Monthly Archives: October 2016

24 Oct

Intro to Rhythm Guitar: Combo Rhythms

Hopefully you’ve had a chance to read my lesson on Subtractive Strumming. This week we’ll take the next step as Rhythm Guitar Players with Combo Rhythms.

In my four Combo Rhythms, we take the same concepts we learned in Subtractive Strumming and put the notes in a different order. This gives us more variety and an opportunity to read trickier rhythms.

Remember that just as with Subtractive Rhythms:

  • Each of the following rhythms should be played separately. Do not go directly from #1 to #2.
  • These patterns can be played with any chord.
  • Counting and strumming indiciationshave been left out of these four exercises.
    Quarter-Notes should still be played with a downstrum, Eighth-Notes should be strummed down-up.

combo

Be sure to keep your strumming steady and count out loud.

First practice each pattern on a single chord, repeating many times. Once you feel comfortable, add a chord change. Then try applying the rhythm to a song.

Practice these four rhythms for a solid week (or until you feel you’ve mastered them). Spend some time keeping up with your Subtractive Rhythms.

Once you feel you’ve mastered these eight rhythms, look ahead to my lesson on Creating Your Own Rhythms.

10 Oct

Why Learn Music Anyway?

A few months ago I had an interesting exchange with a young student. I asked him a question I’ve asked hundreds of times before “Why do you want to learn the trumpet?”. Usual responses include “I don’t know”, “because my parents say I have to”, “I want to be in the school band”. Rarely I’m treated with “I love the music of Louis Armstrong”.

This one student’s response stopped me in my tracks: “I just want to learn the trumpet to make lots of money, then I’m going to quit”.

Wait, what? How did I miss out on this trumpet player windfall?

As a business, music is cruel. You will never get out of the music business in money what you put into it.

 

So why learn music in the first place?

Music is universal. Every culture on the planet has created art for our ears. You can’t go anywhere without encountering music. Buskers are on the streets and subways. Music plays in restaurants & stores. We hear it in advertisements. Music enhances the emotional impact of television and movies. Music is everywhere. Religious institutions have been using the power of music to enhance prayer for thousands of years. We listen to music in our cars and wander the streets with headphones on. Music is, simply, everywhere.

We too often answer this question with music’s ancillary benefits: Music helps us learn math, science, etc. Students who study music tend to graduate and go to college. Joining band or orchestra keeps kids out of trouble.

 

Still, why study music?

  1. Music makes us smarter!

    The human brain is like a muscle in that the more it is used, the stronger it becomes. An engaged mind will become smarter while the disengaged atrophies. With increased interest and understand, every musical can become a mental workout.

  2. Become better consumers!

    Noone wants to listen to bad music, but like a bad burrito many people don’t realize that it was bad music until they don’t feel quite right on the way home. Casual listeners often lack the vocabulary and ears to know what they want. A little bit of education can help us to value music.

  3. Free our society from the social network!

    Music has long been a group activity. Before the 20th century brought us radios, records, tapes, CD’s, mp3s and streaming, you had to go to concerts or make music for yourself. Families could form string quartets, bluegrass bands & choirs just for the joy of making music! While I’m a big fan of keeping our (musical) history alive, I’m more interested in continuing this trend into the 21st century. Make use of live DJ equipment, electric guitars, even internet based collaboration to make music for the sake of making music!

 

Ultimately we play music because we love it. We love listening to music. We love making music. Those of us fortunately to make a living as musicians didn’t get into this racket for the money.

03 Oct

Starting Points, Ending Points & Beat Displacement

Rhythm is fluid. Start on any beat, end on any beat.
Meter and form impose order over rhythm. It restrains rhythm, controls it. Without these structures in place, our music can become chaotic. This can be fun at times but we want to learn to play well with others.

Working within a musical form, we can manipulate time and free ourselves from formulaic handcuffs by altering our Starting Points and Resolution Points ultimately displacing the beat and moving towards polymeter.

 

Let’s start with a simple ii V I phrase.

Original

 

Starting Points

Music can start on any beat. Beginning on beat one is obvious, simple. Effective but predictable. We should create lines which begin on (or off) any beat. Let’s take the previous phrase in its entirety and start it on different beats:

starting pointsBy keeping the lick itself identical but changing the starting point we have displaced the beat.

The first lick no emphasizes beat two courtesy of our starting point, resolution and the ascending 6th in the second bar. The second lick places similar emphasis on beat 4. Also notice how both examples now displace the harmonic emphasis of the line. The first creates a suspension on beat one of measure three. The second lick anticipates both the Gm7 in measure 12 and somewhat less obviously the Fmaj7 in measure 14.

Ending Points

Starting on different beats allowed us to alter the rhythmic and harmonic structure of our phrase without changing our lick one note. Shortening or extending our phrase at different points will put the emphasis on different beats. With very small alterations we can change our resolution point creating all kinds of harmonic variety.

Shortened:

shortenedHere we have shortened each of or our original phrases by removing one beat. In the first lick I’ve also changed the final note to create a more pleasing resolution. Note that we can shorten the first half (ii chord), second half (V chord) or both. Measure 18 emphasizes beat four, measure 22 emphasizes both beats two and four. Both licks now end with an anticipation.

Extended:

extendedWe can extend the lick just the same as we can shorten it: by strategically adding notes. Employ your diatonic and chromatic surrounds, passing and neighbor tones. Again we can extend the phrase at any point. Measure 27 emphasizes beat two, m. 30 beat four and m. 31 beat two. As shortening the licks created harmonic anticipation, extending them creates a suspended resolution.

 

Putting It All Together:

combinedNone of these devises are exclusive: We can displace our starting point, shorten or extend our phrases. In the first lick above, I have both started the phrase on beat two and shortened the phrase by one beat placing additional emphasis on beat two while returning our resolution to beat one of the third measure.
The second lick starts on beat four, shortens the lick (m. 18 beat 2) and extends the lick (m. 39 beat 1). In m. 37 we emphasize beat four, m. 18 beat two and m. 39 beats two and four.  Resolution has been delayed by a full three beats and the lick sounds very different from the original.

 

Summary:

Changing our starting and resolution point, shortening or extending the phrase; these are all ways to generate rhythmic variety and add some spice to our playing. Changing the rhythmic emphasis, suspending or anticipating the harmonic changes can help us break down the bar line. Mixing and matching these techniques will help you quickly expand your melodic vocabulary.

 

Taking It A Step Further:

Take a look at the shortened and extended phrases. When we shorten a four-beat phrase we end up with a three-beat phrase. If we do this repeatedly we end up in 3/4 time.

3 over 4Playing a 3/4 phrase in a 4/4 is polymeter. Two (or more) meters competing with one another is a wonderful way to generate tension and mystery. Just be sure to keep track of where beat one is!

One more thing, extending our four-beat phrase creates a five-beat phrase

Five-Four TimeExtending (or shortening) a phrase can be a great tool for learning to play in less familiar time signatures such as 5/4 & 7/4.