Tips & Tricks: Four easy steps to playing sixteenth notes evenly

Have you ever been playing a piece with a lot of sixteenth notes and found that they were sounding uneven? I have a trick that will help you to even out your playing! I was introduced to this technique by my high school violin teacher and have used it ever since with great success!

Here are the 4 easy steps to playing sixteenth notes evenly using this sample passage:

1. Get your metronome. Your metronome is your friend when you are trying to solve rhythm and evenness issues. I usually slow the passage down while working on it, but if you already have the notes down, it may not be necessary.

2. Play the passage using the following rhythm:

3. Play the passage again using this second rhythm:

4. Play the passage as it was originally written.

You will find that once you have used the two altered rhythms (especially the second one) that playing the passage with straight sixteenth notes is much easier, that your rhythm is much more steady, and likely you will even be able to play it faster than before.

Why is that? Well, when you think about it, to play the dotted rhythms, you have had to move your fingers and your twice as fast as when you were playing the straight sixteenth notes, so by playing both the dotted rhythms, in a way you had to play the whole passage as thirty-second notes.

Likely, it will not be enough to play the passage once through each way and be able to play it perfectly once you are done. Spend some time on each step and make sure that you are playing all the notes in the correct rhythm and that your bow and left-hand fingers are coordinated. Depending on how long the passage is, it can be a challenge to maintain the rhythm in step three.

This is a tried and true technique that is one of the most useful in my toolbox. Let me know how it works out for you!

photo credit: amandabhslater via photopin cc