Keeping time

[Claudi]

I believe you need to decide what type of musician you want to be. Best Reg

Well, when you say "YOU need to decide..." I don't know if you're refering to me, or ejwhite09, or maybe you mean "one needs to decide". Anyway, about me I'm the kind of musician who enjoys studying music. I like very much the analysis of both the guitar and the piano and music theory. I know I still have to learn some jazz theory concepts but I feel I'm close to understand everything I read in this forum, though this doesn't mean I can apply everything on the instruments. I consider myself a versatile musician. I play anything I want, I mean, what I feel like at the moment. Sometimes it can be a film soundtrack, or a pop song, a rock'n'roll song, a classical piece...I don't know. It depends on the moment or the day or even the season. Nowadays I can't say I love jazz, or I love blues, or I love metal. What I can say is that I like many styles and I'm glad to be able to play them all. As for my theory knowledge (this website has taught me a great bunch) it lets me think that if I want to learn a new style I'll only have to learn the tricks it has and get the touch of it.
Don't worry about me for the subject of being a robot. It's for sure I'm not.

[Reg]

hey Claudi... I'm just rambling in general and to anyone who might read or benefit. I try and stimulate and pass on what I've learned over the years, although most appear to have plenty of motivation. Very glad to hear your not a robot... Best Reg

[JohnRoss]

I just can't seem to be able to count and improvise/play, thus I never know where I am with regards to changes.

I'm with randalljazz on this one, ear training is useful, metronome work is useful, but what it comes down to is phrasing, feeling it. You seem to be tripping over yourself because you have to concentrate on too many things at the same time. I think this is helping me (it's a variation on a classical musician's trick for getting pieces up to performance standard):

Take a scale, or a phrase, or an arpeggio, or a series of arpeggios. Scale to keep things simple.

Take a meter. any meter, 4 / 4 to keep things simple. Rhythm, straightforward ONE and two and Three and four and. Tempo, moderate.

Play the scale - do re mi, etc. as 1 and 2 and, etc. Now break the scale up into two note sequence and play each sequence separately, but keeping the same phrasing. do - re (1 and), re - mi (and 2), etc. The idea is that it should feel and sound exactly the same as if someone were switching your amplifier on and off for just long enough to hear that fragment of the larger section. It's difficult with two notes, but it gets easier as you make the sequences longer, three notes, four, and so on. Six notes, for example, gives you do re mi fa soh (1 and 2 and 3 and), re mi fa soh lah (and 2 and 3 and 4), etc.

What you are doing here, essentially, is internalizing the phrasing of the rhythm. You can beef it up and add and move the accents to make different rock or Latin rhythms, the important thing is that with the rhythm internalized, you should not need to actually count so much, or at least not concentrate as hard.

[TommyD]

Me, me, me!

[Reg]

To be comfortable with rhythms, go through a percussion book on basics. There are only so many sub-divisions of the beat, and almost all music falls into three or four beats to a measure. Once you see and understand the sub-divisions of each beat which will extrapolate or expand and overlay over one bar, two bars, or four bars etc... you'll recognize rhythms and rarely need to count. By the way that's also one of the "tricks" to sight reading. Back to rhythms... practice sub-divisions with accents on each sub-division... soon you'll feel the accents which help set up phrases... you might start locking in and feeling grooves. Hearing and understanding sub-divisions are skills all good musicians should have. I play a lot of gigs where the gig is the first time I meet the drummer or bass player. Good rhythm sections hear rhythm pattern played or implied and are able to play as though arrangements are totally notated out, usually much better than when they are, not always. The charts groove because we all have those sub-divisions and accents under our control and able to comfortable follow the melody, the soloist or what's going on. Again basic percussion books have them all notated out or better yet, write them out your self... you'll get them quicker. These are skills that should be developed while your young... but better late than never. I also play gigs where rhythm section players haven't put in the time... not much fun and way to much work. If I'm not being clear, let me know and I'll try and dig up books or help start you on writing them out yourself. Best Reg