Why You Need To Count Aloud (Even If You Hate It) - PHH 097

Welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness, the Harp Mastery Podcast. My name is Ann Sullivan, and I'm a harpist, teacher, and founder of Harp Mastery. I'm all about creating more harp happiness in the world by helping harp players like you play the music they want the way they want. But as a harpist who nearly flunked out of one of the most prestigious music schools in the world, I, although later not only graduated, but I went on to teach there. I know from personal experience that learning the harp is way harder than it looks. Here, each week on the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast, I show you how to solve the challenges of practicing and playing the harp. Whether it's about making your fingers behave or learning music faster, or getting your piece's performance ready, or just learning to enjoy your playing every day. Sounds great, doesn't it? Let's get started.

Welcome to the show.

Music is not a numbers game. You can't quantify a moving performance or a composition with statistics like a batting average. You can't predict how many minutes or hours, weeks or months it will take to be able to play a certain piece fluently. A player's skill isn't solely a result of how old they are or how many years they've been playing. Those kinds of numbers just aren't relevant in the music world. There are numbers that have great significance to us as musicians and harpists. Some are meaningful dates in music history, like the birth and death dates of important composers. Some numbers are important for what they represent. I'm thinking of the Roman numerals we use to describe chords and chord progressions, like A, iv, V, I progression. Other numbers are even more practical, such as numbers for fingering.

And then there are those numbers that are at the heart of our discussion today. The numbers in the time signature. You know, the numbers. I mean, those numbers that look like fractions but aren't at the beginning of nearly every piece and sometimes in the middle. We call them the time signature, or more technically, the meter signature. And although they're vitally important to our understanding of a piece, they are frequently overlooked. It's not exactly that we don't notice them or don't understand them. It's simply that we discount their significance. That's a hazardous habit. You see, the meter signature is our key to the organization and underlying rhythmic structure of the piece. It allows us, as we learn a piece, to put meaning into the notes. And our understanding of the meter allows a listener to make sense of the piece as they hear it. It's the single most important factor in creating musical flow.

There's a simple way to develop mastery of the meter signature. It's likely you do this already, but perhaps without the level of intention that I want to share with you today. Or perhaps you avoid this completely, either because it seems too difficult or because you just don't see the point. And if that's the case for you, I'm hoping to change your mind today. And I'm bringing out my most persuasive ideas because I think I may have an uphill battle ahead of me. Why? What's the battle? Well, I want you to count aloud.

Yep, I heard you groan from here. Yes, those groans travel through the airwaves, my friend. Now, I understand. As a young student, I hated counting aloud and thought it was a special form of torture that my teacher had devised especially for me. But my attitude changed completely as I became a more mature musician, and I'd love to help change your attitude about counting aloud to so if you're already convinced, that's great. Stick with me though, because I have some whys, how's and wherefores that will take your counting to the next level. And if you're counting skeptic, stick with me too, because I want to try to change your mind and your music. Speaking of numbers, you might not have been paying attention, but I certainly have. This is episode 97 of the Practicing Harp Happiness podcast. So I've been doing 97 of these and so we're coming up to a big landmark kind of a number. We're coming up in just a few weeks on episode 100. I love thinking about markers like that. Just a hundred episodes. Pretty cool. And it's something that I want to celebrate and I want you to celebrate with me. After all, you're the reason I do this podcast. So what I'd love to do is to invite you all. Whether you're accounting skeptic or not, I want to invite you all to a live taping of podcast episode 100. Now, episode 100 will go live on Monday, April 17, but we're going to tape it in advance. We are going to tape it on Tuesday, April 11th at 11:00am Eastern Time. And I would love for you to join me on that podcast. It's almost going to be like a little webinar. I'm going to walk you through my 30 days to done system. I get lots of questions about that system all the time and it's something that I want to talk to you about. I need an opportunity to actually talk with you and not just teach it. So it's a course. It's also part of our My Heart mastery curriculum. But 30 days to done is my simple shortcut, four week way for learning a piece, start to finish. And it's a different way to look at learning, different certainly from the way most of us were taught and perhaps from the way that you're learning music now. But it takes so much into account and it will speed you through the process. If you already know my 30 days to done system, that's terrific because this is going to be a really practical kind of refresher for you and we'll look at some of the refinements to the system that you may not be aware of. So we're going to talk about my 30 days to done system and that's all happening live now. I want you to put the date Tuesday, April 11th at 11:00am Eastern Time on your calendar and you will be able to join our podcast taping either from our Harp Mastery hub, or you'll be able to find it in our Facebook group, the Harp Happiness HQ Group. And you'll also be able to find it on our YouTube channel, ARP Mastery. So any of those channels you'll be able to join us. And all the details for how to log into those various platforms are on our website. You're going to go to the harpmastery.com website, go to the Events tab, and in that dropdown menu you'll see the live podcast taping. And that little page there will have all the details for you about how to join the call on the 11th. Or you can just click the link in the show notes for this episode and that will give you this take you over to that same page so you can get all the information there. But I would love to have you join me for that episode. I promise to give you some valuable information, but we'll also make it just a little celebration and we get to celebrate it together, which is even more fun. So once Again, that's Tuesday, April 11th. And that will be the live taping of podcast episode 100. Woo hoo. Big number.

