We got rhythm ... ever wonder how and why? Can you picture a dance taking place with the band, singer and dancers? Can you see the big smiles on many of the faces of the dancers? Why are folks so happy when they dance? Is part of it that the music and dancing combine to put folks in a different sense and dimension of time? Is this "time" within music different than the time created by a clock? Is there any gravity or physical pull with time from a clock like there is with the musical time? Can we create the magic of swing from just the clicking of a clock? I can, et vous? How?
Returning to Mississippi ... she said, "helps create a certain tempo, a pace." She added: "I couldn't have gotten the same tempo in New York. And I don't just mean a measurement of time, but a measurement of feeling. The whole environment goes on tape." Jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson. From an article in the march 7th 2002 N.Y. Times titled "Jazz Diva Follows Sound Of Her Roots" by John Leland.
Are musicians really magicians in they can suspend time and defy the effects of tonal gravity? Is the rhythm / time dynamic the most important aspect of our music? Well, if you are a drummer, then way yes to this last idea eh? How true is it that "it don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing?" Is the rhythm of our music the oldest part of our musical creations? Where does the initial pulse come from? Is any of us really immune from the power of rhythm? Enter a musical zone that contains an infectious rhythmic dance groove and what happens? Is there anything more difficult for the musician to embrace and master than the concept of and ability to play time?
In this text, the theory of acquiring rhythm for the emerging learner is deeply rooted in the age old aural / oral dynamic of passing along information coupled with physical repetition, i.e., to practice or shed. That when we feel rhythms in our hearts that we want to bring forth, we can articulate the idea through singing the idea and then try to play them on our chosen instrument, and just keep trying till mastered. Same with music we hear out in public domain? Yep. Need help? Take the initiative to find someone who can play the rhythms you want to play and ask them to show you how to do it. This is the main way it has been done in American music from it's origins a couple of centuries ago. Seek and ye shall find.
Time. In most musical circles, having "good" time implies a players ability to confidently hold a steady pace of tempo while adding their part to the music being performed. What so often happens in many of the American styles is the sharing of the ride time for those who want some. This is especially true at jam sessions, a sort of clearing house for ideas.This performance format is cool in that everyone gets a chance to blow and also a chance to back the soloist and be a part of the rhythm motor of the performance.
Drive the groove. Way slang, and rather a personal term at that, players who drive the groove are the ones that are making the groove happen. They are the rhythm machines, the groove masters. The ones that oftentimes just keep going when the music falls apart around them. Those that drive the groove will often look ahead in the time of the music, looking for the "mileposts" of the composition, setting up the juncture points between sections etc. They create the time that the soloist will play off of, providing the basic pulse and emotional groove from which the soloist can create the various sensations of emotional pull within the dynamic of time by how they phrase their lines. Those rhythm cats that can drive are a breed apart.
Jamming along. As the term implies, jamming along is usually just listening to what is happening and responding in a musical manner, augmenting the music that is happening. All of us do this when sitting in, allowing the leaders / drivers to set the pace.
Are the rhythms of a particular musical style the heart and soul of it's being? Can we define the various rhythms used to create the various styles of American music? It's interesting that by just hearing the rhythmic groove, we sort of know what music is to follow? Listening is a sure way to absorb the groove. Jamming along develops the physical strength to recreate it. Whatever level a player is at or the complexity of the rhythms, listening and jamming are a sure way to begin to enter the world of rhythm.
"Don't worry so much about the pitches, lock in on the rhythm, we can fix the pitches later." Yet another quote I'll always remember from Herm Matlock, director of the big band I played with in college as he rehearsed the trumpet section. Not to dis the pitches, just that when tightening up a tricky line, Herm felt that the rhythm got top priority over the pitches. Perhaps the more difficult of the two tasks, especially when the line is spread out over five trumpets? As was the case when I first heard this concept. Cool on this?
| 2 and 4 | making the bar lines go away | the swing thing | turn the beat around | trading fours |
The following ideas are illuminated for beginning players and examine the basic subdivision of the beat, what players call to subdivide. This is perhaps an academic view of creating rhythms, but it provides beginning learners with a look at the most common rhythmic subdivisions of American music.
