Best way to keep time

Whistle
1

Well, I must say that I am really enjoying learning to play with a metronome. It’s very comforting to know that all I have to do to keep the musical clock on track is to follow the beat.

What about when I can’t use a metronome, such as during a performance or when the metronome is packed away? Someone today told me that when playing with his band, he always relies on the drummer to keep time and he follows the drummer. What about in situations when no drummer is playing?

Should I learn to keep time by tapping my foot? James Galway, in the flute book, says that tapping one’s foot or swaying is a bad idea, because (if I remember correctly) all this movement can shift posture and hurt the sound.

2

I’m a beginner at the whistle but I’ll throw in my two cents.

Moving the position of the whistle in your mouth can certainly affect the sound—try it out and see.

I think tapping your foot can be done without moving your instrument. I am able to do that. You can just tap your toes too. In classical music, people just don’t tap their feet the way they do in traditional music, in my observations. I don’t know of any special guarantee that a person taps his/her foot consistently though, if the brain does not have the tune right in the first place. I do enjoy tapping my foot, but my foot is going with my brain, my brain is not going with my foot.

You will find that once you have learned the notes of the tune very well, both in terms of hitting them and in terms of the correct rhythm, you will be able to keep the correct time without the metronome or tapping.

You are using the metronome to train yourself to play the tune correctly. You won’t need to use it once you have really learned the tune. After playing with the metronome, you will be able to hear if you are going off—wrong rhythm, speeding up, etc. That would mean you need to work with the metronome again at a slower speed.

I use the metronome at the beginning of learning a tune, especially if I notice I am having some trouble. I get the tune so that I can play through it properly, even if quite slowly. Then I practice without the metronome. If I hear that things are not quite right, I go back to it. But it is more fun to play without the metronome—you don’t want that ticking to always be there. So, even when you play alone, you want to get trained and then play without it. Does that make sense? The metronome is not going to be your constant companion on a tune.

If you are playing with a group, I guess you do need to agree on who is setting the tempo. :laughing: Maybe that is the drummer, maybe that is someone else. Someone else will have to give the band question an answer.

I know many people think metronomes are not a good tool. Some people have grown up listening to the type of music they are playing, and so perhaps they have been trained by listening. Some have people around that can tell them when they sound weird. I think that whatever helps a person get on a bit is good.

3

The trick to learning to play with other people is to … play with other people, even if it is just a friend or two. The hard part is learning how to listen to other people while trying to play a tune. I know I go against the grain, but I think a metronome is a great way to learn to keep time, especially when first learning; it’s a strict taskmaster. If you practice at least sometimes with a metronome, you’ll really notice when playing with people who rush, which is incredibly common!

I used to have a metronome which had either a tick or a flashing light. It might be useful to use just a light, so you get used to perceiving the beat using other senses. It also helps to force you to pay attention to your surroundings more than just listening for the tick. Vary the position around the room so you learn to pay attention to cues other than directly in front of you. And so on.

I need to get another metronome, I haven’t used one in years (and it shows)!

Robin

4

I think that it’s a good idea to try internalizing the rhythms. Maybe alternate playing a tune first with and then without the metronome, and the second time through, try remembering how it felt with the metronome.

Should I learn to keep time by tapping my foot? James Galway, in the flute book, says that tapping one’s foot or swaying is a bad idea, because (if I remember correctly) all this movement can shift posture and hurt the sound.

Makes you wonder how all the flute and fife players manage in marching bands, doesn’t it? Someone here posted pictures of a marching whistle band, too.

As Cynth said, you can tap your foot without moving your upper body all that much. Also, the embrochure (mouth shape/position) is generally less critical with most whistles than it is with the flute.

I will say, though, that it’s entirely possible to tap your foot in an uneven rhythm or shifting tempo (speeding up and slowing down, as some less-than-expert Bluegrass banjo players do).

5

I think that tapping your foot is a great way to stay on a beat. In our school band, it helps very much so.

6

Makes you wonder how all the flute and fife players manage in marching bands, doesn’t it? Someone here posted pictures of a marching whistle band, too.

Very easily…you roll your feet and your upper body doesn’t move hardly at all. I did it for years on clarinet.

