Rhythm exercises – Upper Hands Piano Blog

July 27, 2022July 27, 2022

How to Play in Swing Rhythm

Swing rhythm has to do with eighth notes 🎵: it is the long-short “lazy” feel you hear in jazz tunes, as well as country, rock, folk and other music styles. Think about the songs Heart and Soul and Happy Birthday; both have eighth notes that “swing” because they are uneven, with a long-short feel. Swing is not notated in your sheet music; the eighth notes 🎵 in a piece meant to be played with swing rhythm look the same as usual 🎵. The word “Swing” is sometimes written as a tempo marking at the beginning of a swing rhythm piece, but sometimes it isn’t 🤪. You need to train your ear👂to tell whether a song is to be played in swing rhythm. You can do this by practicing my swing rhythm exercise below, and by listening to your song on Youtube.com and discerning whether the song uses even eighth notes🎵or eighth notes that swing🎵. Try playing all 12 scales with me, using Swing Rhythm in this video:

How to Play in Swing Rhythm using scales.

Once you get comfortable playing your scales in Swing, you can move on to playing Erie Canal, which is from BOOK 1 of my instructional series called Upper Hands Piano: A Method for Adults 50+ to Spark the Mind, Heart and Soul available on Amazon. Watch the video below then Download and Print the Erie Canal free sheet music below the video.

Erie Canal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va1rJDKuClM

How to play Swing Rhythm on Erie Canal, from Upper Hands Piano, Book 1 p.71

Erie Canal sheet music Download

I hope you find these videos on Swing Rhythm helpful! Swing is one of those mysterious unwritten rules of music theory that isn’t always taught. Someone must explain it to you, or you will never quite understand why Happy Birthday sounds kind of jaunty and uneven.

You might also want to visit this Simple Rhythm Exercise to help you keep a steady beat when alternating between eighth notes and quarter notes, and these Exercises to Help You Play Triplets.

Leave a comment below and tell us about your experiences with Swing Rhythm! I really appreciate comments!! You help others in the community of adult piano students when you ask a question or share an anecdote, so please don’t be shy!

With love and music, Gaili

Author, Upper Hands Piano (and Songs of the Seasons), Piano Powered, and The Music Remedy books!

P.S. Amazon has put my Piano Powered, BOOK 2 on a crazy sale ($3.93 instead of $19.95!) I don’t know how long it will last, so click to order now. It is almost the same as my Upper Hands Piano BOOK 2, but altered slightly for younger Adults and Teens:

P.P.S. More free sheet music is on its way August 1st, so be sure to subscribe to this blog in the top right of this page. Thanks!

June 27, 2022

Exercises to Help You Play Triplets

Rhythm is one of the most difficult music skills to teach and to learn. Last month I posted an exercise to help you keep your eighth notes to exactly twice as fast as your quarter notes. Today I would like to help you play triplets correctly.

Triplets Exercise #1

If you are beginner, Triplets Exercise #1 might be challenging for you. Eighth note triplets subdivide each beat into three equal parts. Click to print the Exercise #1 sheet below, then follow these steps:

1) Play your LH quarter notes along with my video, staying with my beat and listening to the RH triplets.
2) Play your LH quarter notes along with mine, singing “tri-pl-et” or “mu-si-cal”evenly for the triplets.
3) Play your RH triplets along with my video, and see if you can stay with my beat.
4) When you are ready, try playing Ex# 1 with hands together along with my video. FYI, my metronome is set at 50 BPM (beats per minute) if you want to try this exercise on your own.

Triplets Exercise #2

If you are an intermediate piano player, Triplets Exercise #2 might be challenging for you. Six quarter note triplets spread out evenly and equally over four beats. Click to print the Triplet Exercise #2 sheet below, then follow these steps:

1) Play your LH quarter notes with my video, listening to the sound of the RH quarter note triplets.
2) Sing “tri-pl-et” or “mu-si-cal” for the triplets while your LH plays the quarter notes along with mine.
3) Play just the RH quarter note triplets with mine.
4) After much practice with RH alone, try playing Ex #2 with hands together with the video. (FYI, my metronome is set at 90 BPM). (Note: Beginners might not be ready to play Exercise #2 for quite a while.)

Triplets appear in music often, so it’s helpful to practice this skill over time, before you encounter it in your music. Be patient with yourself; it can take days, weeks, months or more, to master playing 6 quarter note triplets against 4 quarter notes. It can feel like patting your head while rubbing your stomach! Keep playing with these videos until you can stay with my right and left hands. Often students think they are playing triplets correctly when they are not, so be sure to record yourself playing your triplets with mine to hear if they are aligning properly. Practice this skill at least a few days a week until you can play both exercises on your own, without the video. Once again, record yourself to be sure the triplets are even.

Let us know how you do with this exercise! Please subscribe in the upper right corner ↗️ of this page to get your July free sheet music next weekend!

With love and triplets 🎶, Gaili

P.S. If you are new to this blog, welcome! I am a veteran piano teacher of almost 35 years! I post free sheet music every month, arranged for beginning to intermediate piano students, plus posts like this one to motivate and inform. I have written piano instruction books for older adults (UpperHandsPiano.com), younger adults and teens (PianoPowered.com), Songs of the Seasons piano sheet music books for seasonal classical and popular favorites, and my latest piano/guitar/vocals books called The Music Remedy – sheet music collections to restore and revitalize the spirit. Check out my books on the websites above, or click below to view them on Amazon.com.

May 19, 2022

Simple Rhythm Exercise

One of the most challenging skills for adults learning to play a musical instrument for the first time is keeping a steady beat. I suggest that you record yourself playing your piece (using memo messages on an iPhone, or another recording app or device). If you are playing the correct notes but your piece doesn’t sound right, your rhythm is probably the culprit. I’d like to help you work on your rhythm issues.

Though most students know intellectually that two eighth notes are equal in value to one quarter note, they tend to think of eighth notes as” fast notes,” and often rush them. This is a very simple exercise to help you play eighth notes at exactly twice the speed of quarter notes. I am playing 2 measures of quarter notes, followed by 2 measures of eighth notes, then I repeat. If you have a mobile phone, a tablet or laptop, bring it to the piano and play this exercise from this email. Plug in some headphones and try your best to stay with me. Keep practicing until your rhythm is aligned with mine.

I am playing the D above middle C. You can play D with me, or choose another key such as A, F#, G or B.

Once you can keep your beat aligned with mine, go through the music you are playing now, identifying the quarter notes and eighth notes, making sure that your eighths are exactly twice as fast as your quarter notes. Record yourself, then see if you can tap a steady beat as you listen to your recording. If the beat is not steady, keep practicing small sections of your piece which contain quarter notes and eighth notes, and keep practicing my exercise.

This might seem elementary, but in my 35 years of teaching, I would say that keeping a steady beat between eighths and quarters is the most difficult thing for students to learn– both young and old alike.

Do you think this might be an issue for you? Let us know how you do when playing this exercise along with me. I can provide additional rhythm exercises if I see that there is interest.

Hope you have a lovely weekend! With love and music, Gaili

I have written piano instruction books for older adults (UpperHandsPiano.com), younger adults and teens (PianoPowered.com), Songs of the Seasons piano sheet music books for seasonal classical and popular favorites, and my latest piano/guitar/vocals books called The Music Remedy – sheet music collections to restore and revitalize the spirit. They might make great Fathers’ Day gifts for the piano playing dads in your life. Check out my books on the websites above, or click below to view them on Amazon.com.