The complete lack of a rhythmic sense
From time to time you will come across a student who is, for all intents and purposes, allergic to rhythm. These students do not just have difficulty with certain rhythm patterns or trouble playing with an even tempo; they actually pay almost no attention to note values. If they do count, they do so at random speeds, slowing down and speeding up erratically.
Whether they don’t understand or don’t see the relevance of playing with good rhythm is often unclear. Occasionally they will echo a rhythm back to you correctly but the next time they play that part it will have become unrecognisable once again. Don’t despair. These students can learn to play with good rhythm.
Symptoms
Prescriptions
Rhythm 101
In lesson
To get to the root of the allergy, you need to take it back to the beginning. You need to know at what point your student becomes allergic to correct rhythms. Is she misunderstanding the note system? Is she simply having difficulty with the fine motor coordination?
Follow the steps laid out below before starting any new piece for several weeks in a row. Demonstrate each step for your student and then ask her to do it on her own.
There may be one or several of these steps where your student struggles or falls down. Pay attention and note which exercise is most difficult for her over several weeks. This will help you to get an idea of the root cause of her rhythm allergy.
At home
Once you have decided what the problem area is, you can assign extra drills, apps or worksheets that address the key problem without wasting time on other areas of rhythmic comprehension. For example, if your student is fine with all the other steps but struggles once the hands are put together, you can now address this issue by reducing the notes in one hand, using tapping drills, or assigning worksheets with two rhythm lines to follow. Having the right information will allow you to hone in on the problem area.
Unison Immersion
In lesson
Sometimes your student with a rhythm allergy is also rhythm indifferent. Not only does she have trouble with rhythm, but she doesn’t think it’s important either. If your student doesn’t see the relevance of rhythm and how integral it is to music, it’s likely that no amount of drills or special techniques will help her, except perhaps total immersion.
In a different octave on the same piano – or on a second piano if you have one – play all your student’s music in unison with her. Don’t allow yourself to get swayed by her rhythms; stick rigidly to the precise rhythmic structure of the piece. This will mean playing much more slowly than she normally plays, and most likely in short sections to help her to focus.
She may be very resistant to this way of playing at first. It will be hard work compared to her usual approach of disregarding the rhythm entirely. Stick at it and gradually she will pick up the rhythms and start to see their relevance.
To make this exercise more palatable, tell her there are dancers working on a routine to the music. Every time she gets out of sync with you, the dancers lose their footing and you need to restart that section (or the whole piece for very short pieces) so that they can practice their routine properly.
At home
You can record yourself playing for your student to play along with at home. However, if she has a severe rhythm allergy it’s unlikely that she will follow through at first. Persist with this manner of working during lesson time and eventually she may look for the aid of a play-along track to practice with.
Related Diagnoses
Beam Fever
Obstacle Sneezes
Restlessness
The propensity to pause before playing a difficult section
Many students will exhibit this distinctive pause-and-launch-forward combination at some stage in their piano studies. I liken this to a sneeze because of the characteristic time taken to freeze before exploding forward into the part of the piece that they find most difficult. Most of the time they will be completely unaware of the time they are taking to pause before proceeding into a particular section, and discussing the sneeze will only cause them to seize up even more in anticipation. A step-by-step, systematic approach is needed to cure obstacle sneezes.
Symptoms
Prescriptions
Edge Forward
In lesson
Mark the obstacle that’s causing your student to sneeze. Ask her to play the preceding bar and just the first note of the obstacle. It may be helpful to mark lines or add small sticky notes to stop her from being tempted to play more than desired. Slow her tempo and repeat this method until she can successfully bring the first note in on time at least three times in a row.
Add one more note or chord at a time until she can play a few bars into or past the obstacle that she was sneezing over. Then reinforce the new behaviour by starting at the beginning of the section and playing through the obstacle a few times.
At home
Discuss with her what's involved in ‘Edge Forward’ and how she could apply it to her practice. Talk about and mark other places that could benefit from this approach.
As with many other techniques it will likely take several repetitions in the lesson before she starts to use ‘Edge Forward’ at home. Persist, and in time it will sink in.
Edge Backward
In lesson
As you can probably tell, this prescription isn’t all that different from ‘Edge Forward’. However, by reversing the process we do get some different benefits. I suggest using ‘Edge Forward’ if you believe the obstacle sneeze is caused by a mental block, and ‘Edge Backward’ if you suspect a technical issue is the culprit.
Mark the obstacle on your student’s music. Ask her to practice the full obstacle – normally one or two bars (measures). Then expand the obstacle to include one note/chord before it. Have her practice this until she can play it three times in a row successfully, and then expand the obstacle again. Continue expanding until the section being practiced is at least double the length of the original obstacle. Once this has been mastered, run through the larger section or the full piece to put the obstacle back into context.
At home
Ask your student to explain the process back to you once you have completed the ‘Edge Backward’ exercise. Do this many times in the lesson before asking her to practice this way at home. If you continue to summarise the process and discuss the steps involved, she may take the initiative to use the method during her practice time.
Related Diagnoses
Finger Hiccups
Leap Phobia
Line Limp
Tempo Shivers