She never tried to keep pace with me if my playing went all over the place - she'd start with me and then keep a strict tempo (the tempo I started with) regardless of whether I started to lose track of the timing, or even of the notes. (The John Thompson's Easiest Piano Course gave 'teacher accompaniments' for most pieces, and where there were none, she improvised them). But I'm still nowhere near the flexible tempi of the Golden Age of pianists or conductors, or (for a modern-day equivalent in flexible tempi) Mikhail Pletnev.Īs I mentioned in another post, it could be that this sense of strict time was fostered in me by my first teacher, who got me to count beats in every piece I learnt all through my first year of lessons (all the way to my ABRSM Grade 1 exam), and, during my beginner primer months, played duets with me in every piece I'd learnt. avoid emphasising the first beats), and be more flexible, following the phrasing rather than play everything in time. In fact, what I discovered when I recorded myself was how rigid my rhythm and tempo often was (not just in Romantic music, but also Baroque and Classical), in comparison to almost any concert pianist that I heard on recordings or in concert, and I actually strived in my final student years to get away from rigid beats, and "play through the bar lines" (i.e. (Never if the metronome mark isn't by the composer ). But as I mentioned before, I do - very occasionally - use the metronome to check my speed, if the composer's metronome mark is in the score. Probably since before Grade 1 ABRSM, as none of my four teachers ever suggested (or got me) practicing with the metronome. I've not used a metronome for playing in time to since.I can't remember when. This to me would be a later step, though. But if you are gradually speeding up and slowing down, you can't set a metronome for that. ![]() For example, if you are placing a note slightly ahead or behind the actual place, then you still have to have a sense of the actual place for the other notes. Part of this does actually have to do with the metronomic timing. There is the gradual speeding up of the overall tempo and slowing it down. There is placing a note slightly ahead of behind its actual place in the music for musical effect and expression. I think you start music with even counting and playing, and then you start playing with it - if you are ready for that stage. The trick to be expressive even with the timing, for such music, will still keeping an underlying pulse, is one I've been chasing for a few years. But when I listened to various pianists, those chords were not metronomically steady. The first piece I ever worked on with a teacher was the Chopin Em Prelude, which in writing has a succession of "steady" LH chords. I read a statement that the LH is always steady and even (when it's an accompaniment). In any case, it will be slower than at tempo to start with. But it doesn't have to be "metronomic" is in "playing with the metronome". ![]() when those are solid enough that you know where you're going with security, you get your complicated relationship between the hands sorted out (if there is such), and then as a next stage you work with your steady pulse - the "metronomic" part. ![]() ![]() You work only on the notes of this section without worrying about tempo, timing etc. If you try to get at all of this at once you may set yourself up for massive tension, or perpetual future fuzzy vagueness since you're always too busy to get a handle on anything. Some of the notes may have odd rhythms against each other - like the LH has a dotted quarter while the RH starts with a rest and two eights. You have to find and play the right notes. For some kinds of music, a drum machine might be good - at least it is alive and "musical".Īnother: We've got a number of challenges, especially if more at the beginner stage, but maybe at any when the music gets complicated. Using a metronome prior to this consisted of me ignoring it, or trying to race to catch up to it. I have found this to be the most effective for my own growth. That the counting or clapping of the pulse has to come from you internally (saying counts out loud is still coming from outside). About using the metronome itself: What I learned is to learn to count, to clap and count pulses in a beat like for example in tuplets, this being outside of any music - and to put on the metronome to check the tempo and turn it off again before playing.
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