Members bardsley Posted February 26, 2007 Members Posted February 26, 2007 Just a reminder to all of you out there. Work on your timing! The number one problem all of my students come to is that, while they work at their speed and all sorts of tricks, their timing leaves a lot to be desired. There are tons of exercises on this site so I won't post a whole lot of examples, except that recently I've been starting every practice session with a couple of minutes of simply playing 1/4 notes along with a metronome, and making sure I'm right on, rather than slightly to one side of the beat. It's a simple exercise that gets your fingers in sync.But there's a ton more.I'll hazard a guess and suggest that if you're someone who thinks you have good time, but you haven't worked on it much, you probably don't. Rhythm is the key to the music that most of us play, so lets all work a bit harder at getting it good.And have a nice Monday.
Members Neilsonite Posted February 26, 2007 Members Posted February 26, 2007 Great tip - rhythm is so important, and often overlooked! Your exercise is a great one, and the slower the harder... I'd also add that I often get my students to practice their sub-divisions, like 8th, 16th, triplets, quintuplets, and so on. Working on getting a great swing is also really important, IMO.
Members Hamhand Posted February 26, 2007 Members Posted February 26, 2007 I'm just an older student, but a recent digital recording showed me exactly that. My strumming was all over the place timing wise. I spent all afternoon playing with an Eagles recording to practice staying on tempo. I'm going to buy a metronome for sure.
Poparad Posted February 26, 2007 Posted February 26, 2007 It's just a personal pet peeve, but I hate it when people refer to "rhythm" as "timing." The word "timing" gives this idea that it's like synchronizing watches or something, where you're only worried about lining up one note with one specific point in time. "Rhythm," however, refers to not just the note that you are currently playing, but how that note relates to all the others around it in time, both in duration and placement. It's been my experience that people who regularly call it "timing" usually suffer from a 'forest for the trees' syndrome, where they're concentrating on one note, and not the entire rhythm and how it relates to the groove. These people usually have an overall bad sense of rhythm and groove. Of course, that is a generalization, and it is just a pet peeve of mine, but I had to get that out.
Members bardsley Posted February 27, 2007 Author Members Posted February 27, 2007 Maybe that's a bit of a cultural thing too. Whenever I hear great musicians from around here talk about this sort of stuff they'll always use time, or timing, rather than rhythm, which is a very uncommon word in that context - it's more often used to describe a particular rhythm pattern. People tend to say "man, he's got amazing time", as opposed to "great rhythm". People will say groove, but I tend to stay away from that term when writing, because people often take it to mean a particular sort of music.
Members okieguitarman Posted February 27, 2007 Members Posted February 27, 2007 Pete Anderson,a player who I like said it best: " Any great solo,the table was most likely set with great rhythm playing". I learned to be a rhythm player before I became a lead player and this path helped me very much.
Members vic freeman Posted February 28, 2007 Members Posted February 28, 2007 I posted a topic on this just before noticing this one. I bought a digitech 200 processer it has several drum patterns. My question is should I slow down the tempo then count the beats then wright tabs out to match the drums, notice the snar, or bass, or high hat, then match strums along with drums. I find it difficult to play along with the drum machine. I also find it more difficult to play with the metranome. Tips and methods for guitar part writing along with drums please. I really get lost with the regge and jass and blues beats. I can only play along to the simplest of rock patterns and it is really bad when I can't notice 4/4 or 3/4 or all that good stuff.
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