There was a recent post about internal pulse that got me to thinking about the work that I have done to improve this aspect of my playing in the past. I discovered that I “had a pulse” after I spent about a month working out of
Rhythmic Training by Robert Starer. However, I only scratched the surface of this book, and ended up discontinuing my studies several months after I started. At this point I had only moved through Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2, focusing exclusively on internalizing pulse.
For some reason, I remember reading very insightful comments about “rhythm” in Kenny Werner’s “Effortless Mastery”. He writes:
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In America and parts of Europe, the most comment gap [something not properly learned] is a lack of rhythm. We live in a culture that externalizes rhythm by teaching it too late in life. Children growing up in households that play rhythmic music tend to grow up more rhythmic, of course. Effortless mastery of rhythm occurs in certain cultures where it is an integral part of life. In Brazil, the children’s first musical experiences are rhythmic. In America, they tend to be more melodic. Is it an accident that the Brazilian people are more naturally rhythmic that we are? I lived with a Brazilian family for a while and at the dinner table, family members would pick up knives and forks and play samba rhythms on the glasses and plates. They always sounded good. I don’t think I met anyone in Brazil who was intimidated by rhythm. They knew their rhythms the way we know our nursery rhymes.
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Werner goes on to write:
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...It is a shame that the music we absorb as children, particularly in white America, is so devoid of rhythm (e.g. Christmas carols). It must also be said that most classical players lack a basic sense of rhythm. They may have a method of negotiating the most complex rhythms of modern music, but I have been shocked many times at the average string player’s inability to play an eighth-note anticipation (a rhythm that anticipates the next bar by on eighth-note). There would be incredible benefits for classical musicians if rhythm classes of all kinds were mandatory in their conservatories. If they had an inner pulse while playing Bartok and Stravinsky, we would hear orchestras that really burn! For them, and for many of us, years of rhythmic indoctrination are in order.
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Wow! Every time I pick up this book I find that leads me to question what I’m doing to move my playing forward. Well, I think I just read what I needed to provide me with a course for 2006. Since I’ve spent so much time on cultivating a resonant sound in my playing, I think it’s time to touch this next aspect of my technical growth as a player.
The Robert Starer book contains 100 exercises that are divided into 12 chapters. With my experience working from this book in the past, I’m guessing that one month per chapter should be about right for me to absorb this material. When I first found this book, the woman that turned me on to it was from Eastman and said it was used there during her course of study (apparently also at Juilliard since the author was a teacher there). That’s good enough for me!
My plan is to target 5-10 minutes per day working from this book over the course of the year (not a very large time commitment). This is practice away from the trumpet, so I will simply program this work between practice sessions each evening.
If you are interested, I would like to invite you to join me in this learning adventure. I’m sure that I will come out on the other side of this year’s worth of exercises a transformed player. If you choose to join me, I’m certain that we will be able to share suggestions and act as a support group as progress becomes more challenging.
This is a link to a post that I wrote at the end of 2003 called
A Rhythmic Epiphany. It has some details about my initial work with the book.
I’ll plan on adding some posts about what I’m currently working on this time next week. If you can find a copy of the book between now and then, you can join me! I looking forward to being able to “really burn” with great internal time this time next year!