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In this section one of the most important qualities required by a guitarist is analyzed: the use of rhythm. More precisely we will work on a particular way of hearing the rhythm, which is called funky .
Considering the fact that after reading these pages you already have a good basic understanding of rhythm (if this is not the case, you can return to that appropriate section), funky rhythm seems more complete from an execution point of view, mostly due to the fact that it is subject to the influences of various musical genders, such as jazz, rock, Latin and pop.
Although we will talk about this purely from a guitar point of view, the funky rhythm is a standard instrumental technique for any musician.
The series of exercises that follow are very selective. We will look at funky rhythm using different techniques, so that you will become familiar with all the harmonic and melodic possibilities, and their relative styles of playing.
Interpreting the rhythm
One of the major difficulties that one often comes across is the interpretation of the rhythm written in score, sometimes with not so simple "translations" of writtens parts, in cursive, etc. But at times even parts written by computer or by hand (done well), can be difficult to interpret. How do you avoid problems like this? I would like to briefly show you a system that I find useful when reading rhythm for the first time.
The idea is simple: identify the smallest rhythmic division of the part to play, and you make a set of boxes similar to the ones below:
In this case I have divided a single bar of 4/4 into four movements. Each box therefore has a value of 1/4. If I played in the fourth I would get this:
In the graph to the right, I have simply identified how to develop the rhythm. Down picking also coincides with the note (or the chord) to play in beat on every movement. Every note (or chord) to play is identified with a red ball.
Now lets look at an octave rhythm. In the graph, being octaves of the smaller rhythmic division, each box of 1/4 is divided in two boxes.
We wanted to use a connection between the second and third movements, the picking in beat on the third movement will have to be open (in parenthesis), because the sound continues from the previous note. This is a very useful system to keep the tempo. We therefore get the following:
In this example we use sixteenth as the smallest rhythmic division. Here is a complete bar in sixteenth:
Lets see how to develop a more complex rhythm in sixteenth using sixteenth rests. The pickings not shown must be done by the right hand that clearly aren't played.
Try using this system. Every time that you have some difficulties analyzing a rhythm, make a set of boxes similar to the ones shown here, bar for bar, then write down the "translation": you will see that the job of learning will become more easy.
At this point we can start the actual study of the funky rhythm, beginning with the single note.
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