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.

Beginners Information for the Time Rhythm Guided Tour

If you are either just getting started learning music or know you need to get your rhythmic ability together as far a feeling, reading or playing various rhythms then the Rhythm Primer would be the best book to start your study. This book gives you simple rhythms on four metric levels with detailed instructions for each level as well as midi files so you can check your accuracy at any tempo. This study should take about 3 months to finish doing 3 or 4 pages of rhythms a day. If you are a total beginner this could take a longer period of time.

If you are either just getting started learning music, how to read music, and understand all the basics then the Rhythm Primer is the perfect book. It gives you the following:

• An entire section of the book that shows you how to read and understand all basic rhythms.
• Tricks to help you play harder rhythms like triplets.
• A “Quick Start” page which will give you targeted advice on how to proceed through the book based on your current level.
• A graduated method that starts you with extremely easy rhythms and then slowly makes them more complex.
• Exercises using only one pitch. This means you can really concentrate on learning just the rhythms
• Downloadable free audio examples of each exercise in the form of midifiles. Midifile format allows you to control the tempo of the exercise making it the perfect kind of file to use with these exercises. These are found in the free members area.

You should also work on the first level of Rhythm Ear Training so that you can start to recognize rhythms when you here them. It is also a good idea to get the Rhythm Ear Training Video Course because this gives you crucial information on the types of music that use various rhythms. This helps you make sense of what types of rhythms and the metric level used by various styles of music.

After Rhythm Primer you have the option to move on the Rhythm Primer Volume Two which gives you the same types of rhythm exercises but in a 3/4 time signature. You could also work on Rhythm Primer Volume Two in conjunction with the books listed in the intermediate student book list.

Please also note that you should at least read the information about the MetroDrone and the Long Line Rhythm courses so that you understand those principles in general. A beginning student can start with the MetroDrone but it might be good to wait a few weeks before starting practice with it because you have a big learning curve with all the basics of rhythm to get through first.

Intermediate Level Student Time Rhythm Guided Tour

This is the level for the following types of students:

• A High school student preparing to enter a college majoring as music performance
• A professional or seeking to be professional musician that needs to fix sight reading skills or rhythm problems
• A student that has completed the beginning studies with Rhythm Primer

All intermediate students should use the following courses:

• MetroDrone
• Rhythm Primer
• Rhythms Volume One
• Rhythms Volume Two
• Rhythm Ear Training
• Help Files for Rhythm found in the members area will give you midi files, Beat Reading exercise and other downloads important to your rhythmic ability

Specific information on each course. See links for full explanation:

• MetroDrone should be used with all courses in the intermediate level with a goal to feel time first on 1/2 notes, then whole measures and then mulitple measures
• Rhythm Primer exercises should be played at fast tempos as outlined in the course. Please note the Rhythm Primer gives you a complete guide to rhythms, counting rhythms and understanding the basics in case there are an weaknesses in your understanding.
• Rhythms Volume One gives you eighth note rhythms with rests and ties. The course has midi files either found within the download or can be downloaded in the members area for free. You need to learn how to read these rhythms with both straight and swung eighths. Your goal is 1/2 note equals 120 BPM
• Rhythms Volume Two gives you sixteenth note rhythms with rests and ties. The course has midi files either found within the download or can be downloaded in the members area for free. You need to learn how to read these at a quarter note equals 120 BPM
• Rhythm Ear Training exercises should be used so that you gain an ability to recognize rhythms when you hear them.

First thing you might notice if you have read the Beginners section on this page is that I’ve listed Rhythm Primer in both Beginning and Intermediate sections. Any rhythm can be difficult if it is read extremely slow or extremely fast. An intermediate student will work at playing the four metric levels at various tempos. Directions are in the book.

After Rhythm Primer you have the option to move on the Rhythm Primer Volume Two which gives you the same types of rhythm exercises but in a 3/4 time signature. You could also work on Rhythm Primer Volume Two in conjunction with the books listed in the intermediate student book list.

Please also note that you should at least read the information about the MetroDrone and the Long Line Rhythm courses so that you understand those principles in general. A beginning student can start with the MetroDrone but it might be good to wait a few weeks before starting practice with it because you have a big learning curve with all the basics of rhythm to get through first.

Advanced Level Student Time Rhythm Guided Tour

In most cases I find that students that think they are at an advanced level still need work on the following books. Volume One and Volume Two because they are unable to play these exercises at either a 1/2 note equals 120 BPM on 2 and 4 or for Volume Two at a quarter equals 120 BPM. If that is a problem then:

Work with Rhythms Volume One and Rhythms Volume Two to master those rhythms first

All Advanced Level students should use the following courses:

• MetroDrone and/or The Big Metronome
• Rhythms Volumes 3 and especially Volumes 6-12 of the Rhythm Series
• Odd Meters
• Independence
• Time Transformation
• Time Development Studies
• Rhythm Ear Training
• Help Files for Rhythm found in the members area will give you midi files, Beat Reading exercise and other downloads important to your rhythmic ability

Specific information on each course. See links for full explanation.

• MetroDrone and/or The Big Metronome should be used as much as possible to develop Long Line Rhythm skills
• Rhythms Volumes 3 and especially Volumes 6-12 of the Rhythm Series will give you ability with thirty second notes and Volumes 6-12 will give you ability with odd groups such as quntuplets, sextuples etc…Volumes 6-12 also incorporate ear training exercises!
• Odd Meters will teach you how to read rhythms in odd time signatures.
• Independence will develop strong rhythm skills by performing more than one rhythm at a time
• Time Transformation will give you études that you will use to superimpose one time over another. The use of this type of rhythmic skills is found often in jazz, comtemporary classical and prog rock music.
• Time Development Studies give you more time superimposition exercises to develop your ability
• Rhythm Ear Training at it’s advanced level should be used to develop an ability to recognize advanced rhythms when you hear them.

Many times advanced students are looking for specific skills. If you don’t find what you are looking for send us an email with a description of your needs and we will see if we have anything for you

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.

• Sight Reading Solved Beginning Level is great for a beginner but also has reading is 7 clefs so an advanced student or student needing other clefs will find this to be a great study.
• Sight Reading Solved gives you intermediate level exercises that test your ability to have larger rests between phrases. Usually mistakes are made in reading when larger rests are incorporated.
• Tools for Music Mastery uses scales and approach notes with rhythms
• One Minute Lessons Phrasing gives you short videos explaing many concepts of phrasing which Mr. Arnold often discusses with his students.

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!