Rhythm and Timing vs. Ear Training vs. Technique

My musical practice is all based around repertoire - learning and re-learning the tunes that get played at the Irish sessions and contra jams that I attend. Within that overarching repertoire practice, there is room for focusing on rhythm and timing, on ear training, and on technique. 

Of those three sub-categories, I'm realizing that rhythm and timing is most important. No matter how fast or slow you play, maintaining good rhythm and timing = having good feel. Most of us have a tendency to speed up. I know that I do. To work on this, I'm really valuing the metronome in a way I never had before. I have played a lot with a click and/or a drum beat, but usually the clicks or beats are so frequent that it's really difficult to get off track. 

Recently I've been experimenting with slowing the metronome down but playing at the same speed. For example, set the metronome at 80bpm and play along with it. Once you're comfortable with that, change the metronome to 40bpm but still play at the same speed you were when the metronome was at 80. This will make it a little harder to stay in sync. Once you have that going smoothly, change the metronome to 20 bpm but still play at the same speed as before. This will be much more difficult, requiring a conscious effort and an internal sense of rhythm to stay on the beat. Most over the counter metronomes don't go that "slow", but you can find metronome apps like Time Guru that allow for 20bpm or slower.

Of course ear training or learning/remembering the tune by ear rather than sheet music is a struggle that gets easier over time. Michael Eskin describes a method of ear training that I've started to adopt. In a nutshell you listen to a slowed down section of a tune like just the A part for a period of 10 or 15 instruments. You can sing along like a "dubba dubba" muttering of the melody, but don't try to play along. Just listen. Then go do something else for a while like chores or taking a walk. When you come back, pick up your instrument and try to play as much by ear as you can recall just from memory alone. It might be nothing at first, but try for at least five minutes before giving up. Then listen to the recording again and repeat the process. This is not a quick fix but over time you can learn the tune this way.

Another thing you can do is take a tune you're on the cusp of learning, like one you almost have, and play it from memory without looking at the sheet music. If you do need to listen to jog your memory, only listen to the very being as an aural insipid. Then sing it to yourself at a speed that you can easily play. If you have metronome that you can tap, tap at the speed that you are singing to set the click tempo. Maybe that happens to be 60 bpm. Then play it from memory to the click of the metronome. Play it in real time filling in any notes or measures you can't quite recall, but staying on the beat. 

Or take a tune that you know really well, note for note, and play a completely improvised version of it applying melodic variations, triplets, double stops, or other ornamentation/embellishments...as much as you can think of while still staying in time with the metronome click. Keep the actual sound of the tune in your head and know where you are at any given time with regard to the AA/BB structure, but otherwise play freely. 

Of course technique is all part of this as well. I sometimes have a hard time defining what exactly technique is, but I think it qualifies as everything from how you hold your instrument, to how you sit balanced with good posture and no tension in the body, to pick direction, to economy of motion, to dynamics (loud vs quiet, straight vs swung), to staccato versus legato, to how and when you breathe. I think it all comes down to being present and mindful of the movements you are making and how you are holding your body. 

I kind of rambled but the point of this post was to convey my belief that rhythm and timing is the most important element that needs work right now. However, within that work there is also the opportunity for ear training and being mindful of technique, all under the broader aspect of increasing repertoire and fine tuning or re-tooling the tunes you already know under the construct of this newfound internal sense of rhythm.

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Playing In Sessions May Have Had A Negative Impact On My Timing

Today is Tuesday. Over the 8 day span from this past Sunday to the Sunday before that, I played in 7 different sessions. That's a lot. Technically one of them was a tune learning session, but it was still playing music with others in a group setting. Not to mention that since I moved to Oregon two years ago I've probably logged over 500 hours of session playing, and that's likely a conservative estimate. 

