When we are learning the skills to play the piano creatively, it’s easy to think only about the sheer volume of notes that you need to find WHERE to put your fingers on the keyboard! But just as important as the WHERE is WHEN to put your fingers on the keyboard (and of course, when to take them off).

The musical term we give to the WHEN is called ‘Rhythm’. And though it’s something that guitarists are taught from the get-go, for pianists, sadly not as much emphasis is put on being able to play rhythm well.

So if this is something you’ve struggled with since learning the piano - know that you are not alone - this is a request I get all the time.

The reason for this lack of rhythm training is due to a traditional focus on reading note values from sheet music, rather than feeling a rhythm we hear, internalising it and interpreting it onto our instrument.

PREFER TO WATCH THE VIDEO? BE MY GUEST! IT’S RIGHT BELOW [6 minutes] or read on!

Rhythm is about talking with our hands?

In last week’s session we looked at some ways to build up the consistency of your internal musical clock so that you can keep a steady tempo.

Once you start to have a handle on keeping a tempo, you can start to play with setting rhythms to it.

Playing rhythms is particularly difficult for pianists because we often play different rhythms in each hand!

A traditional way to practise different rhythms is to play hands separately for ‘independence’ then put the hands together.

This actually makes rhythms MORE difficult! This is because you are thinking about TWO different things at once.

We want to think of the hands as two parts playing together, not separately. I like to think of it as a smooth conversation between the hands, talking together, vibing off each other to play a cohesive rhythm together - this way we’re creating ONE rhythm, with two different tools - rather than two different rhythms that we have to somehow fit together.

We’re creating ONE rhythm, with two different tools - rather than two different rhythms that we have to somehow fit together.

EXERCISE 1:

To practise this idea we start by playing something simple but different in each hand - no keys yet, just tap on the piano lid or surface.

Play the on-beat (main tempo) in one hand and off-beat in the other to a metronome. You’ll find this to be easy since the hands are alternating consistently in time.
Next take out some of those on-beats, but continue to play the off-beats in the other hand, you will need all your coordination to pull this off!
Now try taking out some of those off-beats, but continuing to play on-beats in the other hand.
Do the whole exercise again but swap which hand does on or off-beats.

Watch the video for a demonstration of this exercise!

HINT: Move your body to the tempo comes back in here - particularly if there is a prominent beat that you feel, but aren’t playing? I usually nod my head in the gap so that my body is still acknowledging that strong beat.

exercise 2:

Practise strengthening your internal clock even when you’re not at the piano:

Listen to music and identify the various tempo and rhythmic elements.
- Is there a drum playing the tempo - which part of the drum is playing the on-beat - and the off-beat?
- Is the main harmonic instrument playing the on-beat, off-beat or a mixture, or in between?
- Same with the melody?
- Use your head or body to acknowledge the main beat use your hands to tap any off-beats that stand out.
  By feeling the rhythm of the music you hear in your body you will start to feel more comfortable with different rhythms’ even if you aren’t playing them in a piano song. (Pick a song that’s quite repetitive, to make it easier to catch on)
Do exercise ONE along to a music recording - see if you can identify the on-beat for the left hand, and the off-beat for the right hand - and omit various beats as you feel the need.

The result:

These exercises will strengthen your feeling of the beat and the hands talking to each other, however, to be able to break down rhythms easily between the two hands and then into your ten fingers you will need to check out my 1-hour intensive coaching ‘Rhythm Nation’.