Advice while learning a musical instrument

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I decided to start learning how to play the violin a month ago with absolute no musical background. Summarizing, it is going pretty well considering how hard the violin is supposed to be. I'm "playing" 5 short easy pieces now. But my teacher discovered that my rhythm is "fake". I'm playing the song following how I thing they should, rather than using the timing in the notes.
I'm having a hard time focusing on so many things and trying to keep the counts of the beats in mu head. Using the metronome is driving me crazy. It absorbs all my attention and forget what I was doing. If I cover it, the beats (click click) just block my head. Any ideas of how I can come with a less NT system to learn that???

Thanks

Tons and tons of careful practice. If you find the use of a metronome difficult, find some other way of keeping a steady time, like a light with a steady pulse. Eventually, you'll find keeping a steady tempo comes naturally. That'll take quite some time, but that's only to be expected for a new musician.

Thanks

If it frustrates you, minimize practicing timing until you feel more comfortable with the instrument. Not everyone follows a "cookie cutter" approach to learning how to play music. If I had a guitar teacher trying to pull that on me when I first started I probably would have broke the guitar over their head!

I taught myself and at the start of my learning I just focused more on accuracy with my hand positioning and picking than the timing. When I became more used to fretting chords and syncing them up with strumming, the timing accuracy soon followed behind. Not everyone learns the same

That is what my idea was. Get everything on place with the hope that rhythm/timing would come natural. My teacher got somehow strict with the fact that I'm practising a lot, finger positions for the notes I'm using are fine. Bow movements are sometimes a little bit too strong. But I'm having a hard time playing some pieces when the rhythm changes or better said, when from a slow/long notes start, I suddenly see my self trapped with many quavers.
I think I'll try a piece and I don't know and maybe that way my brain will try to get a new rhythm, rather than forcing the sound to be as I think it should be. It sound about right, but I'm ignoring the notes which will be a big problem in the future if I don't control it now.

My suggestion would be to practise rhythm away from the instrument.

Set a metronome going, tap your foot to the beat and then just clap the rhythm.

That way you don't have to worry about the pitches and technique at the same time.

Then you bring both sides together as the next step.

find that ear-training games help alot, especially with beginners. Sometimes if you do the technique + reading + ear training all at once, it can get overwhelming really fast. Check out this site: Theta Music Trainer

The beginning games are free. If you master those, you have to pay a fee to access the more advanced levels. They're great for practice. There's a great autodidactic quality to them.

Last edited by blue_moon666 on 27 Nov 2012, 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

btw, there's no such thing as a "less NT" way to learn. It's going to be difficult to learn a new instrument, but it has nothing to do with being NT or aspie. Everyone has to struggle. I've had aspies who have learned faster than NTs, some who have learned slower. It depends on your will power and how much time you're willing to devote to practicing.

Yep. If you're having trouble with something, isolate it so you can focus on it without having to keep track of a bunch of other things.
Once you've got the hang of rhythm on its own, then gradually work that knowledge into your playing. Start with note patterns that you can play in your sleep, and play around using different rhythms with those.