How can I play with timing for more interesting jamming? 

Think About

• How many different ways can someone play the same notes and rhythms?

Music is more than just notes — the way you play the notes can affect the mood and feeling of the music.

When people jam or improvise, they often explore how it sounds to slow down and speed up what they are playing or change the types of rhythms they are playing to change things up so what they are playing doesn’t get boring (to them or whoever is listening).

Get Started

1. Go to touchpianist.com and choose music to play from the dropdown menu.
2. All you need to do is touch any keys on your computer keyboard to make the music play
3. Experiment with different ways to play the notes
4. Try speeding up and slowing down
5. Try adding a pause here or there or quickly changing the speed
6. Try making different versions of the same music by changing the rhythms you play with the computer keys

Think About

• How does changing how you play the music by going faster and slower or changing up the rhythms affect the mood or feel of the music?

You can use these techniques of speeding up and slowing down the music in an expressive way — or changing up the rhythms to make your jamming interesting.

Go Even Further

Compare your versions with one of the recordings we have provided below

Bonus!

• Which of the versions of each piece do you like best?
• What are the similarities and differences between the various versions of the same music?

Share What you Learned

1. Record yourself playing the music 2 different ways
2. Share your recordings
3. Explain what you like best or least about the way you played the music

Back to the jamming playlist