Rhythm a natural thing?

Feel free to get outside the box here.
goldleaf
Posts: 0
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 10:04 am
Status: Offline

Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:08 pm

Wish I had a easy answer for you but I don't. My dad gave me a drum, like a marching band type when I was 8 and I took piano lessons for 2 years when I was 10 then started the guitar. Although I havent played or really practiced to 30 years I find the rhythm easier to pick up compared to finger picking etc. I think rhythm is a little harder when you are just starting or if you never really had it down at sometime in your life but there have been lots of excellent posts with great ideas. BTW when I play along w/ Neil my timing and rhythm isn't so great compared to someone like Neil. So now I have to see if I can find my metronome or go buy a new one. Keep at it and pretty soon you will be strumming w/o hardly thinking about it, at least on the songs you practice. Good luck. Gary


Chasplaya
Posts: 0
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:41 pm
Status: Offline

Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:33 pm

TGMatt wrote:
TO embellish this thread some and learn something here..what would teh categories of strumming break down into if we expanded a category in teh forum under strumming ?
I think this could come under the Genres Category and be child board e.g. Flamenco Genre and you'd have Rasgueado


Lavallee
Posts: 0
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:48 am
Status: Offline

Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:45 pm

I am not sure if something can be learn from discussing a strumming pattern. It would be very nice however to have some lessons from Neil for let say Flamenco or folk, Bossa nova or rock, etc... Neil could play different patterns of that genre and provide the tab for each pattern. You can then understand what is going on because you read it on the sheet. I think before someone can vary its pattern strokes, he has to practice different ways of doing it. If you only try to imitate by looking at the video, it is very challenging.

Marc


Catman
Posts: 0
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:51 pm
Status: Offline

Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:03 am

To get back to the original topic...

I agree with MJ and others about how to improve/develop your rhythm.

BUT...getting a strum pattern/rhythm pat, and playing it perfectly with exact timing throughout an entire song can sound mechanical and even boring.

You need to be able to vary the strum pattern slightly, and the occasional mistiming can make you sound more human.

Interestingly, most MIDI sequencer programmes have a "humanizing" function that randomly varies the timing of the played notes by small fractions of a beat so that the sequence sounds less mechanical.


User avatar
Music Junkie
Posts: 0
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 7:17 am
Status: Offline

Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:35 am

Catman wrote:
I agree with MJ and others about how to improve/develop your rhythm.

BUT...getting a strum pattern/rhythm pat, and playing it perfectly with exact timing throughout an entire song can sound mechanical and even boring.

You need to be able to vary the strum pattern slightly, and the occasional mistiming can make you sound more human.
I agree about changing it up a bit to add accent. I think if you are able to play it well in the "boring" state, it will get to a point where you are comfortable and you feel it though. Once you can fell it, you will be able to start changing it up. The most important part is to keep the strumming hand (right for you guys, left for me) moving in time so you can get the right accents at the right time.

Small steps......

:laugh:


helloworld
Posts: 0
Joined: Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:36 am
Status: Offline

Sun Oct 04, 2009 12:36 pm

Music Junkie wrote:
Catman wrote:
I agree with MJ and others about how to improve/develop your rhythm.

BUT...getting a strum pattern/rhythm pat, and playing it perfectly with exact timing throughout an entire song can sound mechanical and even boring.

You need to be able to vary the strum pattern slightly, and the occasional mistiming can make you sound more human.
I agree about changing it up a bit to add accent. I think if you are able to play it well in the "boring" state, it will get to a point where you are comfortable and you feel it though. Once you can fell it, you will be able to start changing it up. The most important part is to keep the strumming hand (right for you guys, left for me) moving in time so you can get the right accents at the right time.

Small steps......

:laugh:
Do you play with a guitar that's strung up-side-down, like Hendrix, or do you just flip a right handed guitar over?


User avatar
Music Junkie
Posts: 0
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 7:17 am
Status: Offline

Sun Oct 04, 2009 2:26 pm

helloworld wrote:
Music Junkie wrote:
Catman wrote:
I agree with MJ and others about how to improve/develop your rhythm.

BUT...getting a strum pattern/rhythm pat, and playing it perfectly with exact timing throughout an entire song can sound mechanical and even boring.

You need to be able to vary the strum pattern slightly, and the occasional mistiming can make you sound more human.
I agree about changing it up a bit to add accent. I think if you are able to play it well in the "boring" state, it will get to a point where you are comfortable and you feel it though. Once you can fell it, you will be able to start changing it up. The most important part is to keep the strumming hand (right for you guys, left for me) moving in time so you can get the right accents at the right time.

Small steps......

:laugh:
Do you play with a guitar that's strung up-side-down, like Hendrix, or do you just flip a right handed guitar over?
No. nothing cool like that. Just buy lefty guitars. I looked into restringing righty once, but it seemed like a lot of work and I did not have the know-how at the time. It is something I would re-visit these days though.

:)


Post Reply Previous topicNext topic