Having trouble understanding the timing ?

by Cara
(South Africa)

I have trouble understanding how long to play a key on the keyboard, by reading the notes .

Note that I have just started playing keyboard , but know my theory more or less.

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Nov 10, 2015
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by: Simon

Probably the best way to approach this is to practice playing notes of similar values, one after another.

E.g. play a series of quarter notes (crotchets), say 24. Then play a series of half notes (minims), a series of whole notes (semibreves). Count out loud while playing these.

Then try playing a series of notes, quarter and half notes etc. The best thing is just to write these down randomly and play them.

For eighth notes (quavers) start slowly and count out loud 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and etc. and play the eighth notes on each count (the numbers and the 'ands')

Another good idea is to clap through the rhythm of a piece before playing it.

Hope this helps!
Simon

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