Practicing the "E"

[Soul Power]

So after having a lesson with Anthony Wellington the other day, it has come to my attention that I either rush the E of a beat to the AND, or I end up turning it around and playing the UH.
This is driving me absolutely nuts because I don't feel like there is a way for me to practice hitting the "e's" of a beat and improve at it unless someone that can hit them no sweat is standing right in front of me and telling me when I'm missing it. Does anybody have any exercises that put a lot of emphasis on the E?
Right now I am using Anthony's "Yard stick of funk/time", and basically what I am doing is using a key that I'm not completely familiar with (Today it's Ab minor, I really haven't been practicing minor scales as much as I used to for some reason) and starting on the lowest four notes that I can hit within the key (Cb (b string), Db, Eb, Fb)
and I am hitting Cb on the E of one, Db on the UH of two, Eb on the AND of three, and Fb on the UH of four....Any suggestions?

[makkE]

Made a track lately to practice just the e's.

Rythm-train e by makke77 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

[Billnc]

Do the 16th notes as eighth notes (instead of 4/4 it'd be 8/8 time). I've never done the one ee and a thing. Play them like 8th notes tapping your foot. When you are comfortable with that tap your foot only on one and three, this is the 'normal' movement you would use on 16th notes.

You will eventually recognize the various 16th note groupings as rhythmic patterns.

[jallenbass]

Say the syllables out loud and out of time until they are all matching up.

[lowfreqgeek]

Counting the syllables aloud will help, but you could also set a metronome to play 16ths, count them aloud, and play only on the "e" or whichever subdivision you're aiming at.

For example, metronome set to 200bpm will correspond to 16ths @ 50bmp. Count aloud and play the "e" of each beat: 1 e + a 2 e + a... This will actually be really slow, even though the metronome feels fast. You can pick up the metronome to 240 (60bpm), or even faster if the metronome will allow. After you've become comfortable with that, cut the metronome in half (down to 100) so that it's only playing 8ths @ 50bpm and work to place the "e" just right. Do the same for "a". Work up the tempo as far as you can. Then set the metronome to 50 and do the same thing.

Now it gets more interesting as you go the other way: set the metronome to 50, but let that be 1/2 notes so your actual temp is 100bpm. It's *best* if you can let the metronome play on 2 and 4, and you play on the "e" and "a" of each beat. Then, set the 'nome to 40bpm and let each tick be 1 whole note so you're playing 1/4 = 160 and do the same. Let the tick fall on 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, all while playing just the "e" or just the "a". That would be like this: (tick) "e" + a 2 "e" + a 3 "e" + a 4 "e" + a (tick) "e" + a... That one gets hard, though, cause you have to have a really good internal sense of the time to pull it off.

As you can see, there's many, many permutations. I've actually done many of them and have a pretty good grasp of my 16ths against the tick at whole and 1/2 notes. Much of my jazz practice w/the 'nome is with ticks on 2+4, so my swing, triplets, 16ths, etc are practiced against that.

Oh, and don't forget to pay attention to the back of the note i.e, duration!