Rhythmic Training by Robert Starer | Rhythm Exercise Book for Piano and All Instruments | Progressive Sheet Music Method for Musicians and Teachers | Timing and Reading Practice Guide

This is one of those books that you walk around with silently practicing and tapping along to everywhere, looking like a crazy person. It's a great book. It teaches you rhythm. Grab a metronome, a tapping foot, and vocalize, tap your hand, clap, or whatever along to it.I wish there was a little more written instruction on how to count things, but I also think that's kind of missing the point of this book. It's teaching you to feel it. I just find I can feel things better after I use and internalize an intellectual approach. Still a really great and unique book.

Rhythm has always been one of my greatest weaknesses as a wind player. I always had difficulty reading rhythms and keeping track of the beat during odd syncopated rhythms.This book helps me with both reading new rhythms and keeping track of the beat while I perform the rhythm. Each exercise has two aspects: tapping/humming the rhythm and keeping track of the pulse. Over the years, I had developed a bad habit of never counting more than maybe 2 beats at a time (i.e. I would count 1 and 2 and 1 2 and 1 and and 1) regardless of the meter. This book has been forcing me to keep count of the pulse of the actual time signature (i.e. 1 and 2 and 3 4). This really keeps me keep track of where I am in a song as I read through it.For me, the best part of this book is I can do the exercises without even needing to get out my sax. I already have a pretty full practice routine so being able to fit this in without having to cut anything else out is a huge bonus.This book is a fantastic value and I would highly recommend it to anyone struggling with rhythm.

This book cuts straight to the chase without being too wordy. It shows you visually how rhythmic things work, and gives you easy to understand exercises to reinforce the concept. Make sure to read the "How to Use This Book" page at the beginning. It covers bare basics from duration of all of the note and rest notations, bar lines, and meters. It then goes up to dividing beats into every number up to 16, changing meters on the fly, and polyrythms. It also illustrates how to conduct each exercise. An instrument is not necessary for these exercises and is actually best used with humming and tapping. For the price it's a great addition to any amateurs collection.

Rhythm is not really a problem for me but seeing complex rhythms and conducting at the same time was very different. Especially double-handed tapping. The book breaks down everything but sometimes hearing how the rhythm goes is helpful. So I would practice this stuff with a friend, especially for the auditory learners. The book is small and fits in my hand nicely. Not too small. Paper quality is good for writing in the book. Book also gives clear conduction patterns in different time signatures. Rhythm practices work for counting with conducting and double-handed tapping.Look out for rhythm practice #76 on page 66. There may be a typo on measure one of the second line. In my book there was.

At first, when I took it out the package, my first thought was, “Did they make this book to be opened?” It looked so tightly bound. Intuition was right.The goodThe content itself is fine, got quite challenging real fast, but it's fun once you get the hang of it. You know you’ve “got it” when you’re relaxed enough and playing it “musically” in different ways without any errors.The badThe binding, however, is crap. It arrived with the cover slightly chipped/peeling in places, and though I was miffed I wasn't going to say anything until what happened next.Not wanting anything else to go wrong, I opened the book with all the gentleness I could muster, but it wasn't enough. The glue binding was already separated from the first page a good ways down the page 😵 Seriously?!I don't think it's the seller's fault (it doesn't even look like it was previously opened), but I'm so vexed I had to leave a warning review. .If a book needed to be so tightly bound, it probably should have been done with spiral binding. I’ll probably have to do that myself. So yes, it doesn't lay flat.ConclusionGreat content, practise well until you're super-comfortable with each exercise. The binding however may not hold up even with minimal use, so be prepared that you may have to get it spiral-bound.Hope this helps.

My university voice teacher recommended I purchase this book to enhance my internal rhythm and little did I know that I would also be using it to teach my own children about rhythm and notation as well. It’s a good book for beginners and those needing to enhance their rhythmic skills.

This is a must for anyone learning a musical instrument. You are led through exercises of slowly increasing difficulty of rhythmic patterns, shown on a staff. You will learn how to count all the note values that are depicted in gradually challenging patterns. This will also help you to learn to read sheet music, big time.

Starer's book has been in my library for decades. I return to it again and again to brush up, as I don't have to do a lot of sight reading. I recommend it especially for bassists like myself, who need to read complex rhythms from time to time, but not as a usual thing. It's progressive in difficulty, so easy to use, and not aimed at drummers. Hindemith no doubt would have approved.