Time-Studies-Guided-Tour-Doing-Time-Rhythm-Series-by-Bruce-Arnold-for-Muse-Eek-Publishing-Inc-Time Rhythm Guided Tour

Time Rhythm Guided Tour

Time Rhythm Guided Tour

The Time Rhythm Guided Tour gives you an understanding of the books that Muse-Eek.com has created to help students master various aspects of time and rhythm. Time and Rhythm books publishing by Muse Eek Publishing cover many aspects of rhythm and time.  Muse Eek believes that a student needs to practice time and rhythm (and for that matter everything musical) in various “contexts” before they can truly master certain aspects of this crucial music element.  You will find many innovative and unique courses in this section of the Muse Eek website and each will be explained as well as giving you an order in which to tackle each course. It is highly recommended that you contact Mr. Arnold via email to get his recommendation on how to structure your practice time with these books. Please include the amount of time you have to dedicate to practicing each day.

General Information about the Time Rhythm Guided Tour

You will see triangles next to the Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Level sections. Click on the triangle and you will find information about the recommended courses.

Organization of the Time Rhythm Guided Tour Page

While there are three sections Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced think of these subsections as the “basic” courses you need to get through to at least have a basic ability with rhythm. There are many other courses that will then be discussed which assume you have worked through at least the intermediate level course.

Feel Time Don’t Count Time

There are a few principles of time and rhythm that should be understand from the beginning. At the earliest possible time in your practice history you should start to feel time using larger units of time. For instance, rather than having a metronome clicking on every beat have it click on every other beat or even larger units of time. While this may seem like a small distinction it is not. The way you feel time will determine all of the following:

  • A better feel for music because you are less metronomic in your playing
  • The ability to play fast because you are bogging down your mind with micro rhythm structures
  • An ability to read at a much higher level because you train your eye to use “Beat Reading.”
  • In advanced stages you use what is called Long Line Rhythm to feel larger structures such as whole forms of a piece of music
  • An advanced ability to express melodies in and out of time while feeling a larger form as you basic pulse
  • A better ability to play with other musicians especially drums when they use alternate types of beats, fills or following a drum solo.
  • An ability to play odd time signatures by feel one or two measures of time.

Feeling a Larger Pulse

Muse Eek has two tools for helping you get stated with this concept of feeling time as a larger pulse. First there is the MetroDrone which helps you feel larger pulses but also is great as an ear training companion because it has a drone incorporated which allows you to always be in a key center as you practice. It is also available in the MetroDrone App. It is important to also read the Long Line Rhythm book because this gives you information on how to use the MetroDrone as well as videos so you can see direction applications of these principles. All Intermediate to Advance students should be using these two tools if they want to achieve advanced skills in rhythm and time.

The Big Metronome

The Big Metronome should also be mentioned at this point. This is a dedicated course in develop an sense of larger beats within music. If gives you step by step instructions and many exercises to apply the concept of feel time within a larger pulse. It is meant for intermediate to advance students.

What are Metric Levels?

Throughout this page and the books that are discussed you will hear about the idea of playing on 4 metric levels. Music is usually written on one of four metric levels. An super basic example would be a piece of music written with:

  • Whole, halves and quarter notes: Metric Level One
  • Halves, quarters and eighth notes: Metric Level Two
  • Quarters, eighths and sixteenth notes: Metric Level Three
  • Eighths, sixteenth and thirty second notes: Metric Level Four

Various styles of music are written on the four metric levels so it’s important that you can read on all four of these levels.

  • Fast Jazz and many classical pieces are written with Metric Level One
  • Rock, Jazz, Classical and 100’s of more styles use Metric Level Two
  • Funk, Rock, Classical and many other idioms use Metric Level Three
  • Metric level Four is use in all idioms when playing a slow tempos

Just a footnote that there are actually unlimited number of metric levels once you consider superimposing one time over another.