And speaking of numbers, it's time to get back to our numbers topic for today. And yes, we're going to be talking about why you need to count aloud.

Now, it may have sounded to you as if I were talking about two different topics, because I started this episode talking about meter signatures. You know those time signatures, right? Like 2, 4, 3444, those things. And yet I'm going to be talking about counting aloud. And if they sound to you like two different Things, then I know I am talking to you. This is the information that you absolutely need. Meter, that time signature that's about that repeating pattern of accented and unaccented beats that we define as a measure, right? The measure is the length of that pattern of beats and it repeats. And it's that repeated pattern of accented and unaccented beats that gives a piece of music its flow. It gives it its energy. It's like the engine, the music, that meter, that 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. You can almost see pistons going or see gears turning, or you can think of it like an engine, can't you? It's repeating, it's got strong beats. We usually talk about the first beat in a measure. Sometimes we call it the downbeat. And it's the strong beat of every measure. Whether your meter signature is 2, 2 or 2, 4 or 3, 4 or 4, 4. That 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2. We've got. In a pattern of two beats, we have a strong beat and a weak beat. 1, 2, 1, 2.

Listen to that again. Think about how it creates that flow, that impetus, that energy for the music. If all those beats were the same. 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2. We've got a monotone, don't we? We don't have.

We just have a click. We just have a beat. But when the meter actually has its pattern, strong, weak, strong, weak, 1, 2, 1, 2. We feel that next pattern coming. And the pulse of that meter drives us forward.

That's where meter gets its power. Now, in a simple two beat pattern, it's usually strong, weak, strong, weak. In a pattern of three beats, it's often strong, weak, weak, strong, weak, weak. Once again, you can feel it. It almost feels circular in three, doesn't it? Strong, weak, weak, strong, weak, weak. You can sort of picture it going around in a circle. In a group of four beats. We usually have strong, weak, medium, strong and weak. Like 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. And once again, it's that pattern that gives us the sense of anticipation. We know that it's. And when we listen to music, that's what we feel and that's what we respond to that particular pattern. So you see, meter is different from beats, isn't it? A meter is made up of beats, 1, 2, 3, 4, or however many per measure. But those beats aren't the same. They've got strong, you know, a certain degree of strength or not. And that helps us hear the pattern, helps us create flow. So maybe this helps you understand why counting is different from the metronome. The metronome will click for you. Click, click, click, click. And granted, lots of metronomes will help you emphasize a beat every certain number of beats. Like, you could set your metronome to give you an extra. A different sounding beat every four beats. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. But even that isn't quite the same, is it? Because you've got one beat that may be like, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. So that helps, but it's still not the same. Now, you can have a very fancy metronome that allows you to make different beats, different weights or different sounds, different with different accents, and that helps replicate it.

