The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
Reply to Thread Bookmark Thread
Posts 1 to 23 of 23
  1. #1

    User Info Menu

    How many jazz rhythms do you know that you can notate using notation or rhythm slashes? For people starting out to advanced players wanting to learn rhythms?
    Last edited by bobsguitars09; 06-05-2016 at 01:21 PM.

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

    User Info Menu

    How many are there?

  4. #3

    User Info Menu

    How do you know them... without being able to notate them out.

  5. #4
    I'm hoping someone posts examples here. My wife is a piano player and insists that asking guitar players this question is a hopeless endeavor. I say she is wrong!

  6. #5

    User Info Menu

    What makes a rhythm "jazz?" Syncopation?

  7. #6
    She's laughing at me right now! Saying those who don't know (like me) will answer with questions and never post examples. And will resort to the "you have to find out on your own by listening and report back" style answers. Not directed at you guys.

    I start lessons next month with a new teacher. The first thing we are working on is rhythm. I'll report back.

  8. #7

    User Info Menu

    Well, it's a vague question.

    I don't have any notation software here, but here's a few "jazz rhythms," I suppose...

    How about "dotted quarter, eighth, half note rest" (charleston)

    two dotted quarters (swinging a waltz)


    triplet, 2 8ths, 4ths or 4 8ths, triplet, 2 8ths (Parkerisms from Donna Lee)

    Quarter, two 8ths, tie the second eighth to another pair of eighths, quarter (a la "How High the Moon)

    Shoot, don't forget straight quarters and Eighths...

    I think the reason you're not getting more responses is that it seems like a "Quiz" (how much do these jokers know) more than something that will actually help you...I mean, if it's played in a jazz tune, it's a "jazz rhythm."

  9. #8

    User Info Menu

    I know what she is saying. I think a great start to learning jazz rhythms can be taught from Bossa Nova tunes.

    Since I cant figure out how to write rhythm notation, Ill post a pic to a basic patern. How many jazz rhythms do you know that you can notate?-basic-bossa-rhythm-guitar-3-jpg

    I think Bossa focuses on a specific rhythm throughout the entire tune, where other jazz tunes do not, so most guitarists just wing it and make up a groove.

  10. #9

    User Info Menu

    ok, tell you wife to go make us some sandwiches and get me a beer and I'll be happy to explain how rhythm notation works for the benefit of any piano players lurking out there

    first, let's restrict ourselves to 4/4. You do this exercise with all the other time sigs, but first you have to learn this process in common time

    split the bar into two 2 beat parts. Now, at the 8th note level, enumerate all the possible ways to notate 2 beats without using rests. There are a finite number. Now you take the ways you have to write 2 beats and number them.

    then you take #1 and pair it with all the other groups so that each of your 2 beat groups is paired with another 2 beat group to make up the full 4 beat measure. Then take the second group and pair it with all the other groups, and continue until you have done this with all the ways you found to notate 2 beats at the 8th note level. This is how guys learn to read rhythms, BTW, and it is why you will notice that a lot of lead sheets tie across the "and" of 2 and 3 in common time

    so after you have all your combinations, go back and tie from the end of one group to the start of the next

    then go back and systematically add rests. Write all this down by hand on paper and play through your work.

    then do the same thing with 16th notes

    then figure it out for 3 beats (use 2 + 1) and then you have all your compound meters sorted

    Jack Petersen had us do all this in 8th notes, 16th notes, 3/4, 6/8 and then compound meters like 7/8 and 11/8

    so that is how you go about making your own rhythm reading exercises

  11. #10

    User Info Menu

    Yea... not really the right question. Maybe a better question would be how many rhythmic styles are there. And then each style would have actual specific rhythmic patterns etc...

    As I've always posted... check out percussion or drum examples and you'll begin to get into the parts of rhythms of different styles of music.

    If your just looking for somewhat vanilla general guidelines for comping different styles, again it would be a huge list...
    Music Genre List - A complete list of music styles, types and genres

    Jazz rhythms? I personally think it's more about the player, I'm a jazz Player, I can play any style of music in a jazz style etc... Looking for specific "jazz" rhythms would be more of how to play a jazz tune, how a non jazz player could perform a jazz tune. There is a difference.

