Using dead notes to keep time?
 

Hi, I saw your video about the rhythm yardstick. For playing songs where most of the notes fall on unusual spots that aren't on the quarter notes or eighth notes, such as in a lot of African rhythms and 70s funk, I tend to place a dead note or two on the stronger spots to get me in time. For example (parenthesis are rests, x are dead notes):

1 (e) x a (2) x an (a) x e (an) x 4 e an a

Is this a good habit? Should I learn to play without as well?

Hey Tu,

The Yardstick can be used for any subdivision. It's just math. For 16th note triplets you would have 6 subdivision for every beat for a total of 24.

peace,
anthony

But in 4/4 time we 'generally' acknowledge the 4 subdivisions of 1 beat. So there is the 'downbeat' the 'e' of the beat, the 'upbeat' and the 'uh' of the beat.

-aw

I don't mean in terms of counting it, I mean physically keeping in time. I find that I get thrown off if I don't place a dead note on a more "familiar" part on the yardstick, like the quarter notes or eighth note subdivisions.

I get what you're saying now. There are many players with the same issue. It's an execution problem. You really need

Then it sounds like you just need to practice playing without that crutch. You need to be in control of every aspect of your playing. That calls for being able to turn on and off every thing that you do.

peace,
anthony