Taylor Sappe

BMI affiliated published songwriter since 1979
Private Music Instructor at DeMelfi School of Music and "in-your-home" instruction
Record producer and A&R for Captain Blue Records

Photo by Ken Gallagher

Improve Your Timing on Acoustic Guitar

One of the biggest problems I see locally among solo acoustic guitar players is timing. When you are playing in a band, timing is not as critical as it is when you are a soloist. If the guitar player's timing goes off a little, there is still the bass and drummer to carry the timing, and the guitar's inconsistencies will usually go unnoticed (unless it's a major timing clunker!....or unless there are musicians in the audience with trained ears.) However, when you are by yourself and your timing goes off, it is somewhat noticeable in a room full of noisy people where you are the background music. Some will notice the timing errors and some will not. It all depends on whether or not you have their attention at the time. However, if you have the attention of the entire crowd, or most of them, you want your timing to be solid so not only won't they notice any inconsistencies in your playing, but the solid timing will also grab and hold their attention in a mesmerizing effect.

When both the timing and feel are good, any wrong notes played are not heard by the listener as wrong notes, even though they may be notes you did not intend to play. Unless you hit the chord's avoid note without resolving it, any wrong note that you hit will be either a chord tone or available tension of the chord, and will be heard by the listener as a correct note if the timing and feel are right.

So how do you master the art of timing when you play? There are a few things you could do in combination with each other. First, use a metronome when you practice. Whether you are practicing scales, arpeggios or songs, check your timing with a metronome. If you are practicing a song, first determine the tempo. If it is an existing recorded song, play the song on the recording and time the tempo with a stop watch to get the number of beats per minute. Like this:

1. Hit the stop watch to start on the last beat of any measure. For instance, if the song is in 4, count 1, 2, 3, click on 4.
2. Begin counting on the next beat (beat 1 of the next measure), the total number of beats in a 30 second period.
3. Multiply the total by 2, and that's how many beats per minute the song is. As an example, you start counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. and keep going until the stop watch hits 30 seconds. Let's say you counted 40 beats in that time period. Multiply by 2 and your song is 80 beats per minute. You could count for an entire minute, but that will take twice as long.

Now set your metronome to the correct number of beats per minute for that song and play it. If you have difficulty keeping in time with the metronome, slow the metronome down to half speed and play the song all the way through. Then move the tempo up 5 or so beats per minute and play it again. Do this repeatedly until you reach the correct tempo. By then you will have programmed most of it into your muscle memory.

Once you can play the song through without stopping at the correct tempo, your next goal is to play it to perfection with the metronome. Once you have done that, play it to perfection without the metronome.

If you encounter the problem of the pick not making correct contact with the string and the timing being thrown off as a result, here's the reason and the solution for the problem:

The reason
When a string is plucked, it vibrates back and forth at a specific number of vibrations per second to give you the pitch of the note you played. If you are hitting the same string multiple times on the same note, or strumming the strings, the trick is to hit them in the direction that they are vibrating. For instance, let's say the string is vibrating up and down (back and forth). If you make contact with the pick on the down-stroke and catch the string in the direction of the vibration, it will take less force to keep the string vibrating than it will if you catch it in the opposite direction. If the pick makes contact  with the string as it is moving in the opposite direction, and the string is met with equal force as the vibration, it will stop vibrating. You must therefore hit it with more force to get it to shift direction and continue to vibrate. However, this causes it to jolt in the opposite direction throwing the vibration out of sync and causing a timing error.

Think of it as pushing someone on a swing. If you push the swing in the direction that it is moving, it takes less force to keep it moving than it would if you pushed it forward as it was coming toward you. If you pushed it as it is coming toward you, you would have to push much harder, causing it to jolt in the opposite direction, throwing it off course.

When this happens with a pick and a string, the timing is thrown off. So how do you know exactly when to to pick it so the pick moves in the same direction as the string?

The remedy
Loosening the grip on the pick and allowing it to float between your fingers is the solution to the problem. Here's why: When you grip the pick too tightly and it meets the string that is coming in the opposite direction, it stops the string from vibrating or jolts it out of sync. Loosening the grip on the pick allows the pick to move in the same direction as the string even when the string is moving in the opposite direction as the pick. A floating pick will allow the string to continue to vibrate instead of stopping the vibration or jolting it in the opposite direction. Now the pick is moving in the direction of the string. As the flick of your wrist continues forward, with the floating pick now moving in the direction of the string, the pick now follows through with the string as it vibrates in the other direction.

Once again, using the swing analogy: If the swing is coming toward you and you push it in the opposite direction before the swing cycle is complete, it is jolted off course as when you are gripping the pick tightly. However, if you allow your hands to make contact with the swing as it is coming toward you, but keep them loose and don't push it in the opposite direction until the cycle is complete and it begins to move in the opposite direction, that is like allowing your pick to float between your fingers and having the string vibrate against the loose pick, waiting for the cycle to complete and the string to change direction before applying the force against it.

So next time you are playing a song and you hear your timing beginning to go off, try loosening your grip on the pick. You will see your timing fall right back into place where it belongs. Professional guitar players do not bang on their instrument. They allow a pick to float loosely between their fingers so they can apply simple physics to their playing. Doing so also leaves room for dynamics and allows the player more expression.

For complete music lessons, email me.