Hi I have found a few problems while I'm learning about reading music, just wondered how everyone else learned this stuff:
1) I've trying to read some music that has triplets and normal quavers in the same bar, and I keep losing it. The rhythmic pattern looks like this (it's in 3/4):
beat 1 (triplet): crotchet then quaver
beat 2 (triplet): crotchet then quaver
beat 3 (normal): dotted quaver then a "half quaver" (last half as long in time)
I can get both of these rhythms by themselves (one and 2 sound like a jazz beat, and 3 sounds like mozarts birdcatcher) but not together. How should I practice this kind of thing? This above isn't the only rhythm pattern, it keeps changing and screwing me up, I want to be more fluent in reading rhythms. I think it also changes speed in the second page
2) When it comes to "trill" above the notes, I see other people playing the same piece (on youtube) alternate it with the next note in the scale really quickly... when I do it I just let my finger go nuts and it sounds pretty ok, but is there some rule about exactly how many "trill" notes go in the gap? Or do you just guess it and do it as fast as possible?
Some theory things that confuse me
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ObscureStar
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:36 pm
Re: Some theory things that confuse me
A couple of tricks that can work.
Put the flute down and ignore the notes for a little bit. Try just clapping out the rhythm. Sometimes it's also useful to look a little further than the first few bars and see if there's another bit that has a similar structure but is somewhat easier on your head, get the hang of that and then come back to the first bit.
Working with a metronome or an electric keyboard can be a big help for keeping the timing consistent and working on the triplets.
Transcribe the music into a slower tempo. Expand the triplets to quarter notes and scale up everything else accordingly. This is tedious but it's a good mental exercise anyhow.
If that doesn't work, you might try grabbing some free MIDI authoring software and transcribe the notes into midi and then have the computer play it for you. Then set that on a loop and play it in a duet until you feel like you can do the timing on your own. If it's a popular piece, you might be able to find an existing midi or performance of it and save yourself some time in finding your digital duet partner.
Put the flute down and ignore the notes for a little bit. Try just clapping out the rhythm. Sometimes it's also useful to look a little further than the first few bars and see if there's another bit that has a similar structure but is somewhat easier on your head, get the hang of that and then come back to the first bit.
Working with a metronome or an electric keyboard can be a big help for keeping the timing consistent and working on the triplets.
Transcribe the music into a slower tempo. Expand the triplets to quarter notes and scale up everything else accordingly. This is tedious but it's a good mental exercise anyhow.
If that doesn't work, you might try grabbing some free MIDI authoring software and transcribe the notes into midi and then have the computer play it for you. Then set that on a loop and play it in a duet until you feel like you can do the timing on your own. If it's a popular piece, you might be able to find an existing midi or performance of it and save yourself some time in finding your digital duet partner.