The next part is how to accommodate music that is alternately sparse and dense in notes per second. So the first part about counting is the assignment of count sounds to the various notes as indicated above. Or (for grouping in 3's): 1 ah be doe ah tay 2 ah be doe ah tay. To count 2 counts of six-tuplets use: 1 ah be ah doe ah 2 ah be ah doe ah , To count 2 counts of triplets use: 1 be doe 2 be doe. Having 'sounds' for counting 32nd notes makes counting the first page of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata a lot easier. įor both these cases the core sound syllables (be, doe, tay) were chosen for being able to roll off your tongue QUICKLY, and to have different leading consonant and trailing vowel sounds, which I found helps avoid getting mixed up. So far I'd guess this is pretty standard, but to count denser/shorter notes I have an alternative for 16th notes & beyond:ġ6th's alt.: 1 be doe tay 2 be doe tay etc.ģ2nd s: 1 ah be ah doe ah tay ah 2 ah be ah doe ah tay ah. What I came up with is to count with these sounds:

This is not a big deal for quarter notes, but what about for 32nd's or 48th's, etc. The first problem that comes up is assigning the beat/count location of a particular note. Let me say what I do and solicit comments and alternatives.

I don't really know if there is standard method used by more advanced players. I'm interested in hearing about counting techniques used by advanced pianists.

How to count 32nd notes piano