 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: tww
Date: 2003-02-09 17:47
Hi,
I am wondering if, in the development of an accurate sense of rhythm, it is better to set the metronome to subdivide beyond the basic rhythmic pulse (i.e. 8th notes in 4/4 time) or to tick every couple beats (i.e. once or twice per measure in 4/4 time). I see advantages to both - subdividing would help one to place all the notes correctly in time, but ticking once a measure would really encourage one to keep a steady tempo internally. I would appreciate some advice on this topic.
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-02-09 20:55
tww - really it only matters what works for you. The use of a metronome is a great aide to ensure you keep track of your inner clock. I rehearse my local community theatre group using an iBook, USB-MIDI interface and a Roland Synth. When I play back the "piano part" it plays exactly at the set metronome marking. Hence, by the end of the music rehearsals (before production starts) the chorus (and principals) have had no option but to sing exactly to the beat.
This has a net result of "bullying" my cast into working with an exact accompaniment - i never start off slow and build the tempo up - unless a passage is extremely difficult (which is seldom).
Hope this helps
diz Sydney
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Author: Jerry
Date: 2003-02-10 02:56
It would seem to me that both metronome techniques you mention would have a good purpose.
My teacher occasionally either uses the metronome double time (e.g. 8 beats in a 4/4 measure) or claps double time to make sure I play faster passages evenly. Initially practicing adagios, like Mozart stuff, or Baroque things (Pachebel's Canon in D), the double time helps for evenness.
But the opposite technique, half-time, strikes me as useful for later practice to allow variations in rythemic expression, while maintaining the overall tempo.
I, too, would like to hear some additional thoughts on this.
Jerry
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Author: nzdonald
Date: 2003-02-10 03:56
i have spent a lot of time practising orchestral excerpts with my Dr Beat metronome beating only the first beat in the bar.
- Beethoven 6 2nd mvt/Brahms 3 everything/Rach 2nd Symph slow mvt etc etc
for the unfinished Symph excert i set it so it is beating the first beat of a 6/8 bar (so that it beats the 1st beat of every 2nd bar)
this technique has improved my timing, there is no doubt. To begin with i set Dr Beat to do all the subdivisions, then strip them away one by one until only the 1st beat remains.
in 1998 i realised that there were many good qualities in my playing, but that i didn't have rhythmic accuracy, and that this was partially due not to an inability to subdivide, but to my tempo wavering and me actually subdividing at different speeds. Since i have worked with Dr Beat (which i won in the 1998 ICA orchestral audition competition!) i believe that this problem has been improved (i would say "eradicated" but that might sound a little vain?). Look at it this way, i've done three proffessional symphony auditions that i was not ashamed of, and won a trial for one of them.
i really recomend trying this out if you can. If you don't think you need to, then have a go anyway, everybody i know who has tried it has been suprised at how inaccurate they were.
donal
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Author: John Scorgie
Date: 2003-02-10 06:34
As pointed out above, the metronome has several uses. Probably the most important is to set and maintain a tempo for a musical group so that the group does not slow down like so many church choirs (the probable origin of the slang term "drag") nor speed up like many amateur musicians who lack a good sense of rhythm.
Many years ago, when I was a young player with an inflated opinion of my own skills, a great clarinetist showed me that my prized finger technique was actually quite ragged and uneven, not only in the remote keys but also to an alarming extent in the easy scales. He told me to set my metronome one tick to one note -- slow -- and not to increase speed until I could make each and every note in the scale of absolutely equal duration. Once I had this down, I could go to one tick for two notes, then one to four notes etc. This type of study not only improved my finger technique, but in conjunction with development of the air stream and a few other things, considerably improved my movement of sound from note to note. Highly recommended.
A word of warning about metronomes. The new electronic devices are not only reasonably priced but are far more accurate than the old mechanical ones (like my Seth Thomas) which must be leveled (actually plumbed) side to side in order to tick evenly.
BTW, disregard those who will criticize you for using a mechanical device (metronome) in an artistic endeavor (music). They have the chisel confused with the sculpture.
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Author: Bazzer the Jazzer
Date: 2003-02-10 14:53
Just for the sake of interest, I gave up playing clarinet from about 1962 till 1980, I never let a reed passed my lips, but my old Wittner metronome (I still have it) had lots of use during those musically barren years, I used it in my darkroom for counting exposures on the enlarger. So any musician/photographers out there if your new fangled digital electronic timer dies you can either count "thousands" or "elephants" or use your metronome! set it on 60, that is one second.
Barrie
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