Hey dudes. This is my first post and it’s a nerdy one but a VERY usable one. This lesson is to help get all of you guitar players rhythmically literate. I couldn’t read and write rhythm to save my life until about 5 years ago when I started teaching guitar full-time. I felt like a fraud because I had students who could handle it better than I could. When I learned to read and write rhythm, my rhythmic imagination increased three-fold at the very least. The biggest bonus is that there is no longer any peice of paper that stands between me and a song I’ve never heard. That opens me up to any book filled with Bach inventions or Charlie Parker sax solos, etc, anything. Plus, I haven’t lost a musical idea in 5 years. This lesson is an excerpt from my book. I start very simple, more simple than a lot of you will need, but JUST READ IT! You’ll most likely find, at the very least, some fresh perspectives. There are a few references to tracks on the accompanying CD. This will be available with the book when it’s finished so bare with me. And so it begins:

Rhythm - The Beginning

There is no better place to start a discussion about music than at the concept of rhythm because it is at the heart of every single element of music. Even the concepts of tonality and harmony are just rhythm on a much faster timeframe. Think of rhythm, simply as being the division and organization of time. This is what makes music move forward. We will start at the concept of the pulse, the heartbeat of music. The pulse is made up of a series of beats. The beat is the common unit of time measurement in music. In most modern music we hear the beat stated rather clearly. It’s known as the pulse of music. No beat is longer or shorter than the beat it follows unless the music is speeding up or slowing down.

In what we know of as “common time,” the beats of this pulse are grouped in fours. Each group of four beats is known as a measure or a “bar”. Each of these four beats represents an equal portion, one quarter in this case, of the overall time that makes up the measure. This is where the term quarter note comes from. The quarter note is the footstep of music.

The term “quarter note” refers to what we call “note value.” In other words, a note value is the duration or length of the note and these durations are measured as equal divisions of a larger chunk of time, namely, the measure.

The numbers directly above the staff indicate the means by which we count the notes and/or the time elapsing between two notes. Be sure to listen to track 3 on disc 1, where I play through these notes, to a click, while counting along, out loud.

A time signature tells us how many beats are in each measure and what type of note represents the beat. Common time is known as 4/4. The first 4 represents how many beats per measure and the second 4 indicates that each beat equals one quarter note. The second or bottom number of the time signature can only be 2 (half note) 4 (quarter note) 8 (eighth note) and if you’re really crazy 16 (sixteenth note). For the time being we will be dealing with 4/4 and 3/4. These are the most common time signatures.
It’s a huge advantage for any musician to be able to comfortably read and write rhythmic notation. At this point you may be thinking that this is be really difficult. Here’s the secret: if you have a simple way of looking at it, it becomes a simple process. If you think of the way in which you read words, you’ll note that you don’t have to sound out every word that crosses your vision. You already know a fair amount of them. You glance at it and recognize it as a symbol. You’re doing it right now.

Reading rhythmic notation is they same process. We have a relatively small vocabulary of rhythmic devices or “words” to learn. Once we have these well understood we can read long streams of them, seamlessly. This will come quicker than you’d expect as long as you allow your self to work past the initial hump. Getting your feet wet can be the hardest part. As with everything you learn and practice, you’ll gain speed at an increasing rate.

Below is a chart illustrating four very common rhythmic words. The middle four columns represent two beats worth of time, divided into eighth note sections. The far right column offers you some words to remember these rhythms by. Reference the CD to make sure you’re interpreting this stuff correctly. Make sure to follow the picking indications above the chart. They key is keeping your downstrokes on the beats.

Table 1:

These rhythms look very similar when they’re moving twice as fast against the beat. The note value for each note is cut in half. In other words, the quarter notes become eighth notes and the eighth notes become sixteenth notes. This means that if you add an extra beam to the top of these rhythms, they move twice as fast. I’ve presented the same chart, using the same ‘sounds like’ words so you can directly compare. Also, make sure to compare by listening.

Table 2:

We can combine these basic rhythmic words to make larger rhythmic phrases. Here we can see all the possible one-measure combinations of the quarter/eighth rhythms. On the CD, I play each of these rhythms three times in a row. Listen closely and follow along on the page. After doing this a few times, you’ll start to develop a strong recognition of these. I’ve done the same with the eighth/sixteenth rhythms to make half-measure phrases. These two tables directly correspond to each other. For example, 1a is the same rhythm in both tables. It’s just moving at two different speeds, in relation to the beat.

Rhythms Built From Table 1:

Rhythms Built From Table 2:

Random Rhythms In 4/4:

Try reading through this page without the help of the CD at first. You can tap them out on a tabletop or pick them out on the guitar. After you’ve had a few runs through this page, listen to the CD and make sure you had the right idea. The first part is made up of the Table 1 rhythms, the second part is made up Table 2 rhythms and the third part is a combination of both. When you’re playing the quarter/eighth rhythms make sure you’re putting your downstrokes on the beats with your upstrokes in between the beats.

Quarters and Eighths:

Eighths and Sixteenths:

Combination Rhythms

Well, that ought to keep you busy. If you aren’t sure you get how these rhythms should sound, track someone down who can read rhythm and run it by them. They should be able to help. Or just wait until my the “Big Serious Guitar Book” comes out. It’ll be accompanied by two CDs. Disc 1 is a writen example disc and disc 2 is a playalong modal/chords/scales/improvising disc.

Stay tuned on my myspace pages:
http://www.myspace.com/geoffstockton1
http://www.myspace.com/geoffstocktonmusic
http://www.myspace.com/superforcemegatough
http://www.myspace.com/geotronfunkybeats

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