Miguel de Maria -> The Importance of Being Rhythmic (Dec. 7 2003 16:29:34)
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I've made a lot of progress in my playing lately, I feel like I'm starting to edge over from "an amateur who gets paid to play" to the next step. It's very exciting. I've worked really hard the last two years, mostly on technique, left hand and right hand, speed, thumb, etc., etc. What got me over this last plateau was a real attention to rhythm. I've realized that this rhythm thing is a very important thing. What does that mean, really? I've played guitar for 13 years, and I'm starting to think about rhythm? What I think is, it's really easy to think you understand the concept of 4 sixteenth notes, it's quite a different thing to really understand them. I think what most distinguishes pro players from ams is a definite, authoritative command of the rhythm. The four sixteenths an amateur plays is quite different than those of the pro. It's a very subtle, tiny difference in terms of execution, but the impression it makes on the listener is very powerful. Two years ago, a virtuoso flamenco player told me that I already know how to play,but that I had to learn how to be more definite with my playing. At the time, it didn't really make any sense to me and I didn't go very far with it. Sometimes you aren't ready. Play a scale or a lick made of sixteenths...at a reasonable speed. Now THINK the notes... I would recommend starting with 1 e and a, etc., or ta ka ta ka. A miraculous thing will happen, you will find your fingers following the notes in your head. Any clunkiness or messiness will automatically disappear. You are using your natural ability to play, getting past the interference of the conscious mind. This technique is the foundation of playing well. I've been taking all of my repertoire and "mentalizing" it. The difference is obvious... from my partner telling me he's never heard me play so well, to my fiance noting that a particular song was noticeably better, to the great sense of confidence and consistency I've been gaining. My fingers are relaxing and moving economically, surely. I'm playing quick, clean, powerful. I hope all of those out there who are struggling with aspects of their playing will give this a try. Of course, I practice for hours every day, and have the patience to practice scales and exercises endlessly. I was primed for this thing to push me over the edge. But the concept applies, I think, to anyone. Our normal way of playing the guitar is to have a quite amorphous sense of the rhythm, then we let our fingers find their own way. It is impossible, Impossible, to play something well if you do not, on some level, understand teh music quite well. My way is to study this intensively, then put my mind in a state which processes it in a definite way. PART II I have been taking a little break from flamenco to work on my gigging material, ie flamenco-like music such as Gipsy Kings, etc. A lot of us, me included, have had somewhat disdainful attitudes toward this sort of music, thinking that it is easy. But: 1. Even the simplest music is hard to play well. 2. Good spanish music, whether hard core flamenco or rumba, is heavily syncopated and thus Very Hard for Westerners.. I would play these Gipsy Kings instrumentals, and I would be able to figure out the notes easily, butwhen I played it, it didn't sound right. Then when I began to analyze the rhythm more carefully, I realized that the Spanish essence,the Spanish sound, lay in their sense of rhythm. It is so, so different from ours. I kept thinking about what Ron said about how the Andaluz always put their ornaments in differnet places than we do. To get it to sound Spanish, we have to figure out the system. What is it that makes it sound Spanish? There must be a system! It is natural for us to play on the beat, a nice hard accent on the 1. That's fine, and in fact is a necessary first step. But a lot of the Spanish sound is to put a nice, hard accent off the beat. If you don't really know where that accent is, that is, if you don't have a solid understanding of where the upbeat, or the up-up beat is, then you can't pull it off. Thats' the second part... we have to get to know the notes. We have to know, not just where the 1, 2, 3, 4 is...to the same degree, we have to know where the and, the e, and the a are. We have to know those just as well. It is natural to tap on the beat and ignore the rest of them... kind of look the other way becuase it's too much work, too complex to deal with those other divisions. Even though we are playing on those divisions, even though the very soul of our music is on hitting those other divisions with authority. Notice I said 1 2 3 4. If we can't even do this in 4/4, what hope do we have in pulling it off in the crazy flamenco rhythms? This is why I'm taking a break from flamenco. I need to get a handle on 4/4, thoroughly, and then I'll be ready to tackle these other beats. I have a feeling it will be much easier to do at that point.
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