Time - Groove

[Hestan]

Hi Janek.

In your practice thread you mention you work on TIME/groove as one of the key areas of your playing.

My question is what approach do you take to working on time? Do you have particular exercises with a metronome or click etc.... Do you work with play alongs?

I work on time a lot myself and sometimes do drum stuff too. I'd be interested to hear your strategies for perfecting killer groove.

Cheers,

J

[janekbass]

J,

one of the main things I've worked on with my time and groove is being able to be concious of it no matter where the time and groove is. Knowing where the beat is and being able to move around that beat and make the music feel good.

Interacting with people around you in a musical situation is what's going to make the music feel good. So you have to be flexible with a drummer, guitar player, pianist etc... to make it feel good.

I've taked sections out of songs that I felt had a great groove and looped them in my computer to jam to. This helps with being able to figure time out in general. If you have something that is totally solid in a loop you can explore all the different placements of the beat.

I have also spent many years running my hannon excercises with a metronome from 50bpm-400bpm up and down the instrument. That helps your basic technique so much that you can be so much stronger with your time when it comes to moving the beat around and adjusting to other musicians feels and time.

Easy,

Janek