But it's still not quite the same. And I'm going to talk about why that's different in a moment. But the idea here is that the meter, that time signature, sets up the pattern for us. And when we can feel that pattern, when we play, the music makes more sense. The music flows better. And we're projecting that to a listener as well so the listener can understand it. Remember that. And at the most basic, most fundamental, innermost level, instinctive level, almost as human beings, we respond to the beat, and not just steady beat, but that pattern of beats. Even our heartbeat has a pattern, right? So the difference here, the pattern that the meter sets up, that next level of complexity is really what we want to achieve in our music. It helps it be truthfully musical. Radical idea. Yeah. Okay, so counting, if we say 1, 2, 3, 4, counting is sort of a numeric way to represent that pattern.

It gives each beat number. Now, we could give it a name, right? We could, you know, call them, you know, Bob and Betty and Carol and Fred or whatever we want to call them. And that would, you know, help, right? It's defining those beats and defining them differently. But the numbers are helpful because it's a universal way to do that. So we'll call those four beats in a 4, 4 measure. We'll call them 1, 2, 3 and 4. We'll realize that we're not going to play them all identically, but we're going to give them a number. Now, when we give it a number, we're not only recognizing that that pattern repeats every four beats, right? It's not 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. However many beats as we keep going, and the piece might have a thousand beats. It's that repetition of the pattern. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. That repetition of the pattern we are reminding ourselves of as we play.

That is One step above a metronome, for sure. So really, the role of a metronome is to help us keep our beats equal and steady.

The job that counting takes over, that the metronome can't do, is to give each beat its particular place in the pattern. When we know a beat by its number, we have an idea of its role in the flow of that measure.

Get it? Strong beats or weak beats. And by calling them by their little number names, we're going to help keep our place in the measure. So what I want to do right now is talk about counting from a really practical standpoint. I've given you sort of the bigger picture of why counting is different from the metronome.

But let's talk about what counting itself can do for you. Why would you want to count? I know there are some of you who are saying, well, yeah, precisely, this is the point. Why do I want to count? Well, let me tell you, as they say, let me count the ways. Well, I'm actually going to give you three, three ways, and I'm going to start with the one that I've been talking about for the last moment or two, and that is that counting helps you make sense of the meter.

Visually. The bar lines allow us to see the pattern, right? That's what a bar line is for. It delineates the end of that pattern. But our counting helps propel us beyond that bar line, because if there are four beats in our pattern, we know that the next thing is a one, and we need to get there. So it helps create that energy and the flow that we need.

It also helps create our understanding of the meter and how the notes that we're playing relate to it. It gives those notes a context, and as such, it can make them easier to learn. It can make them easier to understand.

Because, and I know this seems obvious, but not all notes are created equal. So it can help us find the right fingering. It can help us understand musically what a phrase is doing.

Because we'll see its place in the measure. Is it on a strong beat? Is it on a weak beat? Are these notes less important rhythmically than others? So that when we lighten them up, we make the phrase sing? This is actually the place that you can create musicality in. By using the meter, you can help yourself find what is really important in a phrase and what isn't. Also, if the music is syncopated, having the counting there to help keep you cognizant of where the meter is can help you make those syncopations a little Bit more accurate and precise. So counting helps us make sense of the meter. But if you're a counting skeptic, that's not the reason to count. That's going to convince you. Here's my next level of practicality. Up from there. Counting is a wonderful marker when you're counting. As you practice, it becomes a locator for you. If you've ever been playing along and then sort of lost your train of thought for just a moment and you look back at the music and you can't figure out where you are. If you've been counting, you at least know you're on a second beat or you know you're on a fourth beat. And frankly, this is a help not only if you're practicing, and we'll talk more about that in just a second, but if you're playing with other people, this is extremely helpful. Because when you're counting, you know exactly what beat you're on. And if you should lose your place in the music, you can come back quickly to where you're supposed to be.

