Rhythm Tempos at 250 bpm and higher

Passacaglia

Michael Horowitz wrote:

I played exclusively with the upstroke for a decade, even at fast tempos. Like others said, you need to be very relaxed and also the upstroke motion has to be very small and subtle. It sounds great when you do it correctly as the upstroke creates the illusion of a ride cymbal which totally swings. But with that said, I do sometimes switch to all down strokes when playing at the fastest tempos as it can be a bit cleaner, especially when playing with others.

When you're learning it's probably best to pick one way and really master that first. Otherwise you'll probably never get very good at any given method of rhythm playing.

good luck!


'm

Cool post, Michael, thanks. I think that's one reason I enjoy Dinette so much - probably because I listen to the Rosenberg's version quite a bit, and it's just that light, easy, dry swing, love listening to Nous'che.

I don't know if it's because it's what I started with, or because I have worked pretty hard observing Hono, and later, Nous'che...but for the life of me, I find a downstroke-style only at anything other than ballad tempos, really, difficult to do, relaxed. Somehow, the upstroke, even a little one, gives that little "trampoline" effect Denis talks about, bouncing back up for the percussive downbeats.

Rhythm contains all worlds, and I know one has to be able to do it all, so for awhile I've been incorporating the downstroke into my daily practice...but it's definitely alien to these hands, in exactly the way we're talking...tendency is to stiffness, and I really have to go slow in order to consciously relax.

Jazzaferri

It comes in time

For me the thing that really drove my rhythm technique was, oddly enough, working through a book of Latin rhythms.

In that genre when I started .... keeping a steady up down on the right hand seemed like it would be easy....but trying to keep that steady while doing the syncopations and mutes for the various claves and instruments on the left....well that took me 100s of hours to get to the relaxed point. Once I had those down and had mastered the little gypsy upstroke hiccup as I call it...... Gypsy rhythm seemed fairly straightforward

The booklet on Latin Rhythms is by Victor Lopez a teacher and clinician in Florida. Goes through the entire structure of all the different layers of all the different latin rhythms and can probably still be found online.

If you can do a gypsy bolero at speed with the hiccup on beat 1 light dry and smooth, well you know you have arrived technique wise.

Passacaglia

Jazzaferri wrote:

It comes in time

For me the thing that really drove my rhythm technique was, oddly enough, working through a book of Latin rhythms.

In that genre when I started .... keeping a steady up down on the right hand seemed like it would be easy....but trying to keep that steady while doing the syncopations and mutes for the various claves and instruments on the left....well that took me 100s of hours to get to the relaxed point. Once I had those down and had mastered the little gypsy upstroke hiccup as I call it...... Gypsy rhythm seemed fairly straightforward

The booklet on Latin Rhythms is by Victor Lopez a teacher and clinician in Florida. Goes through the entire structure of all the different layers of all the different latin rhythms and can probably still be found online.

If you can do a gypsy bolero at speed with the hiccup on beat 1 light dry and smooth, well you know you have arrived technique wise.

Totally agree, Jay....in fact, that's something Denis taught me. Aside from DUDDUDDUD tremolos, and some wonderful right-hand warmups generously provided here, I find that after warming up and playing for awhile each day, not only does my bossa improve....but doing the bossa (it's all I work on now, latin-wise...rhumba, bolero and rhumba-waltz comes once I feel relatively good about the bossa) helps my pompe. Right hand, right hand, right hand....

dennis

it comes with time and practice. The important thing is to not change the sound ; so make sure you;re attakcing all the necessary strings as if you were playing at a medium tempo. The actual motion may change but the sound should not. On slower tunes, you can use a bit more of the arm, but on faster tunes, it's pretty much all wrist, and the range of motion might be smaller:

i made a video demo here a while back

Jazzaferri

well said Dennis.

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words whats a couple of minutes of them worth? :shock:

Jazzaferri

well said Dennis.

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words whats a couple of minutes of them worth? :shock:

arjr

Hey Denis,

That's funny you posted that video, I downloaded it a few months back
and have been using it quite consistently to play along. I converted it
to an mp3 and use it with my program transcribe to speed up or slow down
when I play along.


Angelo

Passacaglia

arjr wrote:

Hey Denis,

That's funny you posted that video, I downloaded it a few months back
and have been using it quite consistently to play along. I converted it
to an mp3 and use it with my program transcribe to speed up or slow down
when I play along.


Angelo

Yep, incredibly helpful video, as always, and generously provided without asking. Denis is the man.

Weird kismet, was poking around the French site over the last few days, it went global ...!