Rhythm – Harp Tuesday

Ep. 311 – What are dotted rhythms and how to play them!

Dotted rhythms have come up a few times recently when I’ve been teaching, and I thought I’d do a look at how to play them, as well as a brief overview/refresher of note values and what adding a dot after a note means! Hope it proves useful/interesting!

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Ep. 301 – Practice with me – 2 against 3 polyrhythm drill

Play along with me to practice a 2 vs 3 polyrhythm – a rhythm that comes in very useful in, for example, Debussy’s First Arabesque. You can use the chapter time-stamps to skip straight to the playlong part.

You can also check out this episode I did specifically on the Debussy Arabesque:

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Ep. 288 – using a metronome and testing out “Rhythm Trainer”.

The app I’m using is called Pro Metronome and its “rhythm trainer” feature. You have to pay a small amount to unlock the rhythm trainer plus “practice mode” which allows you to set the metronome to gradually increase in speed – super useful! (For example).

I’ve been happy with the app and it’s definitely been worth the money to me (despite the rather unintuitive interface!) but I’d love to hear if you know of any free options! (I believe Soundbrenner makes an app that has something like the rhythm trainer, but it has a monthly fee, i think).

Pro Metronome app on the Google play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eumlab.android.prometronome

And Apple app store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pro-metronome-tempo-beats/id477960671

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Support from my patrons helped make this video possible – if you would like to help support future videos you can become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/joshlayne

Ep. 231 – what is the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures?

The time signatures of 3/4 and 6/8 both contain a total of six 8th notes. So what is the difference between them?? This is a question I’ve often been asked by students, and in this video I attempt to answer. (Quick answer – 3/4 has 3 beats or pulses per bar, and 6/8 only has 2 beats).

For further reading, the wikipedia page on time signatures is a good starting place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_signature

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Ep. 194 – How to play the ‘Aria’ from Bach’s Goldberg Variations – working with tricky rhythms.

The Aria that starts off Bach’s Goldberg Variations has note values from half notes to 32nds and the rhythm can be a bit intimidating at first glance. In this episode I walk you through how to decipher and make sense of this and other music with tricky rhythms.

My arrangement of the Aria is one of seven pieces in my new book, Transcriptions for Lever Harp.

Ep. 185 – Rolled Chord Drills

Play along with me as I do some rolled (broken) chord practice on the harp!

I’m using a metronome app called Pro Metronome (thanks to viewer Keven for his suggestion!) and its “practice mode” to very gradually speed up the pace. Link below, though note that practice mode is a paid upgrade. Do you have a favorite app that does something similar? Let me know in the comments!

Android link
Apple link

Ep. 179 – Two exercises for playing syncopation and offbeats

Two exercises you can do with a metronome to work on playing syncopated and offbeat rhythms.

Ep. 167 – A metronome rant! :)

An ode to the design of a basic, no frills, metronome 🙂

Ep. 159 – Polyrhythm – playing 3 against 4

A quick look at how to play a 3 against 4 rhythm. I did a similar episode on 2 against 3, using Debussy’s First Arabesque as an example: https://www.harptuesday.com/ep-124-playing-2-vs-3-rhythms-in-debussys-1st-arabesque/

Ep. 124 Playing 2 vs 3 rhythms in Debussy’s 1st Arabesque

In this episode I look at how to play the polyrhythm of 2 against 3 using examples from Debussy’s First Arabesque.

You can find Renie’s transcription of the Arabesque at IMSLP – http://imslp.org/wiki/2_Arabesques_(Debussy%2C_Claude) (Look for the “Arrangements and Transcriptions” tab).

Ep. 109 “Pistachio” by Bernard Andres

“Pistache” (Pistachio) is one of a collection of pieces by Bernard Andres called “Epices” (Spices) where every pieces is based on a spice (Paprika, Cinnamon, Vanilla, etc.)

Pistache is probably my favourite from book one of the collection, and in this episode I take a look at it. Pistache has a bunch of cool effect/extended techniques, some fun rhythm stuff, and is just overall a blast to play 🙂

Ep. 99, 101-105 A look at Fantasy on Greensleeves for lever harp Part 1

In this six part series I take a look at my Fantasy on Greensleeves, the lever harp version. Be sure to check out my Arranging Greensleeves project page for more info, or to buy the sheet music!

Intro and theme:

Practice tips/Variation 1

Variation 2

Lever changes, Rhythm, and more – variation 3

Bridge and Variation 4

Ending and tremolos

Ep. 92 Learning “En Roulant” on the lever harp

I talk about learning En Roulant from Betty Paret’s First Harp Book.

Among other things I discuss counting/clapping a 6/8 rhythm and looking for patterns when learning a new piece!

Ep. 81 Playing with other people

From orchestral playing to harp ensembles to duets, playing with other people is a lot of fun! In this episode of Harp Tuesday I talk about two aspects of playing with others and give some specific exercises you can practice on your own.

Ep. 80 How to read music part 2 – Rhythm!

In this episode of Harp Tuesday I finally (!) finish my look at how to read music. In December of 2010, for my fifth episode of Harp Tuesday, I talked about how to decipher notes on the printed page and translate them into which strings to play on the harp… In this episode I talk about the other aspect of written music – Rhythm!

This was a tricky episode to put together, and I’m still not sure how much sense it makes, but if you’re trying to learn to read music hopefully this will help!

You can download the PDF sheet showing what shapes equal what note durations (Whole note, half note, etc.) here.

Ep. 46 Using a metronome

I talk about using the metronome and some of the things that it can and can’t do

Ep. 37 Dealing with tricky rhythms

In this episode of Harp Tuesday I talk about dealing tricky rhythms – with a look at sections from Flowers in the Valley, the Sarabande from Bach’s Partitia no. 1, the Interlude from Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, and The Blue Dove.