Concept of notes, rests, meters and tempos
Note = play a note to its duration with sound
Rest = pause to plyay to its duration
Meter = unit that constitutes the musical time
As you can see in the figure, the horizontal lines show notes and rests with same durations.
We will frequently use rhytms as we are in the basic course for rhythms.
Notes, rest and rhythms are all signs that indicate the duration of a sound.
A whole note can be divided into two half notes.
A half note can be divided into two quarter notes.
A quarter note can be divided into two eighth notes.
An eighth note can be divided into two sixteenth notes.
An additional tail will be added to the note when dividing it in half after the eighth note.
In addition, two or more notes can be beamed together as follows:
So we can draw the following tree structure by dividing each note beginning with the whole note.
Dotted notes, rests
A dotted note is a note with a small dot which increases the duration of the basic note by half of its original value.
Double-dotted notes, rests
A double-dotted is a note with two small dots which increase its duration 13/4 times its basic note value.
Tempo
Tempo is the speed of a given tune. For example, a tempo of 60 bpm in the metronome indicates that there will be 60 meters (quater notes) within a minute. As the number increases, the speed of a tune gets faster. So the speed of the same note may vary depending on its tempo. The tempo of a tune is usually shown at the top of its score.
Where to indicate the tempo on a score
We have already learned this concept during music classes at school.
Explanation will make you understand the tempo technically but it is very hard for you to keep the tempo practically. It's because a musical instrument is something that we need to play with our bodies and we need to move our both hands and listen to the metronome so that we can confirm whether we are playing it correctly while practicing. Thus, it may seem very hard.
I will play the above notes to their durations.
I will play the above notes with a tempo of 60 bpm (well, strictly speaking, they are not notes but a rhythm).
If the tempo is 80 bpm, the playing will be as follows:
Thus, the duration of playing same notes will vary depending on the tempo of a tune.
Playing sixteenth notes was not stable as the tempo increased from 60 to 80 bpm directly. So do not speed up too much at once. Keep practicing at the tempo of 60 bpm and then increase the tempo by 1 bpm once you get experienced.
As it is hard for you to notice the difference between 60 and 61 bpm in tempo, you need to practice it by increasing 1 tempo a day so that you will be able to play it at the tempo that you want.
Find out incorrect parts of playing to the metronome in the video and compare it to your playing while practicing.
Meters, Metre
A meter is a unit which gathers to a certain number to constitute the musical time. For example, you can understand that the signs of 4/4, 3/4 or 6/8 beside a G-clef indicate the meters.
So a meter of 4/4 means that there are 4 quater notes in a bar.
Rhythm
Rhythm is a movement marked by the regulated succession of sounds (including rests). Rhythm can be created by repetition fo strong and weak beats.
Such beats constitute rhythm.
For example, you may set the quater note as a minimum note in 4/4,
And the above is called 4-beat (or 1-beat with a sense of 1 beat) rhythm.
When you play with a minimum note of an eighth note, it is called 8-beat rhythm.
We have practiced the song last course.
So it means that we have played the song in a basic 4-beat.
When you play the song with whole notes, it will be as follows:
When you play with half notes, it will be as follows:
When you play with eighth notes, it will be as follows:
You can play the same song in various rhythms.
Guitar techniques you need to understand before making 8-beat rhythm within 4/4
Alternate stroke (stroke refers to a technique of playing multiple string simultaneously)
Alternate stroke refers to a technique of playing repeated down stroke and up strokes.
In scores, down strokes and up strokes are described as follows:
It's just a simple repetition of down and up strokes but it is an important technique for players to keep correct beat. You need to practice it so that you can keep the constant beat in a metronome.
We will make various rhythms based on this alternate stroke.
Making of various rhythms using unstrokes
Unstroke refers to a technique of playing strokes but not touching the strings.
If you play the basic 8-beat rhythm as below with unstroking the part marked with a circle, you can make the followin rhythm:
Unstroke results in an effect in which the first two eighth notes are combined by a tie.
As the two eighth notes were combined by a tie, it turned out that we played a duration of one quarter note despite of playing two strokes. We can desribe it on a score with a tie (a line that connects two or more notes with same pitch).
(Notes that are connected by a tie will be played just like they are one note)
So it means that we need to play strokes 8 times no matter what notes appear.
One more thing that is important is that we can keep the correct beat only when we play down and up strokes at constant speed.
In this way, we can make a variety of rhythms by combining those 8 notes at our discretion. Rhythms are created in this way and they become popular ones in popular music that we listen to.
Timing for chord changes
For chord changes, put your hand off the strings while playing the last up stroke and then prepare for the next chord. Then, put your hand on that chord position at the first beat and play stroke at the same time.
Practice the 8-beat rhythm with a feeling that you changes the chord before a half beat.
Today's practice song
score download
What you need - capo (a device used on a guitar fret to change the key)
A capo looks like the following:
Place the capo on the second fret.
Today's rhythm - "Calypso" , the representative 8-beat rhythm
Calypso is one of the most popular rhythms used in almost every genre.
If you cannot get a clear picture of it, we can analyze it in detail.
As you read the score from left to right, we can analyze the left quarter note by dividing it into two eighth notes. A quarter note can be divided into two eight notes and therefore two eighth notes combined by a tie are same as one quarter note.(Refer to the above table)
So you need to play two strokes with the latter up stroke as unstroke.
You can draw the following eight note by repeating down and up strokes just like this.
Part makes you confused
For the underlined part in the above score, you may feel confused whether to play the left up stroke or play the right down stroke as unstroke. You can simply play the left and then unstroke the right when two notes are combined by a tie (it's because you need to read the score from left to right).
If you play the left up stroke as unstroke, the score will present a different rhythm.
Today's chord
D7
E7
G7
Practicing chord changes
Set up your target so that you can change the chord as shown in the following video:
Pacticing calypso with the rhythm that we learned today
You may be a little bit slow in chord changes and you may not make a clear sound while playing. But it will get better if you keep practicing day by day.
You can only improve your playing skills by repeated practices.
We didn't learn about 16-beat and triplet but the understanding of meters, rhythms and tempos mean everyting for the basic learning. If you cannot understand something, please repeat reading it to completely understand it.
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