Can someone give advice to rhythmless fool

Hi all,

Ive been playing the guitar now for a little over a year. Ive tought myself how to read music, learned how to build my own scales and I know about 6 of the majors and a couple minor scales, I also know about 15 cords that i can maneuver to pretty good. But my problem is i still dont have a licks worth of rhythm. To tell you the truth besides master of puppets ive never tried to learn any other song as of yet. im still trying to learn as many techniques, chords, and scales as i can. Do you think this the cause for my lack of rhythm or do think its possible that im just rhythmless.
One last question for you all this might sound wierd but i dont know who else to ask , Ive recently have started to feel movements in my ears when i listen to a cd or play the guitar. It feels like something moving up and down in my ear almost like theres a stick in my ear trying to go along with the song.....is that normal or am i just putting to much into all of this. Thanks for your help.

Try practising along with a metronome. Start slow and play a scale along with it, then increase the speed as you feel comportable... Also,try practising along with a cd. it's good both for rythm practising and ear training. For example, take your favorite song, find out what key it is in, then practise scales, or something else, along with it...

Yes
Learn how to count the beats too all your notes,
plus the beats for your rhythm.

Mark

Something moving in your ear? That's kinda weird. How loud are you listening to the music?

I dont listen to the music very loud atleast not all the time. Sometimes when im just thinking about a song i can feel it. Who knows, i might just be going def or something. Thanks again for all your replies so far they have been helpful as to what direction i need to start focusing my attention on.

Try muting all of the strings with your left hand, and 'chuffing' the rhythm with a pick in your right hand.

If you can find a copy of the Who's Live at Leeds, give a listen to the intro to Magic Bus for an idea of what I mean.

zeb most scales have what we call a formula, ex. a major scale consists of 2 sets of whole whole half and a whole to divide them.....

lets use the C scale because there are no sharps and no flats .... your major formula would be as i said w,w,h,w,w,w,h = C to D is a whole step (meaning 2 frets not counting the one you're on.) D to E is a whole and E to F is a half, F to G (is the whole step that divides another set of w,w,h) G to A is a whole step, A to B is a whole step and B to C is a half........

now you try it on your instrument .... this is how we prove it to ourselves by playing it to prove it. So your scale would read C D E F G A B C = W W H W W W H. Every scale has a formula and if u apply this formula to every key it will ring true...... rule #1 Never change the formula! you will always end up with what you started with. If you number the scale C D E F G A B C = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(or better known as octave) now to get a chord you take the 1 3 5 = C E G = C major chord. Now if u take the 1 4 5 = C F G = chord progression.... does this make sense? BTW there are 4 types of minors.



i'm wondering how you learned to read music? do you know the values of the rhythm? ex.(whole note) 0 = 4 beats u play the firt one and let the next three ring out, ex. 0 = 1 (234) 23&4 are left to ring out.

a half note looks like the whole note but with a stem and 1 is played and (2) just rings out then 3 is played and (4) just rings out.
well if you feel like you hear a metronome in your ear that is cool.... and u should use a metronome when u practice. or a fairly slow song and let the drums give u the beat while you run your scales or play your rythms ... not only do you play notes from scales but they also create the chords... and remember its not always the chord you play... its how you play the chord. play a chord and use the rythms t play it firts start with the whole not strum it once and count 4 beats then play the chord in half notes strum it once and count 2 strum it again on the 3rd beat and hold for the 4th.


hope this helps :)


[Edited by RKBMusic on 10-10-2001 at 09:18 PM]

I appreciate your imput. To answer your questions on how i learned how to read music and regarding scales let me start by saying i know how to read music but I'm not fluent in reading music. If given a little time i could tell what notes are being played and if they are a whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth ot thirt-second notes.I also know if there is a dot(.) after the not it means cary the note out 1 and 1/2 the amount. I also could tell you what the rests look like Whole rest, half rest, quarter rests ect... there is also what time your playing in most common 4/4, 3/4, 2/2 ect.... As far as scales sorry I had mis typed what I was trying to say. I dont literally build my own scales but i use the formulas to build them my self. To clarify (let me know if this is a bad idea cause i'm not sure im a pup when it comes to music i dont know crap) I take the formula(WWHWWWH) and find lets say a (E)note and i try to go from the first fret to the (in this case open E) fith fret, then frome the seventh fret back towards the first fret, then from the seventh fret towards the twelfth fret, and last the twelfth fret back towards the seventh fret. Ii do this down and back up and use sweep picking to do it. As far as other formulas go besides the major i know of but not sayimg ive attempted to do anything with all of them as of yet(remember i've only been playing a year or so) ---wh(b)wwwh(b)w---h(b)w(b)wwh(b)w(b)w-----------------www(#)hwwh.
As far as what i feel in my ear I never said it was a metronome i just thought maybe my ears were opening up for the first time. Also thought maybe all of the experienced players had gone through something similar(lets face you guys probably rock when it comes to the guitar or what ever instrument you play). If the answer would have been yes i then asked some more question that I have on the ear and how it relates to music. This is a question for anyone who is willing to help the guitar fool. Does anyone feel anything in thier ear when they are playing or listening or thinking about musing. Do you feel any movement in your ear, can tell me on what part of you ear you feel a g note when its hits or a b note for that matter. or can you feel the vibrations of the strings when they are struck, can you feel that in your ear. This is probably a stupid question but I cant ignore the fact that i feel something its almost like a vibration in my ears i feel other things too but I probably already sounding crazy so if anyone could tell me what you feel in your ear while your or playing or what you think abouut man im more than wheeling to listen because i gaurantee you guys got more experience and knowledge in your right pinke than i got in my whole body. I hope I didnt come of to strong when i wrote my first post but trying to let you all know where im at in my guitar playing so you would better able to help.

I thank you for all of your comments so far and I hope to recieve more. Also sorry this is so long.

Take it easy all

nope i don't feel anything in my ear zeb... i just hear everything in my head.... when i played solo i would even play the leads cause i could hear the rest of the band in my head... but i know i am confident about having a beat.
so i dared to play the lead when it came to it.
when it has a dot it carries 1/2 of the next beat.

maybe this is a good thing for you zeb or maybe it is time for you to have your ears checked?

i don't know how good i am i leave that for others to judge?
hmmm zeb the only time my ear tells me something is when its really off... other wise music is soothing to my ears.

there are passages that grab u right away and there are passages that u actually have to listen to the whole passage to say wow that was cool/great/killer whatevahhh.

if i hear a g right away i relate it to a song i sing in g.
or better put, relate it to a song i sing that i know is in g.