Hi: lately, I’ve been working on timing, and tapping my foot on the proper beat/ proper note. I have to admit that I’ve struggled and have wondered if I would ever get it correct in as much as my foot does not seem to be directly connected to my brain in any fashion. The Metronome has been a great assist and I think I’m making fairly good progress now, but it has been very frustrating and I’ve questioned my ability to walk and chew gum at the same time on many occasions following a practice session. My interest in music and playing the flute began later in life, and I’ve been told by persons who’s opinions I respect, that it comes much easier if you begin learning music as a child. Is that true? I suppose it must be as it makes some sense. I also recently purchased “The Amazing Slow Downer” which I think is a great bit of software and has also been quite helpful.
At any rate, I was just wondering if any of you have experienced similar frustrations and might share some suggestions/ ideas or just your thoughts on the subject?
Don, if its any comfort, I think I’m cursed by the same affliction you are. My timing is not great, by any means, but I can do ok on tunes I know well so long as the speed isn’t too fast. But the moment I try to tap my foot to emphasize the beat I start stumbling over the fingering. Its really frustrating. Its as if my brain can only concentrate on one of the tasks at a time.
I’ve started to realize that that is actually the problem: my brain is still involved too much in my playing. I’m not fluent enough with the instrument, nor familiar enough with the details of the tunes, to just play them without thinking. A musician friend of mine proved this point to me by getting me to sing the same tunes while tapping my foot. It was no problem. He pointed out that I have much more mastery over my voice than I do over my flute. I got that from a lifetime of (informal) practice. He just said keep playing, practicing, listening etc until you know the music better and have more mastery over the instrument.
I was hoping the fix would be quicker and easier than that, but I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t matter how long this takes. I’m enjoying this journey and I expect it to take me the rest of my life. Thats a key goal, in fact, to keep growing, learning and enjoying it.
Unfortunately, I don’t have much concrete advice, and I’m sure there are many on this forum who are much better informed and more experienced, but one thing that definitely helps me is to just play tunes slower. If I go slow enough I can hit the timing well, and in that mode I am practicing good technique not reinforcing bad habits. Over time the speed has increased steadily. Its still not full speed, but I’m starting to feel optimistic that I’ll be there eventually, and when I get there I’ll be playing pretty well, not just faking it.
I have the opposite problem Don. I find it hard to keep steady without my foot ploughing away. Hard to know what if any troubles you have or how to advise without hearing you play.
Here are a couple of thoughts, for whatever they are worth.
The metronome (pre-digital) was pendulum based. In a sense a dancer’s body, of necessity. ‘swings’ much like a pendulum, so in a sense keeps it’s own time. There is, however, a sort of paradox. Dancers often will anticipate, or even lag, a beat for emphasis or for show. Not all dances and dancers are mechanically precise. Playing with the beat (a little) is part of the fun. But god help the dancer, or the musician, who ‘turns over’ the beat. The musician will get crossed up, but the dancer can stumble or even fall. Not good.
Conal O’Grada likes to use articulation to highlight the beat. I use these ‘freckles’ to help me with my ‘foot-stomping’.
One of my favorite lines of poetry, by Ted Roethke: “I learned to tell time by how a body sways. . .”
I was in band in elementary school. When the director started counting before the tune started, you could hear all the feet tapping. Except mine. I never developed the habit, even when strongly encouraged. Since I started back up 15 years ago, I’ve tried tapping my foot. Not surprisingly, it keeps the same time as my flute playing – speeds up and slows down, same as the rest of me. IOW, absolutely worthless for me.
So if I think I’m not keeping the rhythm steady, I use a metronome.
Just say: ‘A new sun rises every day.’ As to age, I started when I was 60, and of course I’ve wished that I had started a great deal earlier. However even if things come slower, sooner or later (practice, practice, practice), they do arrive. Patience is a great virtue, I tell myself.
4 years ago I attended a workshop with Elliot Grasso, who on the first day included as session on learning how to tap your feet. I thought this was pretty worthless until I discovered that I couldn’t do it. I could do it in band (or at least wiggle my big tow inside my shoe because we weren’t allowed to tap feet), and as mentioned, can do it when singing. A couple of years ago I decided to take this advice seriously because rhythm was my biggest weakness, so I started practising tapping. I think that this has been very good for me, and my steadiness. Lke anything, practice at the speed you can actually do it without any mistakes, even if that is very slowly indeed. There’s no point practising mistakes…
I would like to take a moment and thank all that have responded to my post, got something from each comment. I suspect that each of us experience various problems in our journey to improve our playing of the simple system flute and it is personally gratifying to receive feedback from persons who are going through similar issues and are either working through them or have resolved them. In my community, there are, unfortunately, few persons who play the “Irish Flute” and traditional Irish music and are willing to instruct; fortunately, I have an excellent instructor who has been blessed with patience, understanding and compassion. She is the only tutor for hundreds of miles that I’m aware of.
The “take away” for me from your comments/ experiences, is to continue to practice, practice and practice and the issue will eventually resolve. Currently, I’m making good progress and will continue to do so. At any rate, thanks for the input, I really appreciate the comments.
I found that when I can’t tap my foot with a steady rhythm this just reveals that I haven’t got the rhythm of the tune right. This happens to me especially with reels… I sometimes really think I can play a particular tune, but then I literally stumble over certain phrases as soon as I’m trying to tap along… like: Oh dear, I didn’t realise my timing was that bad! The obvious solution is to slow down until my playing doesn’t spoil my tapping any more (or the other way round). While this may be cumbersome initially, it usually improves fairly quickly. I just have to force myself to pay attention to it, rather than keep muddling through the tune.
Couldn’t agree more Megapop. I think I’ve finally got it though!!! Here is what worked for me, I asked my teacher to record the particular tune I was working on, in this case it was Killavil Jig, with the clicks on her metronome, at the correct speed. As I think I mentioned, I had bought The Amazing Slow Downer, and I down loaded the tune on that and slowed it down to hear the exact beat on the correct note, and practiced until I could speed it up, bit by bit, and it has really worked wonders for me. I hope that what I just said makes some sense, I think I may have explained it poorly; however, I hope you get the idea. At this point, things have really come together well. As you indicated, progress came rather quickly. That soft ware is really pretty cool.
I just have to force myself to pay attention to it, rather than keep muddling through the tune.