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Posted by: Jim S. Jun 13 2014, 04:24 PM

I'm practicing 16th note triplets and around 70bpm I can not sing the patterns. Tongue tied! Da da da Da da da just doesn't cut it.

What about other rhythmic groups you'd recommend practicing? How did you learn them?

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jun 14 2014, 08:59 PM

I've never had important problems with rhythm. Maybe it's because I used to play a lot along with songs when I was a teenager to I was all the times playing different rhythms. Being a fan of progressive metal, I was very into complex rhythms, so it has been a very good training for me.

I've always found the rhythm of this intro hard and interesting:

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jun 15 2014, 02:19 PM

Good choice Gabi

Now, if we come to think about groupings, you can have two approaches:

- accentuation groups of x 16 notes for instance and thus creating rhythmic displacement

Ex: creating an ascending phrase which has an accent on each 5th 16th note

- using odd rhythmic subdivisions

Ex: triplets are odd rhythmic subdivisions, but you can go for more complex stuff such as quintuplets (cramming 5 equal notes on each beat in a 4/4 bar, for instance)

It's all a matter of learning how to feel things when using either approach. I did it by exercising a lot and listening a lot!

If you wish to develop skills in this direction, I'd be happy to help out by sharing exercises that I have done Let me know

Posted by: Jim S. Jun 16 2014, 02:08 AM

That's messed up, my post never posted. But what I said was that I never learned any of the songs that inspired me to play. 2 reasons come to mind. The first is that I thought playing the solos from Metallica were impossible and second in always told myself that I wanted to learn my own style.

The truth: I was too afraid to do the work and when I started to learn a song I enjoyed I never made it past the first few bars. Maybe now that I know how to play the guitar I can start learning all those jams. Dimebag was one of my favorites. I loved his 2 hand slide technique and very expressive angry solos. Then for a sexy clean solo you have planet caravan!


Cosmin I would certainly like to learn how you learned them. I'll work on this everyday. I have about 1 hour a day on weekdays and 2 hrs on weekends. How do you think I'd best spend my time? I'd like to finish some of the lessons I started here and work toward being a better musician and writing some of my material.

I can't record anything but from my iPhone because my Mac has drowned but that's not stopping me from playing so what do you think? Should I have a schedule or just take one thing at a time or bits a day?

Posted by: Darius Wave Jun 16 2014, 09:31 AM

Well...I was never trying to be able to sing rhythm groups at fast tempos But...I was learning to remember how each group sounds at reasonable tempo and how to wisely extract those groups form longer patterns. It help a lot while trying to get perfect timming - knowing exaclty ehre each note is in the timeline and where to fit the accents with the drums

For example - "End of the heartache" by KSE main riff

xxxx -xxx xx-- ----

x - 16th note
- pause

When You listen to the riff itself You might get confused with sort of illusion (hard to text explain)caused by a connected 2 groups. If You can saparate them in Your head, You can easily match the timming with drum beats.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jun 16 2014, 12:29 PM

QUOTE (Jim S. @ Jun 16 2014, 01:08 AM)

Posted by: Jim S. Jun 16 2014, 02:14 PM

QUOTE (Cosmin Lupu @ Jun 16 2014, 07:29 AM)

Howdy Jim! I can help you up with a schedule that will be strictly focused on developing your skills in this area covering 1 hour/day In this way, you will be able to REALLY focus on the task at hand, without straying.

What do you think? Let me know what you think and we can work together in a special thread just for you