A little piece of rhythm analysis— an interesting item that came up, of all places, through a J.J. Cale song, that accidentally reveals something about the structure of the Son clave rhythm, similar to what […]
Category: rhythm
16th note reading boot camp
Plotting out an intensive couple of lessons with a younger student, who has been doing extremely well with his playing the past year, but who is deficient reading 16th note rhythms. It’s not unexpected that […]
Pulse memory
From one of the better YouTube channels, for bassists, here’s a video on the subject of time, in which the guy works through practicing with a slow click— which I highly recommend, practicing with the […]
One note / two notes
A little rhythm project, building rhythms based on sequences of one and two notes, spaced in a natural way for one hand— bell rhythms, essentially. It’s a good approach for teaching people who are new […]
Very occasional quote of the day: you call it swing
“You call it swing, but what I’m saying is it’s a rhythmic sophistication that causes a euphoric reaction, and on a folk level that reaction can go anywhere from sensual feelings, to partying, to dancing, […]
Counting system overhaul – 02
I began working on this last year, and never posted the second part, because it was an unreadable mass. Still is. But for people who teach and deal with this subject every day, here we […]
Tyranny of the barline or something else
NOTE: This essay, in a superior edited form, is in my recent book, Rants, vol. 1, which is available for purchase at Cymbalistic.com. Headline: TED Video Irritating Alt headline: Media Company Declares Own Take On […]
Latest views and practices on time
Rounding up my current views and practices on the subject rhythm and time, in teaching and practicing: knowing rhythm, holding a tempo in playing. This is mostly about beginner to intermediate level students. A lot […]
Reading round up
I’ve been using my pages of syncopation rhythms a lot in teaching lately— similar to what’s in Ted Reed, but written for a specific purpose, either for a specific drum set application, or to do […]
Counting system overhaul – 01
This guy gets it. Severely long two-part nerd item alert— the following post is an embarrassing mess that will be perhaps useful/entertaining for music teachers and others who think about this stuff all day every […]
Afro 6 in 4
Purely exploring an idea that occurred to me during a lesson— this has nothing to do with anything. Except I’m writing a new book about developing the Afro 6 groove, so I’m thinking about the […]