It can also help you line things up with other people as well. Right? But just for you, if it's just you on your own, this is a wonderful way to keep track of something that you're working on at a very slow tempo, where it's really easy to sort of conflate the notes. Maybe on occasion, you've found yourself playing the right hand from one beat and the left hand from another and wondering why they're not lining up. Counting helps with this. Counting gives you that locator so that you can line things up. It's also very helpful for playing anything from memory, because if you are in the habit of counting while you practice.

Then counting while you're playing a piece from memory will also help you keep your place, just help keep things moving forward. If you have trouble with your mind wandering off sometimes when you're playing from memory, keeping your mind on the counting will help keep you grounded and keep you focused on what you're doing as well. So counting is useful as a marker.

One of the other real solid benefits to counting is that it's a mistake finder.

When things don't match up, your counting will be the clue for you. Right? It can help you line up hands together. If you're working very slowly and you need to. Even if you're out of rhythm, right? Even if the you can't work with the metronome yet, you can still say, okay, this is beat one and beat two and beat three and beat Four. And you can line your hands up that way. And then as you develop a little bit more coordination, you can start putting those beats into more of a steady rhythm.

It can also help you find mistakes in the rhythm. If you're playing along and you're counting and you perhaps cheat on the value of a half note, right? This has happened to me, I don't know. And it happens to all of us. I imagine you're playing along and you're reading and the metronome's ticking away and everything's fine. And then all of a sudden, a couple days later, you take another look at that piece and you realize that, oh, shoot, that measure was so easy. I was playing it twice as fast as the measures around it, which were more difficult. Your metronome maybe was clicking on the eighth note, 1 and 2, and. But then you get to a really easy measure or a really long note, and you just kind of went, 1, 2, 3, 4, oops. The beat was steady, but I just changed what the beat meant. So if you're counting, you're much more likely to find that kind of a mistake immediately and be able to fix it, because you'll tell. You'll know right away. Things won't line up. When you're counting, you're thinking, okay, I'm counting one and two and. And so why am I on the third beat here? Wait a second. What. What's happened when I'm saying two and I'm playing three, something is wrong. So it can help you find and fix a mistake or lot sooner. And once again, this is something the metronome doesn't help with. It's also terrific, by the way, for helping work toward hands together, particularly when you're going a little too slowly for the metronome to be of use here. Start by playing and counting your left hand, and let your left hand know exactly what it needs to play and what the count is with that. Then, as you play and count your left hand, add your right hand to it and make sure that your right hand can match with your left hand. Counting when you can do that, hands together goes a little bit more smoothly and a little bit more quickly and a lot more correctly because you're lining it up with the pulse, with the beat, with the numbers of the beat, with the counting.

So let's talk about some of those counting questions that always seem to come up. I think the biggest question, certainly the most frequent, is, what's the right way to count?

Well, I think that the most correct answer is.

Whatever way the Counting is going to serve you best in a particular situation.

But here's what that really means. Always count the beats. That would be counting the numbers, right? 1, 2, 3, 4, or whatever number of beats you've got in a particular measure. Using the numbers is your first recourse.

Is it helpful to count those subdivisions like the ands, right. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Well, if you're going slowly enough, those ands can really help you. And if you're going slowly enough, maybe you want to count the. The triplets or the sixteenths. The words I usually use for triplets are 1 and A, 2 and A. And for 16th notes, I would usually use 1E and A, 2E and A. What I like about the 1E andAs is that it is that the ands line up whether you're counting eighths or sixteenths, right? You don't have to count all those subdivisions all the time.

If you're going very slowly, they're helpful because they're going to help you keep your place again. And you'll know if what you're saying doesn't line up with what you're playing.

This is where the allowed thing really helps. You'll find that if you're just counting to yourself, the way you obviously would in a performance, if you're just counting to yourself.

There are sometimes, you know, we sometimes just kind of gloss over things, and we don't necessarily know if we're really saying all the notes or not. Now, if you know, if you're a wind player or a singer, you can't count aloud and play at the same time. And I've always considered that to be one of the big disadvantages for people who play wind instruments. They can't count aloud. They have to be counting in their head. We count in our head, but counting aloud.

