Greetings all,
Recently I’ve noticed that my timing has gone to pieces! No choice here but to play by myself, so I’m guessing thats where it has come from. Any advice for a remedy?
(Oh and I cant do the foot tapping thing…mental block from my first teacher telling me he’d break my legs if I did it! (see if you can guess who it was 
)
I had trouble with timing too after stoping the band thing and doing more solo piping. I couldn’t afford a metronome so I downloaded a bunch of midi format metronome tempos that I play over my PC speakers while I practice.
In a few short months my timing has improved ten-fold and I am also finding that I no longer require my feet to tap. I’ve learnt to feel the rhythm and use that as my timekeeper. When I record myself and listen back I find that this is proving very successful.
Cheers,
DavidG
Lots of Japanese electronics companies make inexpensive little digital quartz metronome boxes. I have one by Seiko and also the BOSS DB12 Dr. Beat. As Ausdag has mentioned, there are lots of programs that can do the same thing that will run on your PC.
As a person who also does most of their playing alone at home, what I notice is that learning to play with a beat box is very similar to learning to play along with others. Having to learn to listen and follow along with the beat box makes you “come out of yourself” and listen to others, similar to playing in a session or with a group. Even if you don’t need a beat box to learn timing, using one just to train yourself to play along with something/someone outside of yourself is really useful.
I know several people who have told me they just cannot play along with a beat box. They say it is too difficult to listen to. Guess who needs timing help more than anyone else?
djm
I bought a quartz metronome for about $25. It has the added advantage of an ear piece so that I’m the only one who hears the beat. It’s about the size of a pack of cigarettes which makes it much more convenient to carry around than Ausdag’s PC 
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Why do I feel the need to carry a metronome with me? I occasionally play for Irish dancers who are VERY particular about the speed. Jigs are played at 112 not 110 or 114. I don’t argue with women who wear that much steel on their shoes.
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Sorry, Alan, you are taking me way out of context. Learning to play at a precise beat is not the point. Learning to play to any source, at any speed or rhythm, that is outside of yourself is the point. My point is that someone who cannot come out of their own head to play to a beat box will have even more difficulty trying to play along with others.
djm
To clarify my first post, I find the metronome only useful as far as training my fingers to play ornaments and triplets etc in time. To really learn to play in time is to learn to feel the rhythm. You have to, at risk of sounding etherial and New Age crap, become ‘one’ with the tune. That’s when you no longer need your foot or any external references. As a Brazilian friend of mine who teaches percussion (all that complex Brazilian stuff) tells his pupils “you can walk in time naturally, you can play in time naturally”. The secret is getting over those inhibitions which we don’t realise we have which, the older we get, the more they cloud our natural in-time-abilty; which is completely reversible.
Cheers,
DavidG
Not sure I agree with this. In the context of a session, yes, you hit the nail on the head but in the context of a group my experience is that everyone follows the percussionist or, if no percussionist and depending on the tune, the feature instrument of that tune (be it flute, fiddle, pipes, etc).
Jerry O’Sullivan hammers the point in every class and workshop he gives on the importance of timing and playing with a metronome (at all levels of playing). Though, no other teacher has made as much an issue of it. I do find that it helps set your mental clock and other musicians will definitly appreciate it IMO.
I use one made by Tama, the company that makes drums/precussion instruments. It has a blinking light, has a volume control that goes pretty loud, and can be piped into a stereo or amp for added volume for those concert pitch chanters. It also has a digital read out for the desired speed and can play a variety of rhythems for differentiating jigs, reels and hornpipes as well (with added creans and tripplets). pretty cool and under $100.
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I suggest this to my students: http://www.metronomeonline.com/
Developing your internal clock is the best thing you can do for yourself and others you might play with.
Marching or using both feet helps you get a steadier beat and set your internal clock too.
I agree with DJM… Alan I think you are being a little narrow-minded about this. If it helps you keep time better, which is the least it will do, it will help you play better with others and interact musically a lot better!!!
I agree with Alan.
Playing straight in tempo is all very nice but it has no feeling.
Playing with others puts the feeling in, something you can’t learn playing against a metronome as it’s too straight and static.
At least i think that’s his point too 
There are pros and cons for using or not using a metronome… I do not see how it could hurt to practice with it from time to time. I also think that playing without it is a better way to learn… for the simple reason that one has enough to contend with trying to play these things without having to fumble around with trying to follow a steady beat. 
Another option is to find recordings of your favourite tunes and play along with them.
As a beginning player who is severely timing challenged, both a metronome and tapping my feet has helped tremendously in learning how to keep time. One of the other guys in the club started a once a month session that starts with a slow session. My timing work outside of that slow session has definitely helped me play along with other people as well as CD’s.
I hope to get to the point that my son will no longer refer to me as “arrhythmic”.
John
does the timing of bellows pumping in any way align with the tempo of the piece?
i used to play drums (albeit some time ago) and play guitar and think i have a halfway decent sense of tempo. however, even doing the quarter notes from Lesson 1 of the Clarke tutor is really difficult for me rythmically.
i believe this is because i’m being thrown by the rythym of my pumping.
-will
This is a big no-no. Its really easy to fall into the trap of playing the chanter with the bellows. Use the bellows to feed the bag only. Use pressure on the bag to drive the chanter. There is not timing on the bellows. Its only used when the bag needs to be pumped up again.
You should be able to inflate the bag once and then play a scale up and down before needing to take ONE more pump. The trick is to learn to feel when the bag needs another pump with the bellows. You should stop and just learn to use the bellows before learning tunes, etc. Each pump with the bellows should be a smooth steady movement, not a fast jerk.
This is one of the big gaps in the Clarke tutor - not introducing the set to a new player. Perhaps it was written with the idea that more experienced players would be ready to hand. Get in front of an experienced player at your first opportunity. Ten minutes with a teacher can save you months of error.
djm
Depends on how fast you play the scale. Each note held for 5 seconds and you’re going to need more thn one pump of the bellows.
Back to the topic - the thing I found with foot tapping is that it is no guarantee to be in time.
Cheers,
DavidG
didn’t quite make myself clear, perhaps. i’m not playing the chanter with the bellows (not in the way i believe you mean). it’s just that i seem to need to refill the bag every two measures or so (actually more like every one and a half, which was what was throwing me). it’s possible i’m not deflating the bag enough.
practicing playing a continuous note i got into a rythym of spending about equal time squeezing the bag and pumping the bellows (ie. deflate the bag for x amount of time, then inflate it for x, in one stroke).
still, finding someone experienced to pester probably isn’t bad advice.