8th notes to 16th notes

[mambo4]

learning to read is a continous journey for me...

these days I'm fairly confident reading eight note/ dotted quarter note syncopation. Studying afro-cuban rhythms really helped me feel it out, and i feel like my rhythmic awareness of eighth note subdivisions is very tight.

But complex 16th note rhythms still force me to stop and reverse engineer things. I basically "transpose" the 16ths to eighth notes and figure out the rhythm that way.

I'd really like to get more proficient at reading those 16th note figures.

any book or exercise recommendations?
any genre to study that would help me build my 16th note rhythm awareness?

[Mingus]

I would say read. Find stuff to read, my Mel Bay has some really nice exercises with 16th patterns starting in the beginning of the book.

[theschnitt]

Tony Oppenheim's "Slap It - Funk Studies for the Electric Bass," is essentially all 16th note patterns. You can check out some samples at

http://www.slapit.com/

and see if you might find the book helpful.

Pete in Tucson

[DocBop]

Its just the same as you did with 1/8 notes you practice the rhythmic pattern to you get to where you see a rhythm and just know what it sounds like. With 1/8 notes you consciously practiced do that or subconsciouly learned the look and sound of combinations of 1/8 notes over one beat and two. You learned to look at a measure and see beats 1 and 2, then 3 and 4 as 1/4 and 1/8 as combinations of those rhythms. Yes you had to count at first, but I would bet now you look and just know.

1/16's are the same thing you need to learn look at a measure instantly spots each beat, then see the rhythm on each beat. Practice variations of 1/16's on a beat, as you get that then combos of those on two beats.

Learning to sightread is like learning to read these words. At first you have to look at the letters to build up the word and say it. Then you learn the word as a pattern of letters and just see it and know it. That what sightreading is all about learning to see, beats in a measure, rhythms on the beat or across a beat. Same with pitch you learn to recognize scales and scale fragments. Then intervals like stacked thirds and know its a chord. The more you read the bigger vocabulary gets.

So whatever you did to learn 1/8 use the same approach for 1/16's.

[Sorax]

The book "standing in the shadows of motown" has a bunch of Jamerson's basslines transcribed by other big bassplayers. If you can read a Jamerson line like Darling Dear, you can read anything with 16ths. Studying Jamerson's lines will also teach you a whole lot more than reading, so I suggest checking that book out.