All this time playing Irish tunes at pubs and cafés has been great for increasing my repertoire, exposing me to session speeds, and gaining experience playing with others. At the same time, I'm starting to think that it may have had a negative impact on my rhythm and timing. Something is off and I think it's because I've been relying too much on group tempo instead of working on developing my own internal sense of rhythm. Or it could be that all this time spent adjusting to the fluctuating speeds of a session environment has caused my own sense of time to erode. 

I also think that going to all these sessions may have forced me to play at speeds faster than I was ready to, hoping that my fingers would eventually catch up. I've often had to sacrifice playing cleanly to in order keep up with the session speed, glazing over trouble spots and being in a constant state of speed up/skip notes, speed up/skip notes, just to hang on.

I do spend a fair amount of time playing and practicing tunes at home, but I've mostly been doing this by playing along with recordings or drum machine tracks. When you're playing along with a click or backing track it's difficult to notice any rhythm or timing issues you might have because the constant beat keeps you in place like training wheels on a bicycle.

I am going to address this head on by working more diligently with a metronome - using it as a tool and not as a crux. One example is setting the metronome to click once per bar, or once every other bar, or once every 4th bar so that you're not constantly being kept in place by a click. You have to start by getting the feel of playing along with the metronome at say 80 bpm. Then set it to 20 bpm but still play as if it were 80 bpm so that the clicks only happen every other measure. Once a tune is in sync, like Lark in the Morning played at 72 bpm over an 18 bpm metronome, try transitioning to another jig like Willie Coleman's without missing a beat! (I mention this specific example because I was able to do this successfully today just before beginning to write this post). 

Another idea is to use Soundslice to create practice versions of tunes where the sound of the melody is interspersed with silent measures where you have to play on your own for a while before the music comes back on in time. Yet another idea is to set up a play along track at a low volume. Start playing along with the track, then keep playing as you walk to another part of the house where you can't quite hear the play along track anymore. Play a little while out of ear shot then walk back into the room where the backing track is playing and see if you are in sync.

And do all this while being mindful of ergonomic movement without stress, having proper posture, and maintaining a relaxed feel while playing. Tension in your shoulders and hands can cause adrenaline to spike, which makes you rush. I think my main problem is speeding up. I've ordered Bruce Arnold's The Big Metronome book, so I'm hoping that has some exercises that I can adapt as well! 

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A New Way of Using a Metronome - Very Slowly

I really need to work on my timing. Speeding up or slowing down - not playing in a steady time - is an issue for me at sessions. I was listening to an interview with music teacher Robb Cappelletto, who has become known for being Billy Strings’ guitar teacher. In the interview Robb said (regardless of what genre or style you might play or want to learn), “We always need to talk about technique. We always need to talk about time and rhythm. We always need to talk about ear training. We always need to understand harmony. We always need to (talk about fingering patterns). Whatever level the student is at, we can always talk about all of these. There's always a higher level to take something to.”

The one that stood out for me is timing and rhythm. Later in that same podcast, Robb says:

You can use the metronome like bumpers and bumper bowling to keep nudging you back to the center. Or you can use the metronome like an electric fence. And the latter is far more helpful.

If your metronome is playing on every beat, you're not keeping time. The metronome is keeping time for you. There is so much clicking that there's no way you could possibly go out of time if you actually know how to play.

(I'm going to paraphrase some more things that Robb said in that interview)

Make the click one beat per measure. Now you have a lot of opportunity to speed up or slow down and get off with the metronome because you're playing eight eighth notes per click now. Continually cut the metronome in half. If your metronome is at 120, then you cut it to 60, but you're still playing the same speed. There's just less metronome to keep you on track. But there's still enough metronome to remind you if you are keeping time enough. You're testing your ability to keep time rather than using the metronome to keep human time.

You have to start with enough click to train a pulse. You need to train your ability to hear and have a reference of what even time is. You can't just put the metronome on 5 (bpm) and play 150. You can't just do that right away. It's gonna be frustrating and probably not very beneficial. So, you start with the metronome as an eighth note, and then you cut the metronome down to a quarter note. And then you cut it down to a half note. And then if you can get to the point where the metronome is once a bar, or once every 2 bars, or once every 4 bars.

