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16th Note Displacement - The Basics

Sean Conklin 456 lessons

Welcome to the 16th Note Displacement Tutorial!

What are 16th notes? 16th notes add up to 4 counts in one beat. So you have a total of 16 counts in a measure that has 4 beats.

Full 16th note measure: "1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a"

Pronounced: "one ee and uh two ee and uh three ee and uh four ee and uh"

What is displacement? It's basically the process of taking notes out of certain spots, and putting notes into certain spots. It doesn't matter what "spots" you put the notes in either. Musicians naturally use displacement all the time within music. An easy way to remember displacement is to think of it simply as "mixing up notes".

What we're going to do in this tutorial is learn to think rhythmically in our music. Many guitarists don't spend enough time analyzing their rhythmic patterns. However, if you learn to master your rhythmic knowledge, it will benefit your playing immensely. So let's have fun with it!

First thing you need to be able to do is count 16th notes out loud while you play them in a full measure. Take a look at the first tablature pattern below. Once you can do that, you're ready to move on.

Next, check out the rest of the tablature patterns. What we're going to do is take out specific 16th note counts. First, we'll take out the number counts, then in the next exercise we'll take out the "e" counts, then we'll take out the "+" counts, then we'll take out the "a" counts.

Before going to the next lesson, make sure you can play AND count along to each of the below exercises. Counting along with what you play helps you know why you're doing what you're doing.

See you in the next lesson!

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