And plenty of people tap their foot while playing and it doesn’t move their upper body either. Not sure what James Galway was talking about there.

~Crysania

7

well, here are the real reasons for practicing with a metronome:

  • Practice letting someone else control the beat, and you follow that rule
  • Learning to practice with a consistent beat and tempo

Once you start playing with others, let them lead. Usually these things are controlled by the guitarist or other person controlling the harmony line. In Jazz, it is the bass player.

I don’t think there is a problem with tapping your foot. The problem is when the tapping becomes a sound in itself… :wink:

8

Place a wanted ad (that’s an ad, not a poster) for a bodhran player. You’ll probably get thousands of them (unless they suspect it’s a sting). :smiling_imp:

I can’t get along with foot-tapping, it throws my concentration. My metronome throws me too, it has an annoying emphasis on the first beat of every bar and it doesn’t suit jigs or hornpipes.

I find I have a natural internal rhythm and I play to that, when I’m not playing along with recordings or (rarely) other players. Listening to a lot of the music helps more than artificial aids I think, it helps you internalise the tunes and rhythms.

9

Has anyone tried one of these? Would that be helpful?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41404&item=7318574066&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

10

I wouldn’t take any advice from Jimmy Galway on playing trad. music!

11

Hi IrishLass----Okay, this is just my opinion.

I have an old wind-up metronome that one sets to a certain number of beats per minute and that is the only thing I can do with it. It has no time signature (like 4/4, 6/8, etc) settings. I use it fairly often.

I think----this may be what Gary is referring to----that metronomes that get involved with time signature settings would emphasize (by ticking more loudly) certain beats—like 3/4 time would be ONE two three, ONE two three—the way they are often emphasized in classical music and other music.

But it could, as Gary pointed out, emphasize the wrong beat for what you are playing----sort of like your computer deciding what you should do when it isn’t what you want to do. That would be very annoying to say the least. And besides, you don’t need the metronome for that, you should emphasize the proper notes yourself.

So I wouldn’t like the metronome you showed if you couldn’t just set it to a number of beats per minute and ignore the time signature.

There would not be any advantage to having a metronome only you could hear. You would not use a metronome when playing with others or when performing. By the time you would be doing those things, you would already have trained yourself to play the tune with a steady tempo. If you were playing with others, something I have no experience with, you would have to keep with them and the metronome would make that hard. If you were the one to set the tempo, you still would not use your metronome. It is just for training, not for when you are really playing.

12

Thanks for the explanation Cynth. I was really just trying to be helpful, but I failed. :blush:

I don’t use a metronome, and being pretty much a newbie myself, I have no intention of attending a session or anything for a long time to come! :slight_smile:
I just saw that thing on E-bay, and honestly didn’t know if it would help or not. I must say though that I really appreciate how nice and helpful everyone on the boards has been. It is great to know that there is someplace to go to for advice if I need it.

Carolyn

13

The point is to use the metronome in order to develop your internal sense of time. Don’t depend on it, don’t always practice or play along with it. Always tapping your foot is appropriate for some music (like Irish trad) but not for other music (like Beethoven string quartets).

14

Gosh, what a breath of fresh air you are! :slight_smile: I have been reading some very rude posts and was feeling quite disgusted by things. Now we have an Irish Lass who is apologizing or something for no good reason, but hey, that is a heck of a lot better than being mean!

I didn’t intend to sound as though I was putting down your suggestion. I mean, I guess that particular metronome didn’t appeal to me, but that’s just me. And really, you were suggesting it to headwizer, a fact that totally escaped me at the time. So his/her opinion is really the one that would matter here. You certainly have nothing to be embarrassed about. You did not fail to be helpful. Any suggestion is helpful unless it is a snide remark.

I too am pretty much a newbie and I have no intention of attending a session for a long time to come, probably never. :laughing: Boy, what would they do to you if you were caught wearing a metronome that only you could hear?

15

But at least I have a cool avatar, you’ll have to admit. :slight_smile:

16

It wasn’t your posts that bothered me—although I guess there was then that further discussion, hmmmph. :roll:

Your avatar is very cool, beyond cool in fact. It makes me tu..?..tur…?..turgid!