Honing Question: Slow Practice And Rhtymic Bones

Hi Alan, I have just received "honing" and I am very excited about it. It is really fun to read and very informative. I really like how the first few chapters go back to the fundamentals in the DVD (which I thought I already knew), and bring new levels of refinement into the expereince. I have a questions regarding the "Rhythmic Bones" chapter. You describe there practising at 1/4 of tempo or less using a metronome. How do you actually do that? For example, I am working on 2/4 piece that has a quarter note pulse of 100bpm. If I were to practise it at quarter tempo I would need a pulse of 25bpm. The metronome only goes as low as 40, so I would need to change the pulse to eighth notes 50bmp. I can certainly see the advantage of practising in such a slow speed, but how do you deal with the change of pulse? Don't you really need to feel the quarter note as the main pulse in order to play musically? If you have an extra metronome click between beats, doesn't it ruin the illusion that you are generating the click rather than responding to it? On a side note - I have 2 metronomes, one electronic with a "beeping" sound and one mechanical with a "click". I find it is much easier to create the illusion that I am causing the metronome to make a sound with the "clicking" mechanical metronome. I think its overall sound is probably shorter and more distinct and probably blends better with the key attack sound. Do you have a similar experience with metronomes? Zack

Hello Zack, Thanks for your kind comments on Honing. Nice to hear that it's helping! To answer your first question, I actually put the weight thing on the mechanical metronome further down (up, I mean) the pendulum than it normally goes, making it actually tick at 25 or thereabouts! But if you can't do that with your metronome, why not trick your mind further, like imagining that every second tick comes from "that other metronome, the one you wouldn't dream of making click..." As for the second question, my experience is absolutely similar - I find it much easier to trick my mind with my old Wechner mechanical than with those silly beeping things... A much more satisfying and fruitful experience! All the best, AFF

I tried to do that with my metronome, and it ticked so slowly that I thought its pulse became uneven It is probably more likely that my rhythmic perception was lost at the slower beat. I even find 40bpm a bit tricky when I have to subdivide it evenly to 16th notes or triplets and I often rush the subdivisions and have to wait on the last note before the next beat note. I think to some extent you recommend this practise to create "micro-pauses", but I tend to overdo it at slow tempos. I think all of this means I should spend more time doing slow practise. I think it's best with memorized pieces that I already feel quite confident to play, so I can put all my attention on "generating" the slow metronome pulse.

Often with the mechanical metronome, you can fix an unevenness by putting a piece of paper under one side, tipping it slightly. How many sheets of paper do you need to prop one side up to make it absolutely even? Do this, and THEN try that practice technique... It is probably more likely that my rhythmic perception was lost at the slower beat. I even find 40bpm a bit tricky when I have to subdivide it evenly to 16th notes or triplets and I often rush the subdivisions and have to wait on the last note before the next beat note. I think to some extent you recommend this practise to create "micro-pauses", but I tend to overdo it at slow tempos. I think overdoing micropauses is fine, even advisable at first. Later on you can reduce, but overdoing it helps you get a 'feel' for it, and is probably one of the necessary steps in learning it... Nice comments! AFF

Often with the mechanical metronome, you can fix an unevenness by putting a piece of paper under one side, tipping it slightly. How many sheets of paper do you need to prop one side up to make it absolutely even? Do this, and THEN try that practice technique... AFF This is very interesting. I have measured the surface where I place the metronome with a level and it is fairly even, but I still had the feeling that at slow speeds the rhythm stopped being even. So I downloaded a free audio editing software and recorded my metronome with the weigth being above 40, and then measured the distance between ticks. It turns out the metronome really became uneven!! The variance was as much as 3.5 seconds for the lowest tick and 4.1 seconds for the highest. It seems that I put the weigth way too high and the pendulum lost it's balanced continous movement. With the weight slightly lower, I can get the metronome fairly even. There is still a 2% difference between the left click and the right click - now I can start playing with thin pieces of paper to balance it!!! (That is until we have another earthquake in Toronto - a very unusual event indeed that happened 2 days ago) Alan, how do you measure your mechanical's metronome accuracy to know how many layers of paper to put on each side - do you record it and analyze it or just listen to it and feel the eveness? Is a 3% error fairly reasonable to practise with? Is it worth the hassle of trying to balance it?

Sorry I missed the earthquake, I like that kind of thing... I think it's worth it to balance it ultimately - but I do it by ear not by recording. By ear, if you close your eyes you should not be able to tell when it's clicking right or left... AFF

Sorry I missed the earthquake, I like that kind of thing... We had a few days of crazy weather too - some houses got smashed by Tornado up in Midland. Ultimately, the earth itself is in unstable equilibrium. I think it's worth it to balance it ultimately - but I do it by ear not by recording. By ear, if you close your eyes you should not be able to tell when it's clicking right or left... AFF I have tried to balance it with pieces of paper, measure it with a level and also record and analyze it. My conclusion is that with my metronome it is very hard to make it more accurate than 2%-3%. With my ear I cannot tell the difference, and it is good enough for me to generate the illusion that I am generating a pulse. Besides, music probably sounds more alive when there are some slight built-in rhythmic variations. Zack

Well put! Another 'well put!' AFF