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Do you count or feel rythms?

#23
Liam Wald said:
If you need to count to learn a song that is okay. But once you learn it and internalize it you should play it from the heart and play it with soul. When counting you are playing it from the brain. If you play from the brain in performance it will never be great. May as well phone it in.
Music is a heart and soul thing not a brain thing.
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I couldn't disagree more

...but that opinion has more to do with how consciousness works than about how music works.
 
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#24
kaljultdgl said:
I have been playing bass for a very long time, but I don't know much about music theory. Some people have told me that I don't have any issues with time in my playing. I play rythms by feel and don't think about anything when I play.
But...
Sometimes I come accross rythms that I just can't "feel". One good example is Metallica - Anesthesia (the bass solo). In the very beginning there are basic 4/4 bars and 8th notes. But for me it feels really hard to keep track of time when I'm repeating 3 notes in 8th notes. The song makes me count "one two three one two three" so I don't know where the real "one" is.
I tried to bob my head and keep counting the time but then I couldn't hear or "feel" the notes I was playing.

I guess practicing more with a metronome would help :D
Does anyone else have problems with these kind of rythms?
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Usually I play by the feel of it. HOWEVER, if I have trouble getting it right, I will count it to see exactly where each part of it comes in. So....BOTH!
 
#26
Joe Nerve said:
Same as everyone else said... but I'll add...

That song is all over the faarikkken place. Unless in a Metallica tribute band, you couldn't pay me enough to learn that :) . And if I were in a Metallica tribute, I'd fight long and hard NOT to play it :) .
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Joe cut to the heart of the issue. Do not judge yourself because you struggle with the bass solo section of that song. I don’t feel the rhythm either, because for that initial couple of minutes, its literally not there to feel (in an auditory sense), it just existed in Cliff’s mind until the drums kick in and, as Joe said, he’s all over the place during that couple of minutes. If I was given ten full days and knew I had to have learned that solo or appear naked on national television at the end of that time period, I would just go ahead and start using a tanning bed and manscaping now!

I’d suggest that maybe buying Jason Newsted’s bass that’s listed in the TB Classifieds right now might help, but I’m pretty sure neither Newsted nor Trujillo could play the original opening to Anesthesia! :laugh: I’m pretty sure that song, in its original form, went to heaven with Burton...
 
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#30
To me, it depends.
If I have to play a new piece and it's not written, I try to figure it out in a more "rational" way (usually by transcribing it). Then, after I clarified it, I simply try to "dance" along with it.
I like odd rhythms a lot, and they're easier than one may think: tomorrow I have a concert where I'll play a greek song in fast 7/8, I play it both in 3 (quarter + quarter + dotted quarter) or in 2 (semiquaver + dotted quarter) and becomes very easy if you just "dance" abandoning your body and your movement to the music; the same to ternary rhythms with hemiolas like the zamba (6/8 but divided in 2+2+2) or less common rhythms like 9 (but 2+2+2+3, like in "Blue rondo a la turk") or 11.
Dancing, the secret is all there.
(at least in my experience).
 
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#34
Feel about 85-90% of the time. I prefer not to play things by the numbers. I want to feel the pulse of the song. I don’t resort to counting except when I’m analyzing something or need to explain it to someone else.
 
#36
I've been playing a long time and for the most part play from feel. I still count when coming back in off hard stops and with repetitive phrases that are not part of standard progressions or rhythm patterns. The Allman Brothers' Whipping Post is an example of the latter.

In jam session work, I'll sometimes count for the unfamiliar players so we can nail an outro.
 
#39
kaljultdgl said:
I have been playing bass for a very long time, but I don't know much about music theory. Some people have told me that I don't have any issues with time in my playing. I play rythms by feel and don't think about anything when I play.
But...
Sometimes I come accross rythms that I just can't "feel". One good example is Metallica - Anesthesia (the bass solo). In the very beginning there are basic 4/4 bars and 8th notes. But for me it feels really hard to keep track of time when I'm repeating 3 notes in 8th notes. The song makes me count "one two three one two three" so I don't know where the real "one" is.
I tried to bob my head and keep counting the time but then I couldn't hear or "feel" the notes I was playing.

I guess practicing more with a metronome would help :D
Does anyone else have problems with these kind of rythms?
Click to expand...

No. No doubt, a multi-chime metronome wouldn’t hurt. I have one that is programmable and works great for physical therapy.
 

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