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10 Obsessive Tips for Improving Your Rhythmic Abilities by Igor Saavedra

Igo r Saavedra

10 Obsessive Tips f or Improving Your Rhythmic Abilities by Igor Saavedra Believe me, Ive done all this crazy stuf f myself throughout the years. well, I am a highly obsessive music student, and I accept that about myself ! 1 Always practice with a metronome remember that most bass players dont dedicate a lot of time to this, so to become a soloist or play on their own like a violinist does, you need to f low f reely over the groove set by some other musicians. In my opinion, we became bassists to set the groove in a band context, and f or that reason a metronome is the best available tool, even better than a drum machine, because it exposes all your mistakes so you can notice them and improve them. 2 In relation to the last point, a very important ability to develop is to be able to f ind any tempo speed just by listening to it. T he best way in my opinion is to use a metronome f or checking. T he more you practice, the better youll get. 3 Whenever you walk any place use that awesome opportunity to practice establishing a steady tempo with your steps and singing your best grooves over it. Ive been doing this since I became a musician; many times people around me think that Im just another crazy guy on the street and they are so right! 4 One of the most important rhythmic abilities is to be f ully conscious of Time in the sense of the length or duration of the musical elements. As an obsessive music student (dont tell that to anybody), I practiced f or years using a good Chronograph hanging on my chest so I was able to guess dif f erent durations of sounds and rests e.g.: 1 second, 75 cents of a second, 2 seconds and 80 cents, etc, and sometimes I still do I got very good on that, and believe me its a very usef ul ability. 5 Practice dividing just one 40bpm beat in dif f erent f ractions. I suggest dividing the beat in 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15, etc. Play f our bars with each subdivision and then move to the next and so on, then go the opposite way. As an obsessive music student Ive been doing this f or the last 20 years and its amazingly usef ul! 6 Practicing polyrhythms is a highly recommendable subject to address, but not in the way a drummer will do it, thats distributing dif f erent subdivisions related to each other within your 4 limbs. What is usef ul f or bassists is developing the ability to combine dif f erent subdivisions between the f oot and the f ingers. For example, tap your f oot and at the same time play 5 equally distributed notes on your bass every f our beats you play with your f oot. T he possible combinations are endless (7:5, 6:7, 2:3, 3:7, etc,). Believe it or not many rhythms we usually play are based on this concept, so its a very usef ul skill to develop. Ive been practicing this stuf f non-stop f or the last 15 years.

7 In relation to the last point, tapping our f oot while we play is a highly recommendable skill to develop. What happens here is that the f oot provides us objective and precise inf ormation about where the tempo is. You wont only be able to hear it, but also to f eel it. Also, it is highly recommendable to get used to practicing certain music styles like Shuf f le, Swing, Be Bop and many Jazz related styles, placing the f oot on beats 2 & 4, which will provide the real f eel f or those specif ic styles by accentuating the right beats. Tapping the f oot while we play is an ultra helpf ul tool f or developing our groove. 8 A very simple exercise is trying to make the metronome disappear at dif f erent tempos. Its really easy and f un! Just set the metronome at any speed you want and then clap your hands exactly at that speed. You can play over a table or pluck a string of your Bass, but the most important thing is doing it with such a precision that hearing the sound of the metronome becomes absolutely impossible. Its very important to mention that the slower the speed the harder it gets to achieve that virtual disappearance. Ive been practicing this myself and with my students f or almost 25 years its really f un and most important, when it comes to developing accuracy, it really works! 9 When practicing, treat rests and sounds equally. Never act as if sounds are more important than rests. You can put that basic concept into real practice by trying all the possible combinations between sounds and rests across all the subdivisions of one beat. When you practice points 5 and 6 include this concept and point of view in your exercises. If you practice this a million times youll hear the dif f erence in your playing! 10 Never miss the opportunity to percuss! If you are eating, sitting on a park bench, watching T V, pushing the cart at the supermarket, etc, just put your hands on any close and available surf ace like a table, sof a, pole, thighs & chest (mainly yours ha-ha-ha), etc, and enjoy the magic of rhythm! See you on the next

About Igor Saavedra

It's amazing that Igor was not into music till he picked up a bass f or the f irst time at the age of 22 in 1988.
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