About Rhythm

What is Rhythm? The word rhythm is believed to come from the Greek word ‘Rhein’ meaning to flow or stream. Rhythm is when things happen in the flow of time. In music, RHYTHM is about when notes, chords, and other musical sounds begin and end.

Rhythm — the Most Important Element Rhythm is the essential ingredient in all music. You can mix together any sounds you want, but if there is no underlying rhythm to the sounds, there is no music. For example, listen to the intro of Money by Pink Floyd. They took the unmusical sounds of a cash register and set them to a consistent rhythmic pulse. Suddenly sounds that never sounded like music before sound like music. Rhythm is the key element of music.

Here, There, and Everywhere I don’t want to get too philosophical on you, but humans have a deep connection to rhythm. Rhythm is everywhere, not just in music. Walking, running, speech, ocean waves, and all sorts of things we do and experience have rhythm. In fact, your first experience was the rhythms of your mother’s heartbeat.

But, That Music Stinks! You will often hear skilled musicians bitterly complaining about some song or style of music they despise. Usually the complaint is something like, “How can people listen to this? It has no melody and there are two chords in the whole song!” The answer is almost always that people like the rhythm. You won’t hear too many popular songs or styles with terrible rhythm. People won’t listen to it. Listeners tune into rhythm more than anything else. Most non-musicians don’t catch or don’t care about the occasional bad note or chord. But, if the rhythm goes awry at a performance, it’s the first thing the audience will notice.

Rhythmic Evolution One theory of mine is that styles evolve partly because the audience gets bored with the current rhythms in music. Jazz was growing and flourishing in the 1940s. In the 1950s along came rock n’ roll and the audience started to migrate. People thought rock n’ roll was a fad and it would quickly disappear. It didn’t. It gave people new rhythms to experience. People had already heard the swing rhythms of jazz. They knew (or felt they knew) what to expect from jazz. The new rhythms of rock n’ roll created excitement. It was fresh.

A lot of people thought rap would quickly disappear, but people connected to the rhythms. It’s the same with disco and techno music — people like to dance! Dancing is connecting to rhythm.

As you study music you will notice every style has its own set of unique rhythms. The rhythms are part of the language of each musical style. To master a style, you need to master its rhythms.

As you see music evolve in your lifetime (and maybe complain about it), look at the rhythms. My guess is that's why a style will stick. Rhythm is, and will always be, a large part of the evolution of music.

OK, OK! Rhythm is Important! You might be wondering why I am going on and on about rhythm being so important. For one, it seems like most instructional methods don’t give it enough focus or emphasis. Instead, students are drowned in scales and special techniques right away. These things are obviously very important, but if the student has no basic rhythmic foundation none of it will sound good anyway. You could know every scale and chord pattern in existence and still not be able to play anything decent if your rhythm is faulty.

If rhythm is the common denominator in music, then it should probably be the common denominator in your playing and practicing of music, too.

As you learn and grow musically, any time something doesn’t seem to be working the first thing you should question is the rhythm. A lot of times it is the rhythm which needs work or changing.

Why do Bass Players Need to Study Rhythm? Bassists are a part of the rhythm section. The RHYTHM SECTION consists of the bassist, drummer, and other instruments playing a rhythmic role such as guitarists and pianists. Melodic parts of singers and when musicians play solos are not part of the rhythm section. They instead sing or play on top of the rhythm section.

The rhythm section is the backbone of the band. Much like the rails for a train, the rhythm section provides a steady, seamless track for the rest of the band to ride along. In fact, when things completely fall apart in performance musicians call it a TRAIN WRECK. If the rails are bad, the train is going nowhere.

About This Rhythm Lesson Category In this lesson section for rhythm I will be pointing out ways for you to develop your sense of rhythm and some common rhythmic devices used in music. I’ll also cover common rhythms you will encounter on the bass, too.

About Rhythm Summary Rhythm is crucial. Practice your rhythmic skills daily. Mix rhythm practice together with all of your other practicing — when you play scales, arpeggios, songs, and various techniques. Remember rhythm is one of your biggest responsibilities. If your rhythm is poor, working on anything else will be in vain.

Metronomes

What is a Metronome? A METRONOME is a device that provides a steady beat. A metronome makes a pulsing click sound that can be set at various speeds. You can check out the online metronome I developed for studybass.com.