Four beats per measure is probably the most common groove in American music. Are you hip to 4 / 4 time? Four beats per measure, the quarter note gets the beat? Check out the "walking" quarter note bass line in the following four bar blues idea. Example 1.
The 4 / 4 fraction at the start of the music is the time signature. The walking bass line is a good representation of the pulse of 4 / 4 time. This 4 / 4 division of time is the rhythmic basis of the majority of American musical styles, jazz blues, rock, folk etc. The chords of example 1 start as whole notes in measure one, are subdivided into half notes in bar two, then further subdivided into quarter notes in bar 3. Click here to see a charting of the various subdivisions in a chart format.
The eighth notes of the melody above are subdivided from the quarter note. We simply play two eighth notes for each quarter note. With so much of the American music in 4 / 4 time, no wonder that the eighth note generally takes on the bulk of the improvisational activity for the creative musician, perhaps especially for the jazz artist. This rhythmic value is so hip that it even has had music clubs in N.Y.C. named after it! Eighth notes are the core rhythms for the improvising artist and how they are articulated become an essential part of a players "musical signature."
There are many different ways to approach subdividing the beat. Emerging players can improve their time and ability to subdivide by simply clapping their hands to the pulse of whatever music is chosen, then gradually subdivide the beat to the different rhythmic values. Sky's the limit here, or should I say, no limit. Try jamming with the following musical example for starters. Simply find the pulse of the music and count along with the beats. One, two, three, four.
Whole notes get one clap "held' for four beats. Clap, 2, 3, 4. Clap 2, 3, 4 etc. Half notes get held for two beats, thus two claps per measure. Clap, 2, clap, 4. Quarter get 4 claps per measure. Clap, clap, clap ,clap etc. Eighth notes get how many? Eight right? Cool, off ya go! Example 2.
Can you find the groove and clap on the second and fourth beats of the music? Simply count 1, clap on 2, count 3, clap on 4. Got it? Can you feel the pull of the pocket created by playing with and in time? Cool. Needless to say, the rhythmic world gets heavier and more complex, but a player has to start somewhere eh? So where does the pulse come from?
Here is a chart verbalizing the above rhythmic subdivisions.
| name of note | # of notes / measure in 4/4 | counted in 4/4 time per measure |
| whole note | one | 1 2 3 4 ( hold pitch ) |
| half notes | two | 1 2 ( hold pitch ) / 3 4 ( h. p. ) |
| quarter notes | four | 1 2 3 4 |
| eighth notes | eight | 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and |
| sixteenth notes | sixteen | 1 e an da 2 e an da 3 e an da 4 e an da |
| thirty-second notes | thirty-two | ? |
Here is a chart for the basic subdivisions of the beat in 4 / 4 time. Do these symbols look familiar? They have been around for for quite a while. Example 1.
So, if we can count to four, were off to a good start. Sorry, just kidding. The above charts and music barely scratch the surface of this topic but it does give us a glimpse and starting point into the notation of basic rhythms. What can we do with this basic knowledge of the symbols and subdivisions of the beat?
Exercise. This click track / subdivide exercise comes to us via an aspiring reggae drummer who took lessons with a cat named Bill from Ohio, who could really lay it down, gig after gig, eight days a week, whatever. The "practice" part of the concept goes way back in our histories. The idea is to simply get a click track going, from whatever source, then jam to it, letting the "click" drive the groove. Part of this jamming could include the practicing of subdividing the "clicks" by various divisions of the beat or pulse. Here is a chart to organize this idea.
| start | subdivide | then triplets | then even | then odd | then double 3 | then odd |
| 1 to 1 | 1 whole note into 2 parts | 1 whole note into 3 parts | 1 whole note into 4 parts | 1 whole note into 5 parts | 1 whole note 6 parts | 1 whole note into 7 parts |
| whole notes | half notes | triplets | quarter notes | 5 quarter notes | 2 groups of 3 quarter notes | 7 quarter notes |
As the dividing of the beat becomes less symmetrical, as in 5 or 7 over 4, the tasking gets harder and the "pull" of the time harder to maintain. Some of these divisions may prompt new ideas. Take note of these and pursue them. Some of these divisions may be of no value now, that's cool, my intent here is to simply make you aware of the possibilities so that maybe down the road their value may re-emerge in your music.
