ZMech Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 (edited) Am gonna ask some drummer friends the same question, but does anyone have any good exercises for practising timing and rhythm? I like to think I have an already good ability, but as with everything I'd still like to be able to make my timing top notch through practise, so does anyone have suggestions of exercises to help with this? Edited October 21, 2011 by ZMech Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubinga5 Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Listen to lots of music and play to a metronome or drum machine.. even better play lots with a good drummer.. these are the best exercises you could ever have... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMech Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Cheers bubinga, but with the good drummer advise, I was thinking that listening to a Ray Brown lesson, he can keep a super solid rhythm going just by himself. My teacher gave me the exercise to put the metronome down to about 40bpm, and walk a song i know (I picked blue monk) over that tempo, turned out to be really hard to get each note bang on! Was more suggestions like these that I'm looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnFitzgerald Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 I have to say, my approach to this is just to keep the internal metronome running all the time. Maybe I take it too far and I know this will sound ridiculous, but from the minute I wake up to the minute I fall asleep, I have a weird sort of internal metronome that pretty much never stops. If I'm sitting still and not using my hands for some other purpose (leave it ! ) I'm probably going to be tapping out a rythm. Drumming away. In my head, I'm sub dividing each beat into four semiquavers the whole time. There's always a rythm in there. Frustrated drummer ? Maybe. Before playing any other instrument, I played some drums at an early age and have certainly never forgotten it. Being the bass player, I see my role in the rythm as being just as important as the drummer's and want to influence it just as much as he does. So, I keep the meter going in my head the whole time. This sound ridiculous, I know, but's that's my approach. I didn't set out to do this, but it's what I've always done. Clearly, this approach won't work for everyone, but it does for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc2009 Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Get something like Guitar Pro, I find the speed trainer really useful, especially for some of the ridiculous metal I listen to and then try to play sometimes. It basically lets you really easily select which bars (or the whole song) you want to practice, and increases the tempo each time (or after however many times you dictate), by an amount you dictate, from an amount you dictate to an amount you also dictate. Playing a 16 bar pattern at 120bpm and then again at 122bpm, with only a metronome as guidance can be really hard to nail. Well worth the practice IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vibrating G String Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Learn to dance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodster Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 I use this exercise from Adam Nitti in my lessons. I just use a bassline appropriate to the student's ability. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wiV5iFPfIs[/media] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
louisthebass Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Another good resource for the timekeeping aspect is a section in "The Working Bassists Toolkit" by Ed Friedland. That will keep you going for ages - rest of the book is very good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 That Nitti video is excellent. I feel a metronome session coming on ... On a related subject, what do you do when the drummer's internal sense of time differs from your own? Sometimes I try to hold my own tempo to encourage him to come back to "the right one", sometimes I think that maybe he knows best and I follow him. Neither is particularly satisfactory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMech Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 (edited) [quote name='woodster' timestamp='1319270658' post='1411980'] I use this exercise from Adam Nitti in my lessons. I just use a bassline appropriate to the student's ability. [/quote] That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, cheers. Will spend a while doing that later, shall see how good my timing really is [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1319273472' post='1412026'] That Nitti video is excellent. I feel a metronome session coming on ... On a related subject, what do you do when the drummer's internal sense of time differs from your own? Sometimes I try to hold my own tempo to encourage him to come back to "the right one", sometimes I think that maybe he knows best and I follow him. Neither is particularly satisfactory. [/quote] I've had a similar problem before. At a jam night, one drummer always got overenthusiastic with his fills, and would slip out of time. I decided it was best to just soldier on with my own tempo, and he always joined back in. If it was someone changing tempo through the song I'd probably just give them evil looks. Edited October 22, 2011 by ZMech Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithless Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 As opposed to what most says about this topic, my (and not only mine) opinion on this is that metronome will [b]not [/b]give you a good time. Look, you are playing music with people, not with metronomes, right? Every person has his own internal time - when you play together, your time must come 'together', so that the music sounds as one unit. Good time is usually developed by conciously practising out of time, and striving for good time. Metronome can be involved at the times in your practice though, but quite rarely. You can do this drill, using software below - write out some [i]rhythms ([/i]no pitches) with quarter, eight, 16th notes & rests mixed up,making up two or four bar phrases. First of all, practice those rhythms out of time, then put up that software, and shed it. http://bestdrumtrainer.com/tt/#90_4_2_2_0_F Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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