Musicians use metronomes to practice rhythm, pace themselves, and to learn to keep a consistent beat. Metronomes are a great practice tool.

Most metronomes nowadays are digital and run on batteries. They are highly accurate. The older style metronomes use a pendulum that swings back and forth making a click with each swing. Pendulum-style metronomes are usually wound like watches used to be.

Buying a Metronome I recommend purchasing a digital quartz metronome. I’ve always liked Seiko metronomes, but there are many choices. Make sure you listen to it and that it makes a clicking sound, not a beeping sound. That will be important in coming rhythm lessons. I also prefer the metronomes with dials rather than push buttons.

How to Use a Metronome Beginners are often unsure of how to use a metronome. It’s not very complicated. Most often you will play music in 4/4 time and count 4 beats to a bar. (See time signatures.) Each click of the metronome will equal one of those four beats. Counting one beat on each click you would count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. You can count other time signatures the same way. In 3/4 time you'd count: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, and so forth.

The metronome will help you learn to keep a steady pace. Keeping a steady beat is a critical skill for bassists and musicians. Good music almost always requires a consistent pulse. Think of a metronome as your rhythmic training wheels.

Beginners will often slow down on difficult parts and speed up on easy ones. You can’t do that. The beat must be consistent throughout. This is where the metronome will help.

If you are running through some music for the first time, you don’t have to start with the metronome. Get familiar first, then work out the rhythm with the metronome guiding you.

There are other ways to count with the metronome, too. The click can be interpreted any way you want. You could set the click faster and count two clicks per beat. Or, you could set it slower and let it click on every other beat. Metronomes are very versatile. I’ll be showing you a number of ways to use them to develop your sense of rhythm. How to play with a metronome will become more obvious as we play and practice rhythm.

Metronome Tempo Metronomes allow you to select the tempo. TEMPO is the rate, or speed, at which the beat occurs. Tempo is often expressed in Beats Per Minute (BPM).

A slow song might have a tempo of 60 bpm. A rock song may range from 100-200 bpm. A really fast jazz tune may hit 300 bpm or more.

Metronomes allow you to adjust the tempo usually by twisting a dial or by pushing buttons.

What Tempo Do I Set the Metronome To? What tempo you set it on will depend on what you are practicing. Perhaps you want to play a song that is 150 bpm, but it’s too fast for you to play. You might start at 60 bpm and incrementally work your way up to 150. If you can’t play something slowly, you probably can’t play it fast. Working a bass part out slowly and building up your speed is always a good idea.

Emphasized Beats Many of the newer metronomes have features that emphasize the first beat of each bar with a louder click. Don’t use it. As a bassist you need to develop a strong internal sense of where beat one is. You can’t let the metronome give you the answer. You need to learn to feel the beat and develop confidence you know where beat one is. The emphasized beat

may seem like a useful feature, but it is a crutch and you are only delaying your progress in developing this essential skill.

But, I Hate the Metronome… I’ve heard this a million times. There’s no reason to hate the metronome. What you hate is your inability to play in sync with the metronome. If you hate the metronome it tells me even more you need to use it. If you can accurately play with the metronome the click will disappear into the background of your bassline. You'll hardly know it's there. If you are off rhythmically, the metronome will seem erratic, but it's you. Don’t kill the messenger for your unsteady timing.

Now, start using that metronome!

Keeping The Beat The beat, or pulse, of the music serves as the reference point for all the other rhythms occurring in the music. All rhythm is felt in relation to the beat. All of your rhythmic skills, therefore, will rely on the ability to maintain a steady beat.

Learning to Keep a Steady Beat As a bassist and musician, you need to learn to keep a steady beat. This is what musicians refer to as one’s “sense of time”. Most people have a good general sense of time. As a responsible member of the rhythm section, you need to really fine-tune and develop your sense of time.

You should never rely on another musician like the drummer to help you feel where the beat is. Your internal clock needs to be independent of everyone else’s. Everyone’s independent sense of the beat should then be synchronized when playing together. Everyone should lock in with each other.

Ideally if one person is thrown off rhythmically, it should not upset everyone else’s rhythm. Additionally, that will make it that much easier for the person who does slip off the beat to jump back into the music.

Clapping with the Metronome One of the best ways to check your rhythmic accuracy is to clap with a metronome. Yes, it is very boring to do. But, every clap will give you instant feedback about your rhythmic accuracy. It really works. Just doing it a few minutes a day will really help you improve your sense of time.

