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comprehensive rhythm and time exercises and tips thread

thehangingmist

thehangingmist

Dec 14, 2007
6,367
302
New Delhi, India
#1
how about we list out and keep adding great rhythm and time exercises, because we know rhythm is everything!! videos, blogs, articles, book recommendations, dvd, everything is welcome!

this one is just great for time and rhythm!!


and this translates very well for bass too...


what you got?
 
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#3
I think that nothing has improved my own sense of rhythm as much as starting learning notation.
You can ignore pitch entirely and focus on rhythm alone to great benefit.
You don't even need a bass in hand , you can just clap /tap /vocalize along.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]are some excellent exercises by Cliff Engle to practice reading rhythm.
 
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#6
Lots of great ideas here in the videos. Too be sure though, the metronome helps you organize your mind to stay in a groove, but if you don't know your instrument well enough to know where the next note is and you stumble even a little, you won't be able to hold the groove. To check this, if you're having trouble playing a scale or a riff with the metronome, put the bass down and just do some of these exercises by clapping. If you can do that, but can't keep the the metronome with your bass in hand, you need to take a look at hand position and fretboard knowledge.
 
#9
Icemanaroonie said:
I'm working through the book from advanced rhythm right now. The polyrhythmic stuff in it is sheer insanity! Things like 40:9 with some cool phrases are common. Weird time signatures are covered to. Best part is that there is a rhythmic solfege thing that made interpreting written rhythm patterns a lot easier for me.
Click to expand...

this is great! i studied some basics of indian rhythm counting system in a school here
 
#11
thehangingmist said:
still looking for a comprehensive rhythm study which would take months or years to study and internalize :)
Click to expand...

Try joining a prog-rock band? The best study is the one you conduct yourself, not some book or esoteric methodology from foreign shores.


Whousedtoplay said:
I see a lot of TB members are interested into some really advanced rhythms/polyrhythms, like 40:9.
It's too "heavy" for me.
I've recently programmed a 2-bar/measure drum pattern for my pop music, but, even after two mornings, I still cannot create a bass-line.
I've recorded an "a la rhythm guitar" part on my Jazz Bass and thought it could help me to write a bass riff, but nothing good so far.
It's just one chord - Cm7.

Maybe somebody could have some ideas?

http://www.talkbass.com/attachments...5/?temp_hash=9520cdf3c3884dc0f588e51dd39554b8
Click to expand...

The drums are a bit frenetic for a beginner, but a decent exercise is to pick one of the drums, and play every time it hits. Do that with every drum/cymbal, then once you've done that start mixing and matching. It's not a very organic method, but it's helpful for learning to recognize and follow an individual part of a drum pattern.
 
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#15
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#16
There are probably computer programs for that (I sound like grandad saying it like that). In college I had a class or two where the teacher played rhythms and the class had to write it down. Maybe you need a teacher to help with this?
 
#17
I will say that this topic is absolutely one of the most helpful threads for bass players (as opposed to the over done gear threads and "my guitarist left the band" threads).

I would add a few things to the list:

1. This will require that you have a TOP LEVEL drummer (I pay for lessons for one). So you play a bassline, could be a walking jazz blues kind of line or just a repetitive preferably syncopated line and the drummer plays off beats and crazy fills (think obscure Jazz type stuff) and then the drummer can tell if you kept the beat (you may not be able to tell yourself) but you also record this so you can listen back.
I cannot tell you how helpful this drill is because then when you play with other musicians you can hold down the groove regardless of what others are doing and will not get thrown off. This drill is also helpful when you play with drummers that fluctuate in tempo as it will not throw you off as much.

2. As others have said developing good interal time away from your instrument - sometimes I put a metronome on one fourth the tempo to serve as my downbeat in 4/4 time. Then I actually play the bassline in my head and make sure I land back on the one. If I can't do this in my head how am I gonna do it with my instrument? Also do the same drill with fills, make syncopated basslines.

3. Polyrhytmic two hand Tapping. For example play a simple but syncopated bassline with left hand, say for example the 1, the and of 2, and the and of 3, so just 3 notes. Then with right hand practice playing notes on different beats, sometimes having the two hands beats coincide. This is really just devloping independence much like piano players do. What I found is that doing this kind of training makes playing a single bass line much much easier. Learning songs like this you can also entertain people by just playing alone with the bass (self sufficient).

4. Listening to African and Cuban Drum loops. I know it sounds goofy but I swear I think this really helps because it strips away pitch and focuses solely on rhythm.

5. Learning rhythmic notation and practicing out of a book with a metrome going (just like drummers but I use a bongo sometimes to isolate the rhythm, once I have that I move on to the bass to bring the pitch element back in.

6 Record yourself practicing alone with no other sounds at all (not even a metronome). Then listen back studiously and try to discern if any tempo fluctuations. Personally I find that I tend to push the beat too much and it can ruin the feel of alot of grooves. I am working on this to relax and lay back a little more.
 
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#20
I've been working through some rhythm permutation exercises I got from Kai Eckhardt years ago that go over every combination of eighth, sixteenth, triplet, quintuplet, sextuplet, septuplet, and thirty second notes. It will take the rest of my life to get through them all.

I just love this guys way of explaining Konnakol:



C/S,
Rev J
 
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