Winspear
Winspear/Noisemother
I've been thinking about this topic recently as it's quite interesting to me. Since being a member of several music groups online, I've noticed now and then questions which surprise me. Questions along the lines of "How do I count this rhythm? I'm having trouble picking up this rhythm in this song".
I did not have a musical upbringing at all and just owned a handful of chart pop CDs until my early teens when I suddenly got into metal at the same time as taking up guitar. I've downloaded tabs all that time, played along with tracks, messed about programming drums and composing and recording music etc for around a decade before actually starting to study music properly. I really don't want to sound like an ass or anything, but it made me realise I've never really had to think about rhythm at all. For me it's always been the case that if I know a song to listen to and want to learn it, all I need to see are the notes. The rhythm is there above the tab so I guess I do read it to an extent, but it's really not necessary for me. On the other hand, developing a good harmonic ear for figuring out parts has been really difficult.
Unless the song has a rhythm part of which I really cannot grasp the groove at all as a listener (very rare, only on parts where the artist is deliberately trying to play nonsense), I've never had to sit down and try and figure out how to read, play, and memorize a rhythm. I just listen to the song. Writing rhythms has always been very natural too. Like I said, I didn't have a musical upbringing (as opposed to some people that you expect to have amazing rhythm having grown up being exposed to funk and such from a young age). I'd also consider my timing accuracy as a performer mediocre, but a natural feeling of rhythm has always been there as far as I am aware.
I don't tend to count anything unless transcribing, and would probably have to think for a second to know how to do so - I just..know how it's meant to sound. It just surprises me when I see somebody trying to figure out how to count what I'd consider a basic syncopated breakdown riff or something like that so that they can play it. I kind of assume that they know the breakdown as a listener so find it strange if they can't just play it. Is it the case that as a listener they actually aren't following the syncopation and do not know how it goes - perhaps just grooving along to the 1/4 count instead?
I'm very interested to hear what you all think and which things did or didn't come naturally to you as a musician.
I did not have a musical upbringing at all and just owned a handful of chart pop CDs until my early teens when I suddenly got into metal at the same time as taking up guitar. I've downloaded tabs all that time, played along with tracks, messed about programming drums and composing and recording music etc for around a decade before actually starting to study music properly. I really don't want to sound like an ass or anything, but it made me realise I've never really had to think about rhythm at all. For me it's always been the case that if I know a song to listen to and want to learn it, all I need to see are the notes. The rhythm is there above the tab so I guess I do read it to an extent, but it's really not necessary for me. On the other hand, developing a good harmonic ear for figuring out parts has been really difficult.
Unless the song has a rhythm part of which I really cannot grasp the groove at all as a listener (very rare, only on parts where the artist is deliberately trying to play nonsense), I've never had to sit down and try and figure out how to read, play, and memorize a rhythm. I just listen to the song. Writing rhythms has always been very natural too. Like I said, I didn't have a musical upbringing (as opposed to some people that you expect to have amazing rhythm having grown up being exposed to funk and such from a young age). I'd also consider my timing accuracy as a performer mediocre, but a natural feeling of rhythm has always been there as far as I am aware.
I don't tend to count anything unless transcribing, and would probably have to think for a second to know how to do so - I just..know how it's meant to sound. It just surprises me when I see somebody trying to figure out how to count what I'd consider a basic syncopated breakdown riff or something like that so that they can play it. I kind of assume that they know the breakdown as a listener so find it strange if they can't just play it. Is it the case that as a listener they actually aren't following the syncopation and do not know how it goes - perhaps just grooving along to the 1/4 count instead?
I'm very interested to hear what you all think and which things did or didn't come naturally to you as a musician.
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