Here's my old "two images" game.
OK, so what do these two images have in common?
rubato
(Or really any kind of rhythmic freedom, for that matter. Yes, I know I'm not really using the technically correct definition of rubato)
Sometimes, my students have trouble incorporating rhythmic freedom in a way that works. Often they speed up or slow down in an unpredictable way.
I like to think of rhythmic freedom as a change in the main pulse *but* a change that is predictable.....sort of like that spinning wheel in Wheel of Fortune. The speed of that clicking sound is always changing but n a predictable way. In fact, I believe even that the rate change itself is also changing in a predicable way.
(doesn't this have something to do with calculus?)
As someone listens to you, you want them to be able to follow you, rhythmically. You don't want to throw them off.
Thus we can conclude that rodeo horses aren't very good at rubato.
