Expand your Rhythmic freedom

Författare

Lars Andersson

Summary, in English

The main purpose of this book is to help musicians develop their rhythmic skills. By practicing different kinds of rhythmic phrases such as odd grouping, odd metres, combined metres and metric modulations you can strengthen your rhythmic sense and expand your rhythmic freedom.

Instrumentalists often spend a lot of time developing their harmonic and melodic skills in improvisa- tion without practicing rhythm consciously. Improvisation in jazz deals with three main areas, melody, harmony and rhythm.

A good way to start developing your improvisation skills as a beginner is to play variations of the melody and then moving on to using basic scales e.g. blues scales and pentatonic scales. These scales are not always easy to master but they are often a good starting point

There are many play-along CDs and books on the market that deal with improvisation from a melodic or harmonic view, but there is a shortage of such material focusing on rhythm.

So, how can we practice rhythm?

Well, the common answer is to practice your rhythms with a metronome and just play along with any record or play-along. This often heard and well-meant advice, however, is not enough to develop the skills of students who are serious about improving their rhythmic skills. Rhythm is not a complicated matter but nonetheless it is not necessarily easy to master. Rhythm needs to be practiced consciously for rhythmic freedom in an improvisational context to be developed.

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