Counting with Conviction: Jonny Allen's Guide to Rhythmic Stability, Subdivisions, and Internal Pulse
- Nathan Coles
- Oct 24
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 27
For any musician, long, repetitive passages present a unique challenge. It’s easy for the mind to wander, for the pulse to drift, or to lose your place entirely. The solution isn't just more repetition; it's a deeper, more thoughtful approach to practice. It’s about building an unshakeable internal pulse that guides you with unwavering confidence. Today, we're exploring this exact concept with Jonny Allen of Sandbox Percussion. He’ll walk us through his method for internalizing complex figures, using a solo on the Black Swamp woodblock as a case study to demonstrate a process that can be applied to any instrument and any piece of music.
Table of Contents
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Meet Your Instructor
We're incredibly fortunate to learn from Jonny Allen, a Brooklyn-based percussionist and a core member of Sandbox Percussion. Described by The New York Times as "a demonstration of raw power, virtuosity and feeling," Jonny's contagious passion for music is backed by formidable credentials. He has won prizes at both the International Chamber Music Competition and the International Marimba Competition in Salzburg and performs as a soloist and chamber musician worldwide, from Carnegie Hall to the National Theatre in Accra, Ghana. Most importantly for our lesson, he is a deeply committed educator. Jonny co-directs the NYU Sandbox Percussion Seminar, serves as the Percussion Director at Choate Rosemary Hall, and gives masterclasses internationally. With a Bachelor's from the Eastman School of Music and a Master's and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music, Jonny brings a world-class combination of performance insight and pedagogical expertise to help us master our internal pulse.
The Challenge: Staying Grounded While Counting in Repetitive Music
Imagine you’re 40 minutes into an 80-minute piece, and a solo moment arrives. In Andy Akiho's Seven Pillars, this moment falls to a single woodblock. The texture boils down to one rhythm, repeated. The pressure is immense; there's nowhere to hide. This is a perfect example of why a strong internal pulse is critical.
When playing repetitive figures, the goal is not just to execute the notes correctly but to feel the entire phrase as a complete, looping idea. This holistic understanding prevents you from getting lost in the weeds of individual notes and allows you to count over larger sections with confidence. It also gives you the crucial ability to adjust in real-time. If a note is slightly off, a robust internal pulse is the anchor that allows you to instantly self-correct and lock back into the groove.
Building Your Unshakeable Internal Pulse
Jonny’s method is a systematic way to develop this internal clock. It’s about breaking a rhythm down to its smallest components and then rebuilding it in a way that connects it deeply to the main pulse. This process moves from external counting to complete internal mastery.
Phase 1: Master the Fundamental Subdivision
Before you can play a rhythm on the grid, you have to feel the grid itself. This starts with mastering the fundamental subdivision—the smallest, most precise unit of time in the phrase.
Subdividing is the practice of breaking each beat down into smaller parts.
Jonny starts by counting this subdivision (in his case, "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9") out loud, consistently. This isn't just a warm-up; it's about calibrating your internal metronome to the music's atomic level, ensuring every note has a precise location to land.
Phase 2: Grouping the Subdivisions
This is where the magic happens. By counting the same subdivision but in different groupings (every two beats, every three beats, every four beats, etc.), you train your brain to feel the main pulse from multiple perspectives. This advanced subdividing builds immense rhythmic flexibility. It reinforces the stability of the core beat, no matter how the surface-level rhythm is phrased, because you've practiced feeling the underlying grid in multiple ways.
Phase 3: The Four-Step Integration
To truly own a rhythm, you must understand its relationship to the main beat. Jonny uses a four-step process to fuse a rhythmic pattern to an underlying pulse (like 16th notes):
Count the Pattern: Map out loud where each note of your rhythm falls on the grid (e.g., "one-e-and," "two-e-and," "three").
Play and Count: Play the rhythm while continuing to speak its location on the grid.
Play and Sing Notes: Play the rhythm while only singing the notes of the rhythm itself.
Play and Sing Pulses: This is the ultimate test. Continue playing the rhythm, but now only sing the main downbeats of the grid (e.g., "one... two... three...").
Successfully completing this last step proves you have truly internalized the rhythm. Your hands are performing the complex figure while your mind and voice are holding down the foundational pulse. This is the definition of rhythmic conviction.
Phase 4: From Vocalization to Audiation
The first three phases rely on vocalizing—counting and singing out loud. This is a crucial, non-negotiable step to connect your physical playing with your analytical brain. The final step is to take this entire process internal.
This is where audiation comes in.
Audiation is the ability to hear, count, and feel the music in your head without making an external sound.
Once you can flawlessly execute the four-step integration, begin to subtract your voice. First, just mouth the counts. Then, just think the counts. Eventually, you'll be able to perform the rhythm while "hearing" the subdivisions and the main pulse internally.
This is the ultimate goal: your mind provides the unshakeable metronome, and your hands simply express the music. This internal audiation is your new anchor, allowing you to play with conviction, count over massive phrases, and self-correct instantly because you're not just playing a pattern—you're feeling its entire rhythmic structure.
Student Action Plan
You can apply this method to any repetitive figure on any instrument:
Identify a Challenging Phrase: Choose a repetitive passage from your music where you struggle with consistency or occasionally get lost.
Establish the Grid: Determine the smallest subdivision in the phrase and practice counting it out loud until it is perfectly steady.
Practice Groupings: Count that subdivision in various groupings to build your rhythmic flexibility.
Integrate Your Phrase: Apply Jonny's four-step integration process to your specific musical phrase. Be patient and don't move to the next step until the current one feels comfortable and locked-in.
Test Your Pulse: Record yourself playing the phrase. Can you clearly hear both rhythmic accuracy and a confident, underlying pulse? The goal is for the rhythm to feel grounded, not frantic.
The Role of Sound in Rhythmic Clarity
While this is a mental and physical exercise, your instrument plays a key role as your primary source of feedback. Using a clear, articulate instrument—like the Black Swamp woodblock in Jonny’s example—is incredibly helpful. Why?
A high-quality instrument provides immediate, unambiguous auditory feedback. When an instrument has a clean attack and a focused tone, it's easier to hear precisely where your notes are landing in relation to the beat. This clarity makes self-assessment more effective and allows you to make subtle adjustments with greater accuracy. Your gear should be a tool that helps you hear your own precision.
Beyond Counting: The Freedom of Fluency
The ultimate goal of this deep, methodical practice is to move beyond conscious counting. When a rhythm is so deeply ingrained that you feel it in your bones, your mind is freed up to focus on the higher levels of music-making: dynamics, phrasing, color, and emotional expression.
Developing an unshakeable internal pulse isn't just a technical exercise; it's a path to greater musical freedom. It provides the foundation of confidence upon which true artistry is built. So take this process, apply it to your own practice, and discover the conviction that comes from truly owning the rhythm.
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