# What's a 3 sets of 2 and a set of 3 ?



## Davzon

This is the keyboard player from Dream theater, I just have one question what is he on about does he mean in 4/4 or does he mean 3 sets of 2/8 ? and one set of 3/8 ?


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## hreichgott

He says it's in 9/8:


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## Davzon

oh that's what he means, he wasn't on about the time signature he was on about the accents.. I always wondered what people was on about when they were saying that. I thought the accent was meant to be on every nine notes though and there is 10 notes.


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## hreichgott

Yes, he says that is the point of the exercise.

(I'm not sure how useful an exercise it is, and he doesn't explain what else it's supposed to help you do, but there you have it...)


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## Kazaman

Eh, I wouldn't put too much time into this exercise. A much better use of your time would be to play scales and arpeggios in different rhythms with varying accents.


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## Davzon

Well I just thought it was good cause he is considered a really good keyboard player, I mean his understanding of times is very good, but maybe cause of the way he explains things he makes something sound simple to be complicated. To be honest I play all sorts of scales chords rhythms now anyway. The accenting different notes I find hard to do, that's why I find that Michael Nyman- The heart asks for pleasure first, very hard cause playing the notes is one thing but accenting the certain notes to make it sound more smoother Is very hard work. I would be grateful if you knew of anything other exercises that used more complex timings, and one of my weakest areas in music is time understanding and rhythm


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## Taggart

Metronome!

You need to build up a good and regular beat. You also need to be able to hear and repeat the beat pattern of a piece of music.

One thing to do is work out the rhythm and try and clap it. Never mind the piano, just clap or tap the rhythm. Once you've got it, then try and play it *slowly* until you feel confident. Then try and get it up to speed using a metronome to help you.

Look at the ABRSM  site for detauils of their aural tests to see more about rhythm.


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## hreichgott

Davzon said:


> playing the notes is one thing but accenting the certain notes to make it sound more smoother Is very hard work. I would be grateful if you knew of anything other exercises that used more complex timings, and one of my weakest areas in music is time understanding and rhythm


Bartok! Lots of pieces in Bartok's collections Mikrokosmos and For Children have serious rhythmic challenges, even though the time signatures are fairly standard. If you stick to For Children and the first two books of Mikrokosmos, the notes would be easy enough for you to play, maybe a bit too easy, so you could really focus on the rhythms.


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## PetrB

An unnecessary re-invention of the wheel!

A common exercise is to practice, say, a passage of sixteenth notes in 4/4 putting "the accents on the wrong syl-lables."

If you take that full measure of sixteenth note runs in a Mozart piece, and practice it placing the accent on the first beat of a group of three, five, six, etc. the benefit is twofold - you are exercising further independence of the fingers, and also catching any undetected 'hiccups' or hesitations as to your thinking and broader motions, fingering included.

Better to work on the actual passage from the piece in question (why not finger it for the opposite hand and get an even workout while you're at it?) This can be done with any passage.

Always, always put it back together in the proper meter, accents, as the score shows and intends -- before you stop that practice session.


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