Good exercises for being rythmically precise

[deastman]

I can really relate to this topic. I've been playing piano and then various other instruments for a total of 36 years now. I've been aware for a very long time that my timing absolutely sucks ass. For one thing, I have extremely slow reflexes and virtually no "fast twitch" muscle fibers. When I quantize, half the time it corrects my playing in the wrong direction because I'm so far off. Also, when playing to a metronome, drum beat, etc., I find it very difficult to divide my attention between my own playing and the accompanying rhythm. I keep a djmebe handy at home, and practice on it just about every day. At work, I drum on my desk constantly (hey, it beats working!).

I've come to the conclusion that what I need is a simple bit of software. I want something which will play a steady metronome or possibly even a more complex looping pattern, and I bang along with it on a MIDI controller. As I play, a bar graph will indicate how far ahead or behind the beat I am with each hit. This seems like a simple biofeedback-style method of training my hands to play more accurately. I could actually write this myself, as I've done quite a bit of Java programming. I haven't looked at the MIDI implementation, however, and I really don't have any free time to figure this out. Who knows, perhaps something like this already exists?

[jopy]

there are exercises exactly like you're talking about in earmaster:

http://www.earmaster.com/?gclid=COzr7eC ... TAodBBPPAQ

however, i think software should be used only in addition to all the other techniques mentioned in this thread, not as the main focus of your practice. it helps to get the feedback, but playing along with a metronome and practicing with a drummer/drum machine is invaluable for improving timing.

[deastman]

I took a look at Earmaster, and it comes very close to doing what I want. The problem is that with Earmaster, you play a rhythm once, then the lesson ends and it tells you how you did. What I want is something that loops endlessly, and with each hit you get a realtime visualization of how far off you were. That seems like a more effective way of closing the feedback loop between what you meant to play and what you actually played, and you could very quickly learn to compensate for your errors in timing.

I totally agree that this should be a supplementary tool in addition to good old fashioned practice, but I've been doing all that other stuff for a very long time and not really getting any better. I guess I should really just get busy and write this thing myself. Come to think of it, I could probably build something like this in Reaktor. Hmm...