Benefits of subdividing the pulse? Basically better time. A player with "good time" has the ability to maintain the chosen tempo. So how is subdividing beneficial? Well, basically that in slower tempos, a player will subdivide the pulse into smaller units. So instead of counting a slow, 1,2,3,4, etc., they may chose to count 1 e an da, 2 e an da, etc., so as to fill up the space between the beats. This gives us more "holds" on the groove and also opens up spots for accenting and embellishment. Cool? Need sound examples of the various divisions? Click here.
Other benefits of subdividing the pulse? Well, regardless of how fast or slow the tempo of a song, we can superimpose different tempos by subdividing the beat. For example, a brilliant flurry of fast notes or rhythms in a slow song can usually "lighten" up and excite the mood a bit. Similarly, long sustained pitches in brighter, faster tempos can have a "settling effect" providing a firmer sense of stability within the seeming chaos of a fleetingly fast tempo. Players often "doubletime" slower to medium grooves to excite things a bit and ante up" the challenge for those involved in creating the music. So, lots of reasons to develop the understanding and basic ability to "click track / subdivide."
How important is it for you to develop the ability to read the rhythms of standard music notation? Here are a few ideas for thought.
1) If you aspire to have a career in music, perhaps as a studio musician, look to work professionally as a player, become a teacher of music, compose music and aspire to get folks to play it, study music history and the evolution of it's tonalities, study music theory, study the music of the masters who have come before us, all of this and a whole lot more is facilitated by the ability to decipher standard music notation. Does being musically literate include the ability to read notation? Does history remind us that some of our most influential players were also astute readers and writers of notation? And can the "flip side" of this reading thing also true?
2) As so many have found in performing the American styles, we do not need to read notation to create our music. The learning tradition for the American styles has traditionally been the aural / oral dynamic of passing along the stories. What reading notation can do is facilitate the learning of the American sounds, especially the jazz language, where having the pitches and rhythms of lines written out encourages the learning of the material tenfold. Reading also opens up nearly a 1000 years of written music, providing a pathway for a lifetime journey of coolness and discovery. I've yet to meet a non reading player of the American sounds that didn't sincerely wish they could read notation, even if it was just a wee bit. There is a real magic in making the sound come off the paper, perhaps yet another measure of our higher evolution as a species?
3) Each of the American styles have their cliche rhythms and that by reading through the popular literature of a style, these cliche rhythms will gradually emerge. With enough reading these cliche rhythms start showing up in other tunes, at which point they can begin to become "patterns." Pattern recognition is something we humans are rather adept at, so with time, patience and practice, we being to recognize written rhythmic patterns.
4) If you can play quite a bit but can't read a lick and want to learn, get a beginning instrument method book for your ax and simply try to read a bit each day. As stated in the idea above, reading is often about pattern recognition. The more we do it, the better we should get. The idea is to keep the eye moving across the page regardless of errors. Errors in misinterpreting a symbol can be remedied by repetition. Training the motion of the eye is deeper. This is my problem in reading notation so I know first hand how difficult it is to overcome.
Here is some rhythmic food for thought.
1) Rhythm is as much a natural ability as well an acquired one. Tremendous powers lie within the rhythmic world. A "good sense of rhythm" generally implies an individual's ability to "relax" and listen, absorb what's happening around them and respond in a musically compatible way. A "good sense of time" implies the players ability to project ahead to musical reference points i.e. cadences, turnarounds, and new sections, common to all the players in the group and avoid rushing or dragging, to keep a steady pace while getting there.