Other Course found in the Time Rhythm Guided Tour

There are some additional courses that are mostly used by advanced students that should also be mentioned:

  • The Doing Time Series help you develop Long Line Rhythm capabilities with a Blues and a 32 bar form. These are great exercises to develop this larger sense of rhythm and form.
  • Contemporary Rhythms V1 and Contemporary Rhythms V2 deal with the way many contemporary composers in particular classic composer write rhythms. It is the way that they are notated that presents the problem to a reader. By working with these courses you won’t get caught short with a deciphering a rhythm that is written in a way that you don’t understand.
  • Tools for Music Mastery Two uses both Long Line Rhythm practice with Ear Training to give you highly concentrated practice. See page for examples
  • Rhythmic Studies for All Instrumentalists by Tony Moreno is a great book for the Intermediate to Advanced student seeking to learn how to superimpose time and other concepts. Usually used by drummers but is great for any musician. Highly Recommend!!
  • If should be mentioned for student looking for sight reading material that the members area has a 2 gigabyte download of classical music for sight reading.

Reading Notes and Rhythm

Obviously one of the goals with learning rhythms is to combine it with notes. Muse Eek has two courses that are great for student at any level.

Conclusion of Time Rhythm Guided Tour

As you can see Muse Eek Publishing Inc. has a very large scope of books to help you with everything from basic rhythms to super advanced studies. Rhythm is one of the most overlooked aspects of playing music but is usually the cause of you “not getting the gig.” You can play fast and cool interesting melodies but it they aren’t played in time and with a good feel you will not be successful as a professional musician. Please take rhythm seriously it not only helps you play better but there are so many tangible and intangible assets you will gain from having a good rhythm sense.


Music Education Genealogy Chart

You might find the “Music Education Genealogy Chart” located on Bruce Arnold’s artist website interesting. You will clearly see the historic progression of pedagogy that is the basis for Muse Eek Publishing Products. Great musicians throughout history have been studying the ideas presented by Muse-eek.com which derives its content from a a lineage that stretches back to Scarlatti!

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About Muse Eek

Muse-Eek Publishing Company is a publishing house with a broad focus on music education. Muse-Eek also publishes fine art and poetry books, and has its own record label, Muse-Eek Records. Our online presence, Muse-Eek.com specializes in the publication of music workbooks, video courses and sound and video recordings that teach the foundation of good musicianship through groundbreaking and innovative methods along with traditional methods that have been taught for centuries. These historic methods date back through centuries of great musicians and educators. To see these interesting relationship please see Bruce Arnold's Music Education Genealogy Chart which tells you a lot about the where many of his educational ideas took root and some of the educational pillars that are evident throughout the books you find on this website. The Muse-Eek Records catalogue contains a diverse selection of music much of it by Bruce Arnold in collaboration with some of today's best players in classical, jazz, rock and avant-garde music. These are available in CD, DVD and mp3 formats. We believe in a working relationship with our music education customers; they are free to interact with the author after purchasing a book to help them through any material they don’t understand or which they need further clarification. We also have a member's area which contains a wealth of free information to help a student understand music at a deeper level and access additional files for our books. Many of our books offer cutting edge ideas regarding ear training, guitar technique, rhythm and time. These methods have a proven track record. Our main author Bruce Arnold has taught at some of the most prestigious music schools in the world, including Princeton, Dartmouth, Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, The New School and NYU. Along with Mr. Arnold's publications on the Muse-eek.com website he has also written books and appeared in educational DVDs for MelBay and Truefire. Over the years Mr Arnold has used his experiences with his students to develop a program that can elevate a musician's ability to world class caliber. If you have questions about any of our books or recordings please send us an email. Along with general questions about either our record label or our publishing company we also welcome questions to help a student choose the proper materials to reach their goals. We have over 300 products to help you learn any style of music and to develop your musicianship to its peak. We also make recommendations for practice schedules for students who use our methods to get the most out of their study time. This, along with personal interaction with Bruce through email, nurtures the student's ability through a closely monitored situation, ensuring there is no wasted time or misunderstanding.