Got a new course coming this week at ElectricCampfire all about John Coltrane’s notorious tune Giant Steps.
This course is all about how to get started with this tune.
When I first tried to play this tune it was a total disaster – it’s such a weird sequence to play on at first.
But in this course, I’m going to show you a simple way to think about the harmony and some easy ways to get started with improvising on it.
Also, I’m showing you how to play the first chorus of Coltrane’s solo that I’m playing in the video below. I show you how to work on getting fluid phrasing. And there’s some very useful core jazz language in this that you’ll definitely be able to apply to your playing.
Are you getting saucy looks from band mates every time you play a solo break? Or do you have that horrible floating sensation when your solos go awry? Do you lose track of where the beat is?
Well, worry not! for here is a little metronome-based exercise that can help you with your rhythmic accuracy, and time feel.
Now, A Word of Warning: Some people view exercises with metronomes as cold and unmusical.
And I’d agree.
Just like scales, arpeggios, intervals, strings and cables are unmusical. They’re just things that might help you make some music. Just like brushes and paint are to a painter. So take a deep breath, CHILLAX, and try this…
The Big Idea
So the usual way of using a metronome is to have it click on every beat. If you’re a bit more advanced, maybe you’ve tried placing the click on beats 1 and 3, or beats 2 and 4. This means that the metronome is generating the beat, and you have to align your time to it.
I want to sell you on the idea of placing the click on a subdivision of the beat.
This means that YOU have to generate the beat. Practising this way means you’re working on your time and making it stronger.
Here’s how you can apply the idea to practice a triplet feel.
Rhythmic Accuracy Exercise #1
Avoiding placing the click on beat one leaves you two places to put the click: The 2nd or 3rd quavers.
So, In one bar of 3/8 that’d be here:
or here:
In simpler terms. If you count each beat like this: 123, 123, 123, 123. You just put the click on the 2 (as in the 1st example) or 3 (as in the second example).
Hearing The Click
If you’ve not done this before it’s a bit tricky to feel the click in the right place. You might be drawn to hearing the click as a downbeat all the time. So to put the click on the last triplet, do this:
Start the click at 60 bpm and count three even quavers in the space of one click. (123, 123, etc)
That’s the rate at which the quavers sound.
Now hear the click as the last quaver and put your downbeat on the next quaver. Feel it as going ‘and, one’ with the ‘and’ co-inciding with the metronome click. You can even trick yourself into hearing this by calling the click ‘3’, and saying ‘312, 312’, etc, and then mentally shifting your beat to the 1.
Got it?
Now play a repeated dotted crotchet on the beat [you’re playing on the downbeat while the metronome is clicking on the 3rd quaver]
Keep it steady.
Good?
Try playing a scale.
Still good?
You have to feel where the pulse should be to keep feeling the metronome click as the last quaver. Continue to do this until you can keep the beat and you don’t switch the metronome around so that you’re playing with the clicks.
Rhythmic Variations
Practise all the variations below to improve your rhythmic accuracy. Where you have a long note you can either play it for its full duration or play it as a quaver; do it both ways. [the top line shows the rhythms to practise; the bottom line is where the metronome click is]
Now improvise. Stay within the triplet feel, always focusing on keeping the beat rock-solid and making sure everything sits exactly in that feel. If you lose awareness of the beat for a second you’ll rush or drag and the click will immediately feel different. It might shift to a straight 8th feel; or, you’ll shift by a quaver and the click will be on the beat.
Accuracy & Concentration
So to do this requires accuracy of how you feel the pulse & subdivisions, as well as having your technique be pin-point and not rushing or dragging. Also you’ll need to maintain your focus. And these things require time. Go easy on yourself!
I’d suggest trying this for 5 minutes every day. View it like trying to get better at ice-skating – the first time you have a go it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to stay on your feet. Stick with it, and soon you’ll start to feel more relaxed and sure of your time.
Other things to try
Put the click on the second quaver.
Use 6/8. Now there are 4 places you can place the click [excluding the easier 1st and 4th quavers] Also, you could have the metronome click twice in one bar by using the 3rd quaver of beats one and two.
Use 9/8
Use 12/8
Use an odd-time feel e.g, 7/8 and practice with the click in all locations.
Use a different beat subdivision. E.g., semiquavers. Use the less familiar 2nd and 4th semiquavers and their locations with whatever bar length you use.