2) There is a joyous physical power that exists in the rhythmic world created by "locking in" with other players on a common rhythmic idea. Locking in is all about listening, articulating an idea and the ability to think ahead in time. Potentially "lock in" your rhythm section by having the bass player as physically close to the drummer's high hat cymbals as possible. These are traditionally sounded on the second and fourth beats of a four beat measure. The guitar can "lock in" on the bass player's full value quarter notes. Traditionally, the drummer plays some type of quarter note figure on the ride cymbal, the timbre of which is easily heard by the soloist who subdivides these quarter notes into the eighth note value used as the basic rhythmic division of improvised lines. Listen to each other and "lock in."
3) Active listening by all of the players allows for the "communion of voices", so essential to the improvisational aspects of American music. There will be the gig where your "sense of time" is perhaps the most "advanced" among the players. Lead with authority and help other players improve. The powers of the rhythmic world lie within all of us, by simply listening, we can combine and share our rhythmic passions with others, check it out. Teachers should perhaps simply play at the level of their learners, gradually increasing the difficulty as their students evolve.
4) One simple rhythmic concept revolves around an internalized ability to "sing" rhythmically what one wants to say musically. To vocally transcribe our favorite music, using these internalized musical ideas as the foundation for generating our own lines, then simply finding these lines on our chosen instrument. Internalize sounds and rhythms, and begin to develop your own improvisational "voice."
5) Another aspect of "rhythm" in improvised music, is the "art" of "comping." From a purely business perspective, when starting out, there's generally more work backing soloists than as a soloist, most of whom were sidemen at some point in their careers. The ability to provide musical support behind a soloist is paramount when working in an improvisational musical setting. The following ideas are mainly directed towards chordal accompaniment, although the following information may be of some value to soloists when directing the rhythm section they're working with, simply things to consider.
5a) The concept for comping is to provide harmonic support for what the soloist is doing, provide musical ideas when necessary and help drive the energy towards the climax of the solo. Depending on the instrumentation and style being played, try starting out with chords which contain the root, third, fifth and seventh to better illuminate chord quality, i.e. One, Two or Five chord type.
5b) When comping, begin to understand and think in terms of "call and response." Originally part of religious ceremonies, this "interplay / dialogue" between participants is as "old as the hills" and can contain tremendous power. Check out the Count Basie Orchestra for a demonstration of this power in a big band setting. When the "call and response" concept is integrated in an improvisational musical setting, players are truly communicating with one another. When one listens to great improvised music, this is part of what's happening. It is a truly beautiful experience both as a player or listener.
5c) That when "comping", always strive to get "underneath" the soloist in terms of volume. There's nothing more distractive to the soloist than not being able to hear themselves.
5d) When first starting out, "comp" chord changes on the downbeats, especially the first beat of the measure when a new chordal color is introduced. As your rhythmic scope expands so will you're "comping rhythms." After years of performance and listening, I still believe that quarter notes on the beat "swing" the hardest. Again, a reminder to check out Count Basie's big band recordings of big, wide quarter note swing.
5e) That beginning guitarists should "chomp" chords with quarter note values in the traditional style of big band performance, i.e. Freddie Greene with Count Basie. This is achieved by striking the chord and sustaining the sound until the next beat, then relaxing the left hand, damping the strings when the same process is repeated. In fast moving changes, this can be quite a task! This approach to comping chords in a group setting strengthens a player's concept of "time" and tempo and naturally evolves into "comping", which generally allows for more rhythmic freedom and interpretation based on what the soloist is doing or has asked for.
6) That when "walking" a bass line, strive to sustain each pitch for its full time value. For bass players, this is termed, "full value quarter notes," and this legato quality to the line is an essential aspect in getting a rhythm section to swing.
7) An invaluable and seeming inexhaustible resource for actual comping rhythms is found in big band jazz and blues music. Such a joyous way to learn new rhythms!
Well ... Cool with all this? Need additional reference texts?
"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."