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I think the importance of having good sense of time as a musician cannot be overstated. You can play all the right notes, but if you don't play them with a good sense of timing/rhythm then it's not going to sound good.

A very simple (and very effective) thing to do to improve timing is to clap along with a metronome and attempt to make the click "disappear."

When the click disappears that means you are perfectly in time. If you can still hear the click through your clapping that means you are either rushing or too late. When I'm off it's usually because of rushing, and I think that's a more common problem.

What's great about this way of practicing your timing is that you get immediate feedback. If you hear the click you know you're not in time so you need to adjust (most likely you are rushing.)

If you do a short session like this everyday (five minutes is probably plenty) I think you will see marked improvement in your timing.

You will likely find it very difficult at first, but when you do start to make the metronome disappear it will be like a revelation!

You should try doing it all types of different tempos. And don't assume that faster is harder, really locking in at 40 BPM may be a tougher challenge.

I should also mention that at first you may think that you just need to clap louder, but that's not the case. If you can hear the click, it's not because your clapping isn't loud enough - it's because you are not perfectly in time.

Tags: Rhythm, Timing