Try using an odd grouping as the beat subdivision. E.g., play in 4/4 but using groups of 5 as the beat subdivision and place the metronome click on one of these subdivisions.
More Abstract Ideas
Here are some more ideas that you’re going to have to have a think about. Play around with them and see what you come up with.
Play in time but free pulse – like you’re improvising bar-lines. I think whenever I play in situations where I have to play free music, I focus most on melody and hearing the harmony. But I’m also at liberty to be free with rhythm.
Rhythms like triplets, semiquavers and so on are regular demarcations of time, but there is no gradation of time; the measurement is a construct. Within the limit of a particular rhythm there might be pushes and pulls that cause it to feel or sound a certain way. Also, is it possible to play stuff over the time but have it take its own time. I’ve played in some groups where we’ll have a groove going on in the drums and the rest of the band float over this in their own time. Also, playing certain kinds of pieces, the phrase you’re playing can unfold in its own time. So, combining these ideas, another thing to try is playing in a groove but allowing phrases to have their own rhythmic independence from the groove.
Right, time for biscuits… Feel free to share any rhythmic related ideas/thoughts/gibberish below or perhaps share your favourite rhythmically interesting music. Why do you like it? What is going on?
If this seems too hard and you still want to get a smokin’ time feel, all you really have to do is jam along to records and pay close attention to making what you do feel just like what they do.
Until the next time!
-Mike
PS – If you want to hear these examples and go further into rhythmic study, you need to check out ElectricCampfire.com. I’ve got some great actionable lessons that’ll show you exactly how to do this kind of thing and more.
Just released a new recording with long time collaborator Tony Woods. It’s called Hidden Fires and I really like how this one turned out. We did the album launch on Monday and it was a really special gig. Such a great thing to explore music with people over a long period of time. The chaps in the band are all marvellous musicians and it’s a treat to play with them.
Listen
My favourite track from the record is the title track Hidden Fires. Listen to that track & the whole album below. You can support us by sharing it on social media & purchasing a copy right here.
Enjoy!
PS – if you’d like to learn a bit more about the music from ‘Hidden Fires’, I’ll be doing a breakdown of it in my membership site for guitarists – Electric Campfire. Come and check it out!
I asked my pal Steve Lawson (bass/loops/processing) to come play with me at my local gig. He suggested Emre Ramazanoglu (on drums/percussion/electronics). So we all got together for a night of making it all up as we go along style improv.
It’s such good fun to play with these guys. Hope you like…
Ah, social media, where would we be without it? Probably making something cool and being useful.
Having been an avid user of social media in the past, I now think it’s the work of Satan. How else do you explain this sort of thing: ‘Hi, I’m a dentist who has a band, CHECK OUT MY MYSPACE!’ ? – that’s an actual made up message I definitely received. And stuff like where you absentmindedly say to your imaginary friend, ‘Cor blimey! I like the look of that cheese’, and then Instagram says: ‘HEY! Here’s some cheese!!! And some more cheese because you like cheese #letsbecheesefriends’.
I can’t think of any other explanation.
But, Dear Reader, you are always in my thoughts, and what if maybe you’ve checked out the entire back catalogue of music and educational offerings, and font choices and everything here, and now you have that sad dejected look – ‘wait…surely – SURELY – there must be more…’ —— ‘If only I could find out what he likes to read, or what hobbies he has… *Sigh* If only there were some way to link up on my favourite place on the internet – Last.fm…’.
Well, put on your happy face, you, and cheer up, duck, because Lo! It’s all here. Come and join the non-stop party action on Pinboard and Flickr!
I started playing the guitar in 1986; a pretty good era for guitars, I think. Anyhow, here’s a playlist of what I played then. I still LOVE all this music, and listening to it really sends me back to what it felt like to be completely fired up by all this stuff, jamming along with the albums at ludicrous volume.
Check out Brian May’s solo on Princes of the Universe, Eddie’s rhythm playing on everything from 1984, Knopfler’s beautiful playing on Romeo & Juliet, and the live version of Sultans, Malmsteen’s opening lick on the I am a Viking solo, and on and on and on. It is all inspiring stuff to me, and, by digging further, one step away from more mind-blowing stuff like Zappa, Hendrix, Clapton, Holdsworth, Beck, Zepellin, BB King, and then on it goes into a sea of musical discovery and connections with fellow musicians who each shared their musical sparks and on it goes again.
