Timing Challenge 2024

Congrats on joining the Timing Challenge 2024! 🎻

Ready to take your fiddling to the next level? The Timing Challenge kicks off Monday August 19, and it’s your chance to sharpen your timing skills and build confidence in your playing.

Whether you’re a beginner or more advanced, this 7-day challenge is designed to meet you where you are, with daily prompts to keep you on beat and improve your rhythm.

Each day, you’ll receive an email with a prompt and lesson link to help you stay on beat.

 

Why Join the Timing Challenge?

  • Improve Your Timing
  • Play better with others
  • Play with more confidence

How to Get the Most Out of the Challenge:

  1. Pick Your Tune: Choose at least one tune to focus on throughout the challenge.
  2. Get Your Tools: You’ll need a metronome—grab a physical one, download an app, or use the free Google metronome.
  3. Set Your Practice Goals: I suggest that you spend at least ten minutes a day using a metronome to improve your timing. Whatever you decide, do this practice every day for seven days.

How to Sign Up:

  • Already Subscribed? If you clicked the link to this page in the newsletter or signed up through the form, then you’re in—woohoo!
  • New Here? If someone shared this page with you, then click here to sign up officially. After you sign up, I’ll send you tips, encouragement, and reminders about our open practice sessions and workshops.

Let’s learn better together!

I’m excited for this challenge, and I hope you are too. Let’s make this a fun and rewarding experience for everyone. See you on Monday—get ready to jump in and start fiddling!

Timing Prompts & Lessons

Timing Meditation With Single Notes

Let’s use the metronome to practice a “Timing Meditation.”

  1. Start by listening to the metronome at 60 bpm—allow your body and mind to relax. 
  2. Single Notes:
    • Bow: Enjoy the feeling of being completely locked in with the metronome.
    • Pluck: Is this harder for you? Plucking can add a challenge because it’s less forgiving.
  3. Rhythms:
    • Practice with hoedown and short-long-short patterns.
  4. Expand to Intervals and Scales: Apply this mindful practice to more complex things like intervals and scales.

By focusing on your timing with single notes, you’ll find a deeper connection to your playing.

The first step is the most important. Let’s go!

Timing Meditation with Tune Chunks

Now that you’ve practiced timing with single notes, let’s apply that focus to small chunks of a tune.

  1. Select a Tune Chunk: Start with a small section from a tune like the first half of Lazy John (75 bpm): D0-1-3-A0 | A0-1-0-D3-A1.
  2. Practice with Bowing: Play the chunk slowly, focusing on staying perfectly in time with the metronome.
  3. Add Plucking: For an extra challenge, pluck the notes while staying in time with the metronome.
  4. Repeat with Other Chunks: Continue this process with other small sections of the tune.


By breaking down the tune into smaller parts, you’ll not only improve your timing but also become more confident in playing the entire piece.

Keep up the great work! Remember, small steps lead to big improvements. You’re on the right track!

Extract the Rhythm

When you encounter a tricky rhythm, it’s helpful to break it down.

  1. Choose a Tune Chunk: For example, the first quarter (or bar) of “Oh Susannah.”
  2. Play the Rhythm on a Single Note: Simplify the rhythm by playing it on a single note, using a D drone for support.
  3. Alternate Between Melody and Rhythm: Switch between playing the full melody and the simplified rhythm on a single note.
  4. Use a Metronome: Add the metronome to ensure your timing stays solid.
  5. Go Deeper: Clap or chant the rhythm to internalize it further.


This approach makes complex rhythms more manageable and improves your overall timing.

Foot Tapping Practice

Let’s add another layer to your timing practice by incorporating foot tapping.

  1. Start with the Basics: Tap your foot in time with the metronome at 60 bpm, without playing your fiddle.
  2. Add Simple Notes: Play quarter notes on an open string while tapping your foot.
  3. Progress to Rhythmic Patterns: Foot-tap while playing simple rhythmic patterns on an open string.
  4. Advance to Intervals and Scales: Foot-tap while playing intervals (D1-3) and then a full scale.
  5. Incorporate Tunes: Finally, practice foot-tapping while playing chunks of a simple tune, and then the entire tune.


Foot tapping is a great way to internalize timing, making it a natural part of your playing.

What tune will you practice this on?

As you practice, ask yourself

Do you lose sync between fiddle and foot? If so, at what level of complexity?

Rhythm Trainer

You’ve come a long way! Now it’s time to step up your timing practice with a Rhythm Trainer.

FiddleHed Rhythm Trainer ♫ 🏋️

  1. Use a Rhythm Trainer: This tool alternates between beats and silence, challenging you to maintain the beat during the silent sections.
  2. Test Yourself: Use a Rhythm Trainer track from the FiddleHed course or an external app, and see if you can stay on beat during the silent parts.
  3. Notice the Difference: This practice will quickly reveal whether you’re staying in time and help you correct any timing issues.
  4. Advanced Practice: Try using the Rhythm Trainer with different tunes or scales to further challenge your timing skills.


This exercise will give you the confidence to stay on beat, even without a constant guide.

Use Play-along Apps as a Metronome 🎶

Let’s make timing practice fun with play-along apps like Strum Machine and iTabla! 🎻

    1. Start with a D Major Scale:
      • Use Strum Machine to loop a D chord.
      • Play along, starting slow, and gradually increase the speed.
    2. Auto-Speed Up Feature: This feature helps push you past your edge, perfect for building speed and confidence.
    3. Drone apps like iTabla: Do the same thing with iTabla or a FiddleHed drone. Set the root note to D and the tempo to 80 bpm (or whatever tempo you need).

D Metro-Drone 80 bpm

Find the fun: Make timing practice something you look forward to!

Record Yourself with a Metronome

It’s time to take a closer look at your timing by recording yourself.

