Exercise
Conduct the following exercise in 4/4. Cue the downbeat and keep going. In the next bar cue the 2^nd beat, in the next the 3^rd, and then the 4^th. As we’ve already seen, your cue begins with the left hand preparing one beat early and then returning to the beat plane. This should be very manageable on the 2^nd and 3^rd beats.

Cueing on the 4^th beat is trickier. This is because your two hands have to go in opposite directions. The right hand is swinging upwards on the 4^th beat (the upbeat) while the left hand is dropping downwards to the beat plane. This may be difficult to coordinate at first, and you may need to return to exercise 3.1.10 if you struggle with moving your hands independently.

Once you’re doing this competently, start varying the character of your cues: gentle, bold, aggressive, plaintive, excited, mellow, heavy, light etc., and different dynamics (pp all the way to ff).