hehe

[kghayesh]

Answering xvimbi's question, My problem is that at pieces with fast running sixteenth notes i do them with extra speed then when i return to another section with eights and quarter notes, the tempo changes. I know the notes very well i can even write the score from memory, my only problem is keeping the correct beat.

Actually the piece that has all the problems is the first movement of Mozart's K.545. The part with fast ascending and descending scales is that which i do it faster than what's expected.

And another problem, i have some trouble with the trill at bar 15. I do it with fingers 4 and 2 although written at the score 4 and 3. I think 4 and 3 is just to hard to get it right due to the relative weakness of fingers 4 3. The trill always sounds like stuttering with some missing notes..

Advice please...

[xvimbi]

Answering xvimbi's question, My problem is that at pieces with fast running sixteenth notes i do them with extra speed then when i return to another section with eights and quarter notes, the tempo changes. I know the notes very well i can even write the score from memory, my only problem is keeping the correct beat.

Yes, it takes extra discipline to play fast sections not too fast. To be honest, I don't have a good recipe for solving your problem, other than paying extra attention. One thing you could try, though: instead of playing the run, play four notes at a time as a chord. If you are talking about measures 5-10, the first cluster per measure has only three notes (except for measure 10). For measure 5, you would play ABC-DEFG-AGFE-DCBA, etc. Use the correct fingering. Then play two notes at a time within half a beat. Finally, play the run as intended. This is actually quite similar to the "chord attack" approach. Because you need to move the hand as a whole, you are also forced to abandon the dreadful "thumb-under" technique for playing scales. 

Another trick is to memorize which note/finger comes on the beat. For example, for measure 5, you would have thumb-thumb-pinky-thumb on the beats. Yet another one is to use the left hand as a metronome. Imagine, you are playing four-against-one. This is a crutch, though, one shouldn't use one of the hands as a metronome; they should ideally be independent. Also, some of those measures have rests or dotted notes in the left hand, which doesn't help a lot. However, you could repeat the preceeding note(s) on the beats as yet another crutch until you get the hang of it.

One last "trick": use your feet as a metronome, either by tapping or by bouncing on the toes like people do who are nervous.

And another problem, i have some trouble with the trill at bar 15. I do it with fingers 4 and 2 although written at the score 4 and 3. I think 4 and 3 is just to hard to get it right due to the relative weakness of fingers 4 3. The trill always sounds like stuttering with some missing notes..

Fingering for trills is highly personal. One can trill with just about any finger combination, 1+2, 2+3, 1+3, 1+4, etc., even with changing fingers: 1,3,2,4,1,3,2,4, etc. Ignore what the editor wrote and pick the fingering that you are most comfortable with. You can use a different finger on the last note(s) of the trill depending on what comes next. You could of course alse reduce the number of repeats.

Hope that helps. Hang in there

[whynot]

* Xvimbi made his excellent post while I was typing this and I don't have time to re-do mine!  Is it okay if I leave it as is?  It will look like I wasn't paying attention, but I was. 


I loved all the advice about walking, clapping, being steady away from the piano.  I had a few other thoughts, as well.  

About the trill, you can use whatever fingers allow you to be quick and graceful.  At m. 15, I would do 3/1 or combine 3/2 to 3/1, and save finger 2 for the F#, but it doesn't matter what I would do-- just an example that you have options and are allowed to do what lets you be the most comfortable and musical.  

About keeping tempo:  you have been practicing your scales-- yea! and perhaps are comfortable doing them at very specific (fast) speeds; now, when you play this piece, no matter what tempo you establish at the beginning, those fast passages "play themselves" at the fast scale-practice tempo.  Do you have the sensation that your hands are running away with themselves while you watch helplessly?  If so, the first thing to do is to start practicing scales at every tempo, especially various slower speeds.  The motion we make when playing something as fast as possible becomes very efficient and is not the same motion as playing the same passage slowly under control.  It's often harder to play slowly once we've become fast!  Yet we have to be able to do whatever's called for musically so must practice all different ways, so I think try slower scales, very even and beautiful, and really give that a chance.  

Another tool is to practice ACTIVELY feeling subdivisions.  In this piece, I'd start by looking at the LH in the first 10 measures.  You have nice steady eighth notes at first, then suddenly longer notes and rests, no more frequent rhythms to keep everything feeling constant.  Practice filling in every beat with that same rhythm:  Play the LH and when you get to m. 3, start repeating the F in eighth notes (so play 6 F's) until beat 4, then play 2 eighth-notes on the F-C, and continue like that so you are "tapping" ongoing eighth notes all the way through m. 10 (m. 8 is 8 taps, the dotted quarters in m. 9 have 3 taps etc.).  That is what's happening in the rhythm on a deep level, and that's what we have to feel in order to really play in time.  You've probably been using a metronome to click every quarter note.  I'm not much for metronomes, but if you use it to practice subdivision at first, that's probably a really good use for it.  Try setting it twice as fast as usual, so it's clicking eighth notes with you, and do the LH exercise with it for a while.  Slower is fine, too, you just want to practice very even eighth notes.  Try adding RH to this when you're steady.  After a while, you hear/feel these extra notes in your mind but don't play them.     

Good luck with all that.  Hope it's helpful... keep us posted!

[ted]

The only thing I can add is the suggestion to play ragtime, boogie or swing. This more or less forces you into a steady tempo.

[kghayesh]

I have nothing to say but to thank you so much guys for this priceless help. I'll work on what you said and i hope it works.

[lostinidlewonder]

My problem is that at pieces with fast running sixteenth notes i do them with extra speed then when i return to another section with eights and quarter notes, the tempo changes. I know the notes very well i can even write the score from memory, my only problem is keeping the correct beat.

Determine the beat of the group of 16th notes. If they are grouped in three group of 4 for instance ensure when you practice that you can feel 3 beats in the string of 12 notes (the first note of each group beginning the beat). You could, if you are desperate enough, accent those notes and synchronise them to a metronome while you practice to force your tempo strict. This can also apply to long strings of trilled notes. I always think it is important to keep practicing small sections at a time and LISTEN to yourself while you play, dont get caught up over the fingers or let the music play you.

And another problem, i have some trouble with the trill at bar 15. I do it with fingers 4 and 2 although written at the score 4 and 3. I think 4 and 3 is just to hard to get it right due to the relative weakness of fingers 4 3. The trill always sounds like stuttering with some missing notes..
Advice please...

I think that it doesnt ask for much using the 43 in that trill. You only have to do like 2 turns, so it is nothing hard to control, in fact it would be necessary i reckon to use 43 so that F# can be pushed off from with 2. If you try to trill with 2 and 3 and hope to use the thumb on the F# I think it becomes natural to give too much sound and weight to the F#, and the staccato is neglected. To control this is uncessesary I think, and focusing on using 43 should be practiced to avoid it.