  1. Pick a Tune Chunk: Start with a small section, such as the first quarter (or bar) of “Lazy John.”
  2. Play and Record: Play the chunk with a metronome, recording yourself so you can hear any discrepancies.
  3. Simplify the Rhythm: Practice the rhythm on a single note to really lock in the timing.
  4. Alternate Between Melody and Rhythm: Switch between playing the melody and just the rhythm on a single note.

Recording yourself will give you valuable feedback and help you fine-tune your timing.

FiddleHed John did this with the tune Lazy John:

Timing Meditation Workshop

Workshop Replay

Plan

Let’s start with you: What questions and challenges do you have with timing? We’ll tackle them together.

Here’s what we’ll cover and practice:

  • Playing single notes with a metronome set at 60 BPM until it feels natural.
  • Repeat the practice on more complex things.
  • Returning to the body and breath to improve performance as well as enjoy the process more.

Do

Timing Meditation on Single Notes (60 BPM):

Metronome – 60 bpm

  • Single Notes:
    • Bow: Focus on consistent sound and rhythm.
    • Pluck: Notice if this feels more challenging for you.
  • Rhythms:
    • Hoedown rhythm
    • Short-long-short rhythm pattern
  • Intervals:
    • D1-3: Bow and pluck, then add the short-long-short rhythm.
  • Scales:
    • G Major Scale: Bow and pluck, then apply the short-long-short rhythm.

Timing Meditation on Tune Chunks

We’ll use the tune Lazy John as an example.

Bar 1:

  • Learn: D0-1-3-A0.
  • Loop: Repeat until it feels natural.
  • Extract Rhythm: Practice the rhythm separately.
  • Clap or Chant the Rhythm: Reinforce the rhythm with vocal or physical practice.

Bar 2:

  • Learn: A0-1-0-D3-A1.
  • Loop: Repeat and refine.
  • Extract Rhythm: Isolate the rhythm and practice.
  • Clap or Chant the Rhythm: Solidify the rhythm with clapping or chanting.

Repeat The Process 🔄

Repeat these steps on the other Chunks of the tune. Then do it for larger chunks until you can play the whole tune with a metronome.

Rhythm Trainer

60 bpm

 

Use a Rhythm Trainer, which alternates between beats and silence, challenging you to maintain the beat during the silent sections. This will help you instantly know if you’re staying on beat.

Foot Tapping Practice

Foot tapping while playing is an advanced skill. Follow these steps with a metronome (60 BPM):

  • Tap your foot without playing.
  • Play and foot-tap quarter notes on an open string.
  • Foot-tap while playing simple rhythmic patterns on an open string.
  • Foot-tap while playing intervals (D1-3).
  • Foot-tap while playing a full scale.
  • Foot-tap while playing pieces of a tune.
  • Foot-tap while playing a whole tune.

Counting

Another timing practice is counting. If you end up playing classical music or other styles that have more rests in long notes, this will be very helpful. It’s a similar process to practicing foot tapping.

Count and clap 🔢 👏

Keep the count steady at 1–2–3–4 as you clap. Using a metronome, start with quarter notes and then do more complex things:

  • Quarter notes
  • Eighth notes
  • Hoedown
  • Rhythm extracts (from tune chunks)

Count and Fiddle 🔢 🎻

Repeat the process with fiddling. Counting 1-2-3-4, play:

  • Quarter notes
  • Eighth notes
  • Hoedown
  • Scales
  • Wide intervals (D3-A1)
  • Tune chunks
  • Whole tunes

Reflect  📝

Make a short audio recording (1 minute or less) of yourself playing with a metronome. Listen to it right after you record it.

Ask yourself:

  • What did I learn from this workshop?
  • What has improved?
  • What still needs work?

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Further learning

Subscriber content:

Workshops

Here’s a library of metronomes, rhythm trainers, beats and more: Beat Central

Let’s do it

Thanks for taking part, now go fiddle with it…

 

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

25 responses to “Timing Challenge 2024”

  4. Day 5, WOW. Working on technique and skill more than song and tunes. Less than a week away from International Play Music on the Porch day. In all fairness, whenever I get to the mountain cabin, it’s play music on the porch, at the fire, or down by the river…

  9. Day 2 (for me) chunking it out was a little tougher than I thought. Revisited Kolmarden in Bb Major. Changing the fingering pattern is getting easier. Thanks to today’s open practice I learned a new trick for getting the timing down. Using the metronome on more familiar tunes I have recently learned.

    1. Hi Garth, great question. It appears Jason has an audio and short video recording for Day 2 posted within the 2nd tab, titled ‘Timing Meditation with Tune Chunks’. I’ll let you know if there’s more that I haven’t seen either. Happy timing challenge to you ⏱ 🎶

        1. Hi Dot, glad you reached out. There are 7 drop down tabs for each day in the above lesson titled ‘Timing Prompts & Lessons’.
          One trick to viewing the videos, make sure you REFRESH this page (if you had it open from other days), as Jason makes a new video available each day.
          I hope this works for you, please let me know if I can support further.
          Have an awesome practise 🎶 🙂 💕

  16. Looking forward to the 2024 timing challenge!
    I’m working on a waltz called Medicine Bow which is quite a new tune for me & I’ve got the usual problem of slowing down on the trickier parts of the tune so I’ll be using the metronome to smooth it all to a steady pace ….hopefully 😆

    1. Joann, I love that tune! Back in 2021 I emailed Peter and asked for the sheet music for Medicine Bow because I couldn’t find it. He graciously sent it to me and asked if I would send him a video or audio once I learned it. I worked hard on that piece and eventually sent him the video. It was received by his daughter, who responded and informed me that he passed away just weeks prior. I love Peter Ostroushko’s music and would love to hear you play it !