How to Clap with the Metronome First, you need a metronome that “clicks”. It can’t beep. You will discover that when you clap accurately with the metronome the click of the metronome disappears. It almost sounds like someone turned off the metronome. Check out the example page for this lesson.

This takes a good bit of practice. You’re probably not going to be 100% accurate. You’re not a robot. But, you should shoot for accuracy in the 90%-99% range. If you’re slightly off one out of every ten claps and can jump right back in time, you’re doing pretty well.

Start with a tempo around 60-70 bpm. You can do this exercise at any tempo. You’ll find slower tempos are often more challenging since there’s a wider margin of error between the beats.

Start by clapping on every other click of the metronome. It doesn’t matter how you count the beat for this exercise. Once you can make every other click disappear consistently, try clapping on every beat.

Whenever you drift off the beat, stop clapping and listen to a few beats to get your rhythm back in line.

Rushing and Dragging Nearly every student with whom I’ve done this exercise has had the tendency to rush the beat. RUSHING means to play (or clap) too early and speeding up the pulse as a result. The opposite of rushing the beat is dragging the beat. DRAGGING is where you play too late and slow the beat down.

Most of the time the student is trying too hard and slightly anticipates the beat. If you’re doing this you need to relax and focus. It may even help to try and consciously delay your clap a bit. Try and clap a little later than you want. With practice you will align your sense of time to the click.

Rhythmically Challenged This exercise can be very frustrating. I remember when my teacher showed me this exercise. He said I needed to work on my time. As a know-it-all teenager I thought he was crazy. My time was just fine, I thought. When I tried to do the exercise at home, sure enough I could hear every click! I kept clapping harder and harder until my hands turned red. Click, click, click I heard. Finally I gave in that my time was horrible. I felt like Steve Martin in the movie The Jerk! (See it if you haven’t.)

But, the metronome doesn’t lie. And it has nothing to do with how loudly you clap. So, I worked at clapping with the metronome and it made a huge difference in a short amount of time. Having the constant feedback of the metronome really helps. It keeps you rhythmically aware.

I highly recommend clapping with the metronome. I know it’s not exciting to do. Just 5 minutes a day for a few weeks works wonders.

Playing A Steady Pulse

Feel the Pulse A large part of your rhythmic abilities depends on feeling a steady, even pulse. After clapping with the metronome, another way to develop it is to practice playing a steady stream of evenly spaced notes on the bass. You need to connect your inner sense of the pulse to your bass playing technique.

It’s not super exciting to practice, but it helps a lot. If you can’t manage to play a stream of notes steadily, any other rhythms are going to be shaky and off. No one wants a bassist with bad timing.

Next I'll suggest how to work on this and then I'll give you some audio example exercises...

Practicing the Pulse with the Metronome To develop your steady pulse, you can practice plucking on every click of the metronome. (You can use my online metronome if you don’t have one.) Start slowly between 50 and 60 bpm. Then gradually increase the tempo until you’ve reached the fastest tempo on your metronome (usually around 200 bpm).

Playing on every click will insure you are playing the notes evenly. Most beginning students think they are playing notes evenly when they are not. You can record yourself or ask another musician or your teacher if your notes sound evenly spaced.

You should also focus on playing the notes with a consistent volume. One finger or pick stroke should not be louder than the other. It takes time and practice to gain control. Again, you're not a robot so don't expect absolute perfection all of the time. With work, you can get pretty consistent however.

Then, Without the Metronome Next, you’ll want to practice playing that pulse without a metronome. After all, that’s what you’ll be doing when you play with others. You may even want to think of yourself as everyone else’s metronome. Practice the same steady pulse. Pay attention to your tempo. Try to not speed up or slow down. It’s not easy at first. Record yourself.

You'll find that when you play with others some people tend to rush or drag. You have to learn to not let their bad time influence yours. You don't want your 70bpm ballad accidentally speeding up to 100! This is where having a strong internal sense of rhythm is going to help you. It's best when everyone has it, but a lot of times others will lean on you.

In Summary As simple and boring as this stuff is to practice, it will pay off in everything you ever play. Work on it a few minutes a day until you can keep it going for long stretches of time without making any mistakes. Eventually you'll get to where this doesn't require any of your attention when you play. Good luck and practice diligently!

There are a couple of examples of playing on each click on the exercise page to make sure you know what I mean.