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Post by coachdoc on Jun 26, 2020 9:32:30 GMT -5
Anybody know. of introductory rhythm lessons online? I do fine with basic 4/4, 3/4, eighths and quarters. But reading rhythm at speed off sheet music stymies me. I'd like to get up to speed.
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Dub
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I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
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Post by Dub on Jun 26, 2020 10:05:22 GMT -5
Anybody know. of introductory rhythm lessons online? I do fine with basic 4/4, 3/4, eighths and quarters. But reading rhythm at speed off sheet music stymies me. I'd like to get up to speed. I really like this Rhythm Sight Reading Trainer app. Like most creative apps it seems, it’s only available for Apple devices. My experience has been that most creative types choose Apple devices anyway. Doesn’t seem to have an OS X (Mac) version though. One of the things that I later discovered had been useful was my foray into learning the bongo drums c. 1959-’60. I followed a long since lost instruction book to get some basic technique then I would sit and play them along with records like the calypso stuff that was popular or Martin Denny/Arthur Lyman type stuff. The Kingston Trio had some of that sound too. Anyway, I became semi-adept at feeling, hearing, and changing the expression of rhythms before ever picking up a guitar. In the relative importance of various elements in music, I rate rhythm as most important, harmony second, and melody third. Of course it’s the melody that we’re trying to convey but if the rhythm or harmony is off, all our efforts have been wasted. If one of those elements must be wrong, a wrong melody note is the least egregious. That’s why, in thumbpicking, we concentrate on the the thumb all the time and let the melody become the “automated” part we aren’t really thinking about. Just 160° backwards from what seems intuitive. |
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,914
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Post by Dub on Jun 26, 2020 10:34:55 GMT -5
I found a Web site called Practice Sight Reading that looks like it might be useful. For the rhythm reading that you’re after, it seems to be free in perpetuity. |
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Post by aquaduct on Jun 26, 2020 10:57:47 GMT -5
Anybody know. of introductory rhythm lessons online? I do fine with basic 4/4, 3/4, eighths and quarters. But reading rhythm at speed off sheet music stymies me. I'd like to get up to speed. I learned it too long ago to maybe be of much help, but I'd start by listening to music that contains odd time signatures and trying to sort out the feels. A good place to start is Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" which is literally in 5/4. The trick is recognizing the 2 then 3 or 3 then 2 feels that are actually at the heart of it. That literally covers most instances in popular music. "Color My World" by Chicago is probably the most famous 12/8 song, but songs in 3 (12/8 is a fast 3/4) aren't really interesting from an execution standpoint. What is interesting from an execution standpoint in popular music anyways is mixing 2 and 3 pulses. A referent (again from my universe anyways) is "Room 335" by Larry Carlton. At the end of the main chorus the timing shifts briefly from 4 to 3 and back notated variously as a bar of 7/4, 5/4, or just plain 3/4 inserted at the end of the chorus. The real point is that the feel goes 2-2-3 and then back to normal. Which gives that brief "mistake or not" double take to the listener that adds real interest. I've heard it all over the place. I first noticed it with one of the old Amy Grant tunes whose name escapes me at the moment. My wife does it naturally and it's really freaked out bassists we've worked with who have no background in jazz. For me it's second nature following her so often I don't even realize it. My suggestion is listening as much as possible and picking it out. This is the most significant time trick you'll ever run into in a practical sense. Period. Learning it and getting it under your fingers is just setting up a metronome WITHOUT the emphasized beat and just running through it. Once you've heard it, the biggest problem incorporating it is breaking your habits. Yes, it is that simple. |
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Post by fauxmaha on Jun 26, 2020 11:04:52 GMT -5
I can't help but bring to mind Lonnie's "Strangers In The F-ing Night" joke.
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Post by Russell Letson on Jun 26, 2020 11:07:24 GMT -5
I know that abilities vary, but I've never been able to get time from a chart--or, at least, not in anything that approaches real-time, sight-reading speed. I can follow it while a piece is being played--for example when the jazz guys call a tune I'm not familiar with, I can generally see where they are on the Real Book chart and "see" what the phrasing is. But when I join in, it's my ear that's telling me where the changes are and what the phrasing is.
It's always been like that for me--I learn by ear, with a chart there to remind me of the big features. I also picked up how to count some of the Latin and asymmetric "Take Five" rhythms with the groups of two and three--like the 12-beat pattern of 1-2-3,1-2-3,1-2-,1-2,1-2. Mostly, though, I listen, and somehow it gets into my hands.
On edit: Peter got in there with "Take Five" and the 2-and-3 approach while I was composing (or decomposing). Another example-set I'd offer is the "stumbling" rhythm you hear in some Scandanavian folk dances. There's a fiddler who shows up at some music circles in Minneapolis who plays those, and I'm the only guitarist who can play behind him. I have no idea what I'm doing, though.
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Post by millring on Jun 26, 2020 11:51:46 GMT -5
I'm not having any luck googling for it, but some clever person has put all time signatures to a word or two as a mnemonic.
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Post by aquaduct on Jun 26, 2020 11:57:41 GMT -5
I'm not having any luck googling for it, but some clever person has put all time signatures to a word or two as a mnemonic. "A combination of 2 and 3". How's that for a mnemonic? |
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Post by sidheguitarmichael on Jun 26, 2020 13:38:14 GMT -5
Anybody know. of introductory rhythm lessons online? I do fine with basic 4/4, 3/4, eighths and quarters. But reading rhythm at speed off sheet music stymies me. I'd like to get up to speed. Doc, Peter is actually spot on (as he tends to be with essential theory concepts). The basics of rhythm are incredibly simple to boil down, but harder to do on demand, under extreme time constraints (duh). I could walk you through all of it—both ear, and written—in a single session. I’ve been doing a single-class rhythm module in my beginning guitar classes for almost 2 decades now. It’s not rocket science; the gothics had it figured out by the time Notre Dame cathedral was a thing. You’ve got my number; shoot me a text sometime, and we can do an online session, on me. |
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Post by Chesapeake on Jun 27, 2020 16:49:21 GMT -5
I don't know if this would fit your needs, but Peter Rowan had an introductory rhythm guitar CD out years ago on Homespun. Don't know if it's still in their catalog.
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