  12. #11

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Nate Miller
    ok, tell you wife to go make us some sandwiches and get me a beer ...
    Nope.

  13. #12

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Nate Miller
    ok, tell you wife to go make us some sandwiches and get me a beer and I'll be happy to explain how rhythm notation works for the benefit of any piano players lurking out there
    Did Jack Petersen teach you to be a Neanderthal?

  14. #13
    dortmundjazzguitar Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by bobsguitars09
    She's laughing at me right now! Saying those who don't know (like me) will answer with questions and never post examples. And will resort to the "you have to find out on your own by listening and report back" style answers. Not directed at you guys.

    I start lessons next month with a new teacher. The first thing we are working on is rhythm. I'll report back.
    well, it's a bit like asking a mathematician how far he can count, so i guess the laugh is on us

  15. #14

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by ronjazz
    Did Jack Petersen teach you to be a Neanderthal?

    I didn't like the idea that his piano playing wife told him guitar players wouldn't know about this

    so while I was setting things strait, I thought I'd get her to make us some sandwiches, what's the problem?

  16. #15

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by dortmundjazzguitar
    well, it's a bit like asking a mathematician how far he can count, so i guess the laugh is on us
    One. Two...Er, Many.

    BBC NEWS | Americas | Brazil tribe prove words count

    Set it to music

    Last edited by Jabberwocky; 06-07-2016 at 12:20 PM.

  17. #16
    dortmundjazzguitar Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
    One. Two...Er, Many.

    BBC NEWS | Americas | Brazil tribe prove words count

    Set it to music

    slow day at the gear section?

  18. #17
    I ask because I really don't know

    How would these standard jazz rhythms be notated? From the real books. When it tells you to play with these rhythms.. What do you do? What do the rhythms look like?

    Ballad
    Medium Swing
    Slowly
    Freely
    Moderately Slow
    Moderate Blues Tempo

  19. #18

    User Info Menu

    I wouldn't think of those as "rhythms." They're "feels."

    Generally, you've got some things that are a little more "set," like a freddie green four to the bar comping thing, or a bossa (but there's a lot of ways to play a bossa) or a charleston. But jazz players often are improvising rhythms as they accompany. So there's not one way to play "medium swing," other than that it's medium tempo, and it swings.

  20. #19
    Ahhhhh now that makes sense

  21. #20

    User Info Menu

    You see why people thought the question in the OP was a little weird?

  22. #21

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by bobsguitars09
    I'm hoping someone posts examples here. My wife is a piano player and insists that asking guitar players this question is a hopeless endeavor. I say she is wrong!
    Shouldn't you get similar answers if you ask pianists?

  23. #22

    User Info Menu

    Basically the big difference between jazz feels or versions of rhythmic patterns... even notated out rhythms is like what Mr B said ... jazz rhythms generally play off beats... we don't play down beats. Even if we play four down beats or four quarter notes notated out... the feel is different. Everything is basically some form of a triplet.

    I made a living writing music, still compose and arrange . Pick a style and I'll notate out a few, I'll notate as traditionally notated and then how actually played. The how played is partly related to the "Feel and Style" list you made above.

  24. #23

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by bobsguitars09
    I ask because I really don't know

    How would these standard jazz rhythms be notated? From the real books. When it tells you to play with these rhythms.. What do you do? What do the rhythms look like?

    Ballad
    Medium Swing
    Slowly
    Freely
    Moderately Slow
    Moderate Blues Tempo
    Bob - I don't think there is an answer to the original question of the thread. I'm answering this not as a professional musician but as one who for years has used Sibelius to create transcriptions of standards which of course have varied rhythmic figures in the melody primarily but also the accompaniment such as a bossa nova beat. It is one reason that I advocate using notation software. How do I know if my notation is correct? Simple - the software plays back what you entered which provides immediate conformation that what you notated is actually correct or wrong. It sounds right or it sounds wrong. I doubt there is a serious answer to the question of "how many rhythms".