Gives us that extra check. It also gives us that extra level of learning that happens from saying something aloud. Not only are we thinking it, but we're saying it, and we hear ourselves saying it. And that's extra learning, reinforcement.

So what's the right way to count? Aloud is the right way to count when you're practicing, realizing that you'll be able to count in your head when you're playing. For someone.

Counting aloud is important. Saying the number of the beat is important. And if you're going so slowly that the number of the beat gets lost, then count the subdivisions, the ands, or even more subdivisions if you have to.

Counting subdivisions is always useful if you've got rhythms that need to Be very precise. And you want to check and be sure that they're really there. Like a dotted 8.16th rhythm. If we want it to be really precise, then we're going to count one, E and A so that we know that we're doing right, one E and as opposed to bum. But. But. And maybe just being a little lazy with our 16th. So counting all those subdivisions can help you be very precise when you have that kind of rhythmic complexity. But counting the numbers is a great place to start.

So what happens if you've got a meter like 6, 8, how do you count it? Well, most of us know that 6, 8, you know, has 6 8th notes in it, right? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. But the thing is that we generally don't think of it with all six of those eighth notes unless the piece is very slow. One, two, three, four, five, six. If the piece is faster, we might hear 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. One, two, three, 4, 5, 6. Think something more like an Irish jig, right? One and a, two and a. One and a two and a is 1, 2, 3, 4th, 5, 6. One, 2, 3, 4, five, six. So do we force ourselves at that faster tempo to count all six numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or do we count the big beats? 1 and A, 2 and 1 and 2 and A? Well, I think that if you're going fast, count those two big beats with subdivisions. 1 and A, 2 and A, 1 and A, 2 and A. If you're going more slowly, then count the six.

Is it going to be a pass fail moment? I mean, can you do it wrong? Not really. I think either way is going to work. Use the one that feels better for the tempo that you're playing at that moment.

Just counting aloud is going to be helpful. All right. What happens when you have weird meters like 5? You know what, it counts exactly the same. But if you were counting it on your fingers, it would use one more finger, right? So it feels uncomfortable because we're so used to twos and threes and fours. And when we see something like a five or a seven, we kind of freak out.

But it doesn't change anything. It's just the same. There are just more beats in that measure. And the same thing for if the meter changes in the middle of a piece now there are a couple different kinds of meter changes. And when the bottom number of the meter changes, and perhaps you go from 4, 4 to 3, 8, that's a little bit trickier then. Now you're talking about the common denominator note. Which in that case would be an eighth note. And we'll talk more about that another time. But when it's only the top number that you know, like from 2, 4 to 3, 4 to 4, 4 to 5, 4 to 2, 4 to 4, 4, when it's only the top number that's changing.

The only thing that changes is the number of beats you count before you get back to 1. Right? Are you counting 2 beats? 1, 2. Are you counting 3 beats? 1, 2, 3. Are you counting 5 beats? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So there's nothing that's tricky there about the rhythm. Exactly. The beat doesn't change, just the numbers that you're counting.

So don't let a weird meter or changing meter throw you off.

Because truthfully, counting is pretty darn easy. Since we've gone, you know, since we've been little, right, we've counted 1, 2, 3, 4. We can do that. There's nothing trickier than that. But counting aloud is where the power is. So let's talk about how to practice counting aloud. If you're not comfortable with it, if you've never done it before, if you've never counted aloud before, or you've never felt comfortable counting aloud, there's a really great way to practice it that's going to let you get used to counting and get used to feeling those accents the way they're set up in a meter. So all you need to do is practice counting while you're playing a scale. I mean, really, how, you know, how much easier could we make it? So here's how to do this. So I'm going to play just a plain old two octave scale, just one hand, two octaves, right? Nothing hard about that. And we're going to count it with different numbers of beats in the pattern. So we're going to start as if we were playing 2, 4. So just 1, 2, 1, 2. That's what our counting is. And on every first beat we're going to add a little bit of an accent, just the way it would be done in real life.

