Hello everyone, i've been playing keyboard/piano for about 4 years now but i've always had this issue of counting the beat.

Lately i've got a bit better at it by following the rhythm of the music that i know but it still needs a lot of improvement.

My biggest problem is when it comes to playing according to the in built rhythm styles of the keyboard. Somehow i'm always out of tune until i did some research in google and found the term called 'beat deafness'. I'm not sure if this applies to me but there are some possibilities such as unable to feel the rhythm which results in being unable to follow the beat.

Anyone has heard/experienced it?

Beaf deafness

have you used a metronome?

Tried also, it helped for steady beats but not for all cases.

I have the same issue. it is ok if with obvious beats accompanying like drumbeat or metronome. when without, I'm lost.
had to give up piano at grade 5.

have you tried counting a metronome into 8th notes and then its subdivisions?

most songs out there have steady beats, would say 99% of them are steady.

You mean the 1 count, 1/2 count etc?

The 1+, 2+, 3+, 4+?

Yes but still not good.

It's like if i were to put Waltz music now (for example), i can't tell, which is the first beat... all sounds alike to me.

yea and how good are you at it, say can you count a beat as 1 + , , 3 + , 4 +

Waltz tends to have a diff timing 3/4, so it might fuck things up if you cant do standard 4/4

Still not too good at that too but working on improving the beat counting. Is there any other way besides metronome?

As for Waltz and it's 3/4 timing, i agree it's all messed up because i'm still not good at my normal counting of 4/4.

Then again, is there any correct technique of feeling the beat (counting is definitely one) or able to tell when is the first beat in a rhythm?

Perhaps i have not been practicing correctly all this while which has made it so bad.

not really, at the end of it all, its still the metronome, but most people count metronome by basic 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 and then sub divide, that imho gets old very fast because you dont force yourself to build your own internal time. (we all have internal clocks). so folks can follow get bored and then think theres more to life than following a red dot

what i like is you skip the 1st or 2nd beat then hunt for it, so it goes -------- 3 - 4 - and your brain needs to find 1 and 2.

piano is a bit hard to get the counting right, because you have melodies that run around and its not very structured, in the sense that the note can start on 2 after a lengthy sustained note at the 4th beat.

try counting on easy music first, western pop/ house,trance (easiest) / rock, then from there move on to classical pieces, piano pop ( jay chou) and what not. one of my favourite tricks is to on a radio to some unknown station (i like mix) then just count the beat on the song when it comes up.

imo, just a bunch of mumbo jumbo.
if u can play somewhat in time without a metronome, that already means u can somewhat follow a beat.
the problem u probably face with a metronome is u are too aware of it, so u over-think and miss the beats.
as long as u can hear the piece in ur head along with the metronome, then there is no reason why it cannot be played short of lack of technical ability.

Go back to basic like humming+clapping or humming+finger tapping

There's a lot of good tips here, i will try it and see whether it works for me. Thanks

It sounds not too bad without the metronome/rhythm but when I turn that on, the gap is quite obvious. I might be too fast or too slow depending on the complexity of the song.

I do agree about the overthinking at times, sometimes i'm too worried i'll miss the beat or press a wrong key and everything will get screwed.

Working on it too.