One Myth That Rattles My Cage

Your playing along in an ‘allegro’ movement, and you come to a longish note – lets say a half note – that’s tied over to another beat for a sixteenth note. Immediately after this tied sixteenth you’re to proceed with string of quick sixteenths.

Now, conventional wisdom states that one should tacet, or rest the sixteenth under the tie before proceeding on to the series of fast notes. The thinking is that by taking this little break one won’t be as likely to be late getting on to the following sixteenths.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had musical colleagues remark on the need for this space.

I never have, and I never will, in spite of the fact that almost invariably the lateness tendency is resolved by doing so.

Here are my reasons.

First of all, when people are late off a tie it’s not because they haven’t stopped their sound. If you think about it, stopping and restarting the sound requires a couple of actions. Those would reason for more lateness, not less.

No, the real reason for the lateness was simply a lack of anticipation.

Taking up a pencil and putting a coma before the moving sixteenths, or circling the tied note, merely draws one’s attention to the problem. The solution is then affected in the mind just by taking note – no pun intended

But my strongest objection to the practice is musical; it interrupts the flow of the music. And when it’s really obvious, I find it incredibly distracting.

For me the best policy is to count, and to visualize ahead of where you’re playing. Do those two things and you’ll never be caught ‘flat footed’ playing off a tied note again.

This won’t stop conductors and colleagues from resorting to and perpetuating this myth, however. Many times I’ve worked under conductors who give the impression they’ve decided in advance of the rehearsals what they’re going to say to an orchestra. But that’s another story.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. Learning just how to harness the power of visualization and counting is an important part of my Kreutzer course. You won’t get caught ‘flat footed’ rhythmically ever again once you begin using these powerful methods.