So 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2,. 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2', 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2 and 1, 2, 1, 2s, 1, 2, 1.

Now we're going to take the same scale and we're going to do it in three, as if the meter were.

Three, four, one, two, three, one, two, three, 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1st, 2, 3, 1, two, 3, 1, 2,3. 1, 2, 3,1, 2,3.

Now you can see this is moving the accent around Right. Because it's reflecting that pattern of accented and unaccented beats that makes the measure. And it's giving us practice at actually saying those beats while we play, which is the point here. But the extra side benefit is that it's giving your fingers great practice in playing those accents. Now we're going to do a pattern of four. So we've got a strong beat, a weak beat, a medium strong beat, and a weak beat. So it's going to be like, one, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four. 1, 2, 3, 4. One, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4. One, two, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. 1, 2, three, four. One, 2, 3, four.

One. It's a great exercise for your fingers. You can do the same thing doing it with five beats or doing it with six beats. Five is kind of fun. And we're going to do. There are different ways to do fives. You can do fives as if they're just an accent on the first beat.

One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, Four, five. One, two, Three, four, five. One, Two, three, four, five. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, four, five.

Or you can subdivide a group of five so that it has a group of three and a group of two. And you can do it so that either the group of two comes first or the group of three comes first. I'll show you what I mean. So we're going to do this five as what we would say, two plus three, a group of two with a group of three. So this means we've got a strong beat on one, then a weak beat, then a medium strong beat on three, and then two more weak beats.

So it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 4,. 1, 2, 3, 4th, 5. 1, 2, three, four, five. 1, 2, 3, four, five. 1, two, three, four, five.

One. I added an extra note in my scale just because it came out even, and then you could do it with a group of three and a group of two. So now we have strong, weak, weak, medium strong, weak.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, four, five. 1, 2, 3, Four, five. 1, two, three, four, five. 1, Two, Three, Four, Five. 1, Two, Three, four, five.

One. Kind of fun. And of course, you can do this not only with a scale, but you could do it with any exercise that you have, try it with different counting patterns, just to practice moving the accents and feeling that meter. So do you see? At least I hope you do. The. The fact that the metronome is helping us with the beat and keeping the beat steady. But counting is helping us with the meter. It's helping us with the flow. And once you get used to it, it's going to be a wonderful resource for you. You're going to love it as a practice tool and as a performance practice as well. One last.

Little thought for the day. There is no time when you don't have to count.

You should be counting all the time because that's where music is. It starts with that count. So the only time you don't have to count is when the piece you're playing has no meter signature and it has no rhythm. All the notes are the same. Then you don't have to count. But if your piece has a meter or if it has a rhythm, or if it has both, you need to count.

One more reminder that we're celebrating my big number, the 100th episode of the podcast coming up in just a few weeks. We're celebrating that with a special live podcast taping, which is gonna be happening on Tuesday, April 11. You can use the link in the show notes to get all the details. So you can join me there or you'll find it on the events page at Heart Mast. Just, you know, join us. It's an open invitation. I would love to have you join me for that call next week on the podcast, which will be episode 98. This we're going a master class episode, Warm ups with a focus. So if you've worked with me as a student or in my online community, or even if you've just been listening to this podcast for a while, you can imagine that I have pretty specific ideas about warmups, about what a warmup should or shouldn't do for you, how long a warmup should be, how to integrate it in the rest of your practice. And naturally I want to share those ideas with you. So we're going to do that as a masterclass episode, meaning you get to play along. So next week, if you are able, join me on the podcast. Ready to play along with me on your harp if you're listening. You know, if you usually listen in the car or on the, on the bike or something, that's fine. You can find a more convenient time to play along with me. But that will be our episode next week, warmups with a focus. And I certainly hope you can join me for that. In the meantime, remember that every day is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit. And all you have to do is play. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning into another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I release a new episode every Monday morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your Harp happiness every day. See you next time.