I’ve said it before and I will say it again – when I was young and learning to play the piano, my timing was often inaccurate. For me, getting the timing right for any of my pieces of music was the hardest thing. As a result of this, my timing was the one aspect I spent a lot of time trying to fix.
No matter how hard I tried to be accurate with my timing, it felt like it was an uphill battle to get it right. All of my three piano teachers, in turn, tried to encourage me to count aloud while I was playing, to help get my timing into shape. Being a typical kid, I didn’t want to count aloud because I thought it was stupid and weird. It was only after approximately 7 years of lessons that I finally stopped being stubborn and counted aloud while I was practising and it helped tremendously. So it worked out that my piano teachers knew what they were talking about!
My timing was always my biggest weakness when it came to learning to play the piano and I finally figured out (or should I say, finally listened to my piano teacher) how to effectively make sure my timing was always accurate. As I stated before, the answer was counting the beats aloud as I played.
Everyone learns in their own way and what technique works for one person, is not going to work for another person. This means that counting aloud worked for me but not necessarily someone else.
When I first started teaching the piano, I used a variety of tips and tricks to help any student I had to get their timing accurate. I used metronomes, clapping, counting for the student and even rote teaching the timing, but I found that students who counted aloud when they were playing, were frequently improving their skills and accuracy, more than the others.
Many years have passed and the number of students that I have taught, number well into the hundreds and I have found that the person playing and counting the beat aloud whilst playing, is the quickest and most effective way to correct any mistakes with the timing of a piece of music. I am convinced that it is the best way to establish or fix the correct beat in a piece of music.
I do understand that there would be exceptions where some may prefer to use a metronome or some other method. If you have figured out what helps you the most, then stick to it, but if you are like I was and you really struggle with getting your timing accurate in a piece of music, then I encourage you to use the method of counting aloud whilst you are playing.