Mystifying Your Rhythm

  Mystify Your Rhythm PART I: Hey fellow IGers! This month's lesson is kind of a throw back to an earlier tutorial of mine entitled "Creating Your Own Pulse". I wanted to approach something that tends to evade many people when approaching three note per string lines; not strictly appealing to the index finger as the "main" finger, or the "down beat" oriented finger. By mastering this concept, you'll open up the option to explore your lines in a different perspective and maybe add to your improvisation repetoire. For part I/II, let's focus on eighth note triplet lines. Due to the nature of triplets (a mathematically odd rhythmic function that has become  very "safe" through the historic evolution of music), we're still able to capitalize on said oddness in creating some rather rhythmically  vexing lines when executed in unconventional ways. So let's have a look at a few different methods of breaking through these barriers of being  confined to "letting the scales play us". Ex. 1 - "Middle Finger Down Beat" is a great place to start. Play through Part 1. Notice that the feel is rather familiar as it's how most of us first begin to execute three note per string triplet lines. However, let's deviate right from the get-go (in Part 2) and begin the descending A minor scale with a two note pull-off. Notice that the next three strings all contain three descending notes, but due to the "missed" note on the high E string, our down-beat is shifted to being the note that our middle finger plays on each string. Already, the over-all feel of the execution should feel substantially different. PART I Hey fellow IGers! This month's lesson is kind of a throw back to an earlier tutorial of mine entitled "Creating Your Own Pulse". I wanted to approach something that tends to evade many people when approaching three note per string lines; not strictly appealing to the index finger as the "main" finger, or the "down beat" oriented finger. By mastering this concept, you'll open up the option to explore your lines in a different perspective and maybe add to your improvisation repetoire. For part I/II, let's focus on eighth note triplet lines. Due to the nature of triplets (a mathematically odd rhythmic function that has become very "safe" through the historic evolution of music), we're still able to capitalize on said oddness in creating some rather rhythmically vexing lines when executed in unconventional ways. So let's have a look at a few different methods of breaking through these barriers of being confined to "letting the scales play us". Ex. 1 - "Middle Finger Down Beat" is a great place to start. Play through Part 1. Notice that the feel is rather familiar as it's how most of us first begin to execute three note per string triplet lines. However, let's deviate right from the get-go (in Part 2) and begin the descending A minor scale with a two note pull-off. Notice that the next three strings all contain three descending notes, but due to the "missed" note on the high E string, our down-beat is shifted to being the note that our middle finger plays on each string. Already, the over-all feel of the execution should feel substantially different.