Regular
readers of this blog – both of you – along with my students, will
know how much of a (for want of a better word) fascist
I am about rhythm. I make no apologies for it – rhythm is what
makes music music, what binds the notes together the notes and
permeates everyaspect of music.
Basically,
rhythm is The Force.
Learn
it well, let it flow through you, turn off your guidance systems.. oh
you know the drill.
But
all this is just drivel without some solid reference points to back
it up. If you're going to learn to “feel” rhythm, you have to
start somewhere. Now this is an area where us grownups/ old gits have
an advantage over you younglings – we've been around longer, we've
had much more opportunity to absorb rhythm, to learn through osmosis
even if we weren't trying to. Kids don't have that luxury. Kids have
to concentrate and count.
So
– where to begin. Start with simplicity itself, simply tapping your
foot to the beat. Next up, using your pick hand (because after all,
that's the one that does the most work channelling rhythm) start
tapping out the rhythms on top.
First
the semibreve (whole note) – once every four beats
Next,
the minim (half note) – once every two beats
Third,
the crotchet (quarter note) – once per beat
Then,
the quaver (eighth note) – two evenly spaced taps per beat.
Once
you've got those, try the triplet – three evenly spaced taps per
beat. Think “one and a, two and a, three and a, four and a” - or
if you're a fan of Family Guy “Giggity, Giggity, Giggity, Giggity”!
Now
we get into the next level of rhythm – the semiquaver, or sixteenth
note. This is a note that's worth a quarter of a beat, so we're going
to need to space out four taps evenly within one beat. Think
“one-e-and-a, two-e-and-a, three-e-and-a, four-e-and-a”.
Once
you've grasped these patterns, grab your guitar. Set up a semiquaver
pattern muting the strings – you'll notice the distinctive
“wakkachakka, wakkachakka” sound, just begging for a wah pedal
and a chorus of backing singers belting out “Shaft!”.
Next
up, we'll start getting used to some of these rhythmic ideas. Pick a
chord – I've been using dominant 9ths with my students as they
embody the distinctive sound of James Brown era funk, but any barre
chord will do (open chords aren't a good idea here as you'll need to
mute the strings completely).
We'll
begin simply – put the chord on the downbeat, the 1,2,3,4 –
release the pressure for the “e-and-a” and just hit the muted
strings. Then when you're ready, move over to playing on the “e”,
then the “and”, then the “a”. As you do, try and conjure up
an image in your mind for each rhythm – for example, there's
something about playing on the “a” that makes me think of
swimmers doing the butterfly stroke, that chord sounding like a gasp
of breath before diving back under water for the next stroke. Try it,
you'll see what I mean!
When
you get the hang of them, see if you can condense them down into two
bars of each rhythm, played consecutively as an eight bar exercise.
When you can do this consistently, you'll be well on the way to
mastering what I like to think of as HD Rhythm Guitar – being able
to recognise and reproduce more sophisticated syncopated rhythms by
ear. And trust me, there is NO style of music where that ability is
not an advantage!
So
– until next month, go forth and get your grooves on!
