Lesson 8 - Rhythms and Riffs
Here are a few exercises to improve your rhythmic understanding and playing technique. It covers some basic rhythms in various styles of music. We will be looking at some Rock, Soul, Latin, and Reggae grooves.
Before we start we are going to look at some note duration and their values.
In this lesson we are going to look at rests and dotted notes.
Rests
Rests are silences in music where the instrumentalist stops playing for the value of the rest.
The four rests we are going to look are related to the Semibreve, Minim, Crotchet, and Quaver notes.
Semibreve Rest
Like the semibreve note instead of holding the note for 4 beats you rest for 4 beats.
It looks like this:
1 2 3 4
Minim Rest
Like the minim note, instead of holding the note for 2 beats you rest for 2 beats.
1 2
Crotchet Rest
The crotchet rest his worth 1 beat rest.
1
Quaver Rest
The quaver rest is worth a half a beat rest
1/2
Here is a Listening Example using all of these rests outlined below:
Dotted notes
Sometimes in music notation you see notes with dots next to them. Putting a dot next to a note changes its value therefore changing the length that the note is held for.
When you add a dot to any note you add half of the value of the note.
Dotted Minim
A minim is worth 2 beats. A minim plus a dot means a dotted minim is worth 2+1 = 3
=3
Dotted Crotchet
A crotchet is worth 1 beat. A crotchet plus a dot means a dotted crotchet is worth 1+ half = 1 ½
= 1 1/2
The following video explains how to count the bars using dotted notes and rests. It refers to the Bass exercises outlined below.
The following exercises use rests and dotted notes. They are from different styles of music to give you some understanding and practice in how to count and play different rhythmic patterns.
Rock Music
Rock Music uses a back beat to provide a driving beat to a song. A back beat is when the drummer emphasises the 2nd and 4th beat of each bar.
In the next two examples the bass guitarist rests on the 2nd beat allowing the drummer to accent the beat and help give that rock feel.
Exercise 1
Exercise 2 - Rock ballad groove.
Latin Rhythms
Latin rhythms use lots of syncopated rhythms that are repeated as ostinatos. Syncopation is when beats fall on off beats, or in between beats, giving an uneven rhythmic sound. The Bass guitar and drums play a significant role in Latin music in keeping all of the musicians together and in time with each other.
Exercise - 3 - Cha Cha
Exercise 4 - Samba
Reggae
Reggae music combines off beat Jamaican rhythms with strong rock elements. The bass and drums are very important in laying the foundation for any Reggae feel.
Exercise 5
Soul
Soul music is an offshoot from gospel and rhythm and blues music. It has a funky rhythm which we can hear in the start of this song through the bass and drums.
Exercise 6 - Soul Ballad
Jazz
This waltz is in triple time, which means each bar adds up to 3. This gives a different feel to this exercise where the first beat of each bar is stronger than the other two beats.
Exercise 7 - Waltz
