Az Jazz Guitar Lessons #5: The Importance of Rhythm

Rhythm is at the heart of jazz. Part of early jazz was dance music, it was music for the people!

So, as a guitarist exploring jazz, it's worthwhile to spend time working on getting your rhythm together. When I started learning jazz guitar, I discovered things like Drop-2 voicings, II-V-I licks, arpeggios, comping, bebop lines and many more things that teachers and friends said were important for a jazz musician.

However, I realised that rhythm wasn't emphasised as much! As I developed my craft, I began to see that developing a strong rhythmic sense was very important. Whenever I didn't play as I wanted, rhythmic accuracy and time feel were a part what I lacked.

So, hopefully you can learning from my experience and develop this from the start.

Transcription and analysis here:
http://www.freddiegreen.org/transcriptions/idontknow.html

Talking about rhythm guitarists in jazz, Freddie Green is most often mentioned by many. He was at the heart of the Count Basie Orchestra sound, providing a tenor rhythmic & melodic counterpoint to the walking bass lines of the swing feel. In the beginning, many people thought he played 3-note voicings in the orchestra. Later on, via research from guitarists like Michael Pettersen, James Chirillo and others, it was discovered that he often played single note rhythm guitar and sometimes two to three note chords for tunes at a slower tempo.

James Chirillo recommended the song Rhythm Willie as a good piece to listen to Freddie Green's playing in a small group setting.

You can read the full post by Chirillo here: http://www.freddiegreen.org/technique/chirillo.html

An academic piece by M.D. Allen dissecting this approach:
http://www.freddiegreen.org/technique/allen_dcmn.html

From a practical perspective, what I would recommend is to listen to the two tracks and pay close attention to the sound that Freddie produces when he's playing rhythm guitar. Try to imitate it by ear and when you're ready, play one note on the 4th string of the guitar while muting the other guitar strings. Keep beats 1 & 3 longer and beats 2 & 4 shorter. This is the essence of the style.

With the first video example above (an excerpt from the full Count Basie Reminisces episode from the Jazz Casual series below), you can actually watch how Freddie held his guitar and his playing technique. This is invaluable material for the detailed oriented jazz guitar student.

Recommended exercises

[Basic Exercise]

1. Turn on the metronome around 120bpm
2. Play a single note on the 4th string (maybe Ab on the 6th fret) and mute the rest of the other strings
3. For note duration, keep beats 1 & 3 longer and beats 2 & 4 shorter.
4. Repeat with the metronome on 140bpm, 160bpm, 180bpm, 200bpm and 220bpm

[Intermediate Exercise]

1. Do the same exercise but with a 3-chord blues.
2. For beginners, play all the 3 notes of the chord voicings first.
3. For more advanced students, try to fret all the 3 notes but only press fully the notes on the 4th string and maybe the 3rd string notes on beats 2 & 4.
   
   

[Advanced Exercise]
Learn to play some or all of I Don't Know as played by Freddie Green in this video. (This is the same video embedded above earlier from the Jazz Casual TV show:

Transcription and analysis here:
http://www.freddiegreen.org/transcriptions/idontknow.html

If you did any of these and recorded yourself playing to a metronome or backing track, it can help develop your rhythm guitar technique. Always pay close attention to the masters such as Freddie Green and copy by ear to get the tone, vibe, time feel and sound.

Good luck!

=====

If you're interested to learn more in depth on this topic or level up your guitar playing ,music theory or songwriting or composing skills. get in touch with me for private lessons in Kuala Lumpur or worldwide via Skype/Zoom/Facetime etc.

Contact me here: http://www.azsamad.com/contact

=====

My new e-book, Jazz Guitar Licks and Etudes is now available:
http://www.azsamad.com/book2

My first e-book, Jazz Improvisation Uncovered is here:
http://www.azsamad.com/book

[Az Jazz Guitar Lessons]
Az Jazz Guitar Lessons #1: The importance of listening
Az Jazz Guitar Lessons #2: Learning the 5 Essential Jazz Chords
Az Jazz Guitar Lessons #3: Seven Guitarists to Check Out
Az Jazz Guitar Lessons #4: Enjoying the Process & Your Present State

[Performances]
Zee Avi & Az Samad - Cry Me A River
Chendering (Malaysian jazz song) with Roby Lakatos, Denis Chang, Az Samad and Zulhilmy Zulkifli

[Music Education]
How to spot a good music teacher
How to write a song in 6 steps
How to learn music
If we have the Internet, why do people even need guitar lessons?

[Music Career]
I wanna be a full-time musician... should I?
When are you ready to perform for that big gig?