[Musicians] Learning/sharing/remembering rhythms

[Sarah Gowan via Musicians]

I generally avoid charts, signs and other extra visual aids because they can confuse more than they help and think a leader can conduct it by making space for the change in rhythm. A trick we use in our open band is for the leader to pare down the sound to a soloist or small section and one rhythm player who sets the groove. Then the leader adds in other players indicating that they should play the same rhythm or groove. Most people figure out how to join in once the pattern has been established. We generally don’t do it on the first tune of a set because the caller is still calling. It’s a good variation for the middle or last tune of the set.

Sarah


> On Feb 14, 2017, at 12:07 PM, Emily Addison via Musicians <musicians at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi fellow musicians. :)
> 
> Up here in Ottawa, we just had a great workshop with David Kaynor and George Wilson.... .... it was all about non-melody for melody players.
> 
> One of the ideas we talked about was playing rhythm - something very familiar to me as a contra piano player.
> 
> The challenge we've had with our community band (10 people) is how to get everyone on the same 1-2 rhythms/grooves.  When we do non-melody, it's everyone doing something different which sounds like a wall of sound.
> 
> Do any of you have tricks for sharing rhythms?
> 
> In particular, I liked the idea proposed by David in terms of having sentences that remind you of certain rhythms. But what I'd love is a chart showing names for different rhythms and related, where to emphasize beats or drop beats.
> 
> Thoughts?? ??? ????
> 
> So much of what we do is intuitive but with a large group, there's only 2-3 of us working as a team right now.
> 
> With thanks,
> Emily in Ottawa
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