If you can get to the point where you can do that, the metronome did not keep time. It was just there to let you know if you kept time or not. The metronome is not keeping the time for you. Continually cutting your metronome in half is something that everybody can build up to. Cut the metronome in half and make sure you're still keeping the time.


Robb also cautions, if you can't sing it, you can't play it.

If you try playing it before you can sing it then you're essentially just guessing and hoping the frets are gonna remind you what it sounds like. You’re just remembering the order of operations and what it looks like, but not actually thinking of the sound.

You should be able to dubba dubba dubba your way through anything before you try to play it. Because if you don't know what it sounds like, you don't know the rhythm, you don't really know the shape of the melody. You're just hoping the confusing matrix of strings and frets is going to solve this problem for you, and it won't.


OK, so I tried this exercise described above where you put the metronome at like 20 bpm, but play at 80 bpm so that you’re essentially playing two measures of music per click. It's really hard! This is going to take some practice, which is good. However, this concept inspired me to create these play along practice tracks for the jig Lilting Banshee and the reel The Maid Behind the Bar. In each case there are long gaps between melody where you have to fill in the blanks yourself and then hopefully sync back up with the music at the right time. Give it a shot!

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Contra Dance Tunes Might Just Be My Favorite Types of Tunes

I'm an amateur, pedestrian musician. More of a participant than a leader. Not an authority in any way. Just someone who likes plucking melodies. I often play in Irish sessions, but I think my favorite types of tunes happen to be New Englandy contra tunes more than straight Irish trad session tunes.

There is some overlap of course, but I feel like contra tunes are less notey than Irish ones, with more emphasis on melody, beat, rhythm, and groove, and less about ornamentation and a constant stream of notes. This works for me because I like simple, basic versions of tunes. Even though I play tenor banjo - an instrument known for trying to fill as much space as possible with triplets and embellishments - I prefer to play a more sparse version of a tune, if possible. 

My experience with contra tunes is somewhat limited. I've never played for a contra dance, however, I have attended some contra tune jams where the pace is more jam speed than dance speed. I've been taking note of my favorite tunes as they come up and these include All The Way to Galway, Doon the Brae, Road to Boston, Jamie Allen, Scotty O'Neil, McLenon's Reel, Hut on Staffin Island, Riding on a Load of Hay, Walls of St. Malo, Horace Hanesworth, Robertson's Reel, Rose Tree, Shoes and Stockings, and William Blake's Dead, as well as Fair Jenny's Jig, Camp Pleasant Jig, Early in the Year, Flowers of Autumn, Moon and Seven Stars, and Maison de Glace. The 3/4 time tunes Crested Hens and Far Away also fall into this category. I think if you had to classify these tunes, the non-jig ones would be like polkas or marches. Very distinctive melodies that are easy to sing/hum/mutter and hear in your head. 

Here are some other things I like about contra music:

-The piano accompaniment. It stays right on the beat, providing a steady rhythm.  

-How the tunes can come from a wide variety of traditions, including Ireland, Scotland, England, Appalachian, Québécois, Cape Breton, New England, and more. Agnostic in this regard.

-Lots of "modern day" tunes (written within the last 50 years) are part of the active repertoire by composers such as Bob McQuillen, Randy Miller, Larry Unger, Keith Murphy, Brenda Stubbert, and Judi Morningstar.

-The music slightly less beholden to the diatonic keys of the Irish flute and D-whistle, so you see more sharps and more flats in the key signature, and tunes will include notes on the low G string of a fiddle.

-There's a wider variety of acceptable instruments. Like I said, there's the piano element. But I've also played in contra jams with saxophone, trombone, and silver concert flutes. You might also hear clarinet, marimba, or bass guitar. Instruments that would be controversial in a more strict Irish trad idea of appropriate instrumentation.

-Recordings by bands such as Wild Asparagus, Hillbillies from Mars, and Supertrad are really fun to listen to!

Anyway, that's it. 

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