Macy Gray's "Nothing Else Matters" looks like this - once you move past your cluelessness.

Macy Gray's "Nothing Else Matters" looks like this - once you move past your cluelessness.

If you've experimented with some of the 3/4 time track suggestions from this past weekend, you may have some confusion about how you count oddly timed music - like I did.

Amy had gotten me started with a bunch of the tracks in the ICI/PRO Learn to Ride to the Beat Spotify playlist and then ran off.

While I was writing the post, I wanted to find the RPM they communicated and share it with you. So I broke out my trusty BPM Counter*... and then quickly drove myself crazy trying to tap out the count; One-Two-Three / One-Two-Three and have it show a believable RPM. I actually quit trying to tap out the songs and instead jumped on my FreeMotion S11.0 down in the official ICI/PRO training facility (my basement) and rode to each song. Riding to the One-Two-Three / One-Two-Three comes easy to me - which is exactly why we recommend using music in 3/4 time to help your students Find The Beat - Find The Beat. Some LTF Instructors may get that private little joke. 

When Amy returned, I explained that my rhythmic deficiencies were preventing me from tapping out the RPM successfully 🙁

She gave me a little smile and explained; "It's just Beat-Beat-Beat, Tap-Tap-Tap like any music in 4/4 time." "Then you just divide it in half to find the RPM... silly."

So I tried it again, this time forgetting the; One-Two-Three / One-Two-Three and instead just used Tap-Tap-Tap.

And she was right - as usual.   

*Here's an old tap-to-the-beat program (PC only) that I've used for years. You can (right click here - save as) to your desktop. It's an .exe file that you need to run each time you want to use it. Your PC may warn you to be concerned about .exe files - you should if they don't come from somewhere not trustworthy (like a spam email) but this file is clean.

Here's an old video showing how to use the counter - I made it back in 2009 and it's helped over 10,000 viewers 🙂

This online Tap to the Beat counter works well.

There are a bunch of free iPhone Apps like this one you can use.

Android Users can download this free App.

 

John

Add Your Thoughts...

comments