A Rhythmic Vocabulary: A Musician’s Guide to Understanding and Improvising with Rhythm Copyright ©1997, 1999, by Alan Dworsky and Betsy Sansby All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means without permission except the blank charts on pages 201 and 202. Published by Dancing Hands Music 4275 Churchill Circle Minnetonka, MN, 55345 phone or fax: 612-933-0781 www.dancinghands.com Book design by MacLean and Tuminelly Cover production by Kelly Doudna Interior design and production by Chris Long, who was tireless in his devotion to this project Illustrations on pages 14 and 15 by Jay Kendell Printed in the United States of America with soy ink on recycled, acid-free paper by BantaISG (Viking Press) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-091788 ISBN 0-9638801-2-8 For Jerry Sansby the first drummer in the family We would like to express our gratitude to all our teachers, especially Marc Anderson, who generously shared his knowledge of Ghanaian rhythms with love and reverence for the culture that created them. We’d also like to thank those who have taught us through their books and videos, especially David Locke (for his clear presentation and analysis of Ghanaian rhythms), Phil Maturano (for his organization of patterns and his concept of “relayed time shifting,” which we adapted into our lesson on bending a pattern), Reinhard Flatischler (whose Ta Ke Ti Na® method we adapted into rhythm walking), and Gordy Knudtson (from whom we learned – both in his books and in private lessons – a wide variety of cross-rhythms and other patterns, as well as the method we call “say-it-and-play-it”). We are also indebted to the creators of all the other sources listed at the back of this book and to all the unknown creators of the rhythms of the world. Finally, we would like to thank Mamady Keita, who has taught us through his recordings, and whose brilliant djembe playing has been an unending source of inspiration and delight. VARIATION TECHNIQUES Create space Change voicing Fill space Combine variations Shift Add dynamic accents Add ghost notes Adjust the volume Displace one note Substitute sixteenth notes Attach a prefix Attach a suffix Compress Accent with a flam Isolate and re peat Expand Substitute a triplet Camouflage Swing Play off marks Bend GETTING STARTED 1 Who this book is for and how it works 2 Understanding the charts and basic concepts Pulses and subdivisions Four and six Timelines and cycles 3 Adapting the patterns to your instrument Hand drums Drumset Guitar, bass, and other string instruments Piano and other keyboard instruments Sax and other wind instruments Voice 4 A method for learning any new pattern applied to the timelines on the CD Say-it-and-play-it The timeline in four The timeline in six 5 Triple-weave practicing PATTERNS, CONCEPTS, AND TECHNIQUES 6 The pulse and parallel figures Lesson 1: Playing the pulse on your instrument Lesson 2: The pulse and the beat before Lesson 3: The two beats before the pulse Lesson 4: The pulse and the beat after Lesson 5: The two beats after the pulse Lesson 6: Three-note figures 7 Pathways through the grid in four Lesson 7: Consecutive eighth notes Lesson 8: Numbered beats and upbeats Lesson 9: Offbeats Lesson 10: Singles and pairs Lesson 11: Backbeats Lesson 12: Sixteenth notes Lesson 13: The offbeats before or after the pulse Lesson 14: Timelines 8 Pathways through the grid in six Lesson 15: Consecutive eighth notes Lesson 16: The odd-numbered beats – the 6-pulse and 3 over 2 Lesson 17: The odd-numbered beats – patterns Lesson 18: The even-numbered beats Lesson 19: Backbeats Lesson 20: The offbeats before or after the pulse Lesson 21: Singles and pairs and timelines 9 Three not-quite-equal groups of beats in four Lesson 22: One-bar clave patterns Lesson 23: Shifted one-bar clave patterns Lesson 24: 5/⅚ patterns Lesson 25: Shifted 5/⅚ patterns 10 Three groups of four beats in six Lesson 26: The 3-pulse and 3 over 4 Lesson 27: Set 1 Lesson 28: Set 2 Lesson 29: Set 3 Lesson 30: Set 4 11 Cross-rhythms Lesson 31: 3-beat cross-rhythms in four Lesson 32: 6-beat cross-rhythms in four Lesson 33: 8-beat cross-rhythms in six Lesson 34: 5-beat and 7-beat cross-rhythms 12 Polyrhythms with uneven grids Lesson 35: 3 over 2 eighth notes in four and six Lesson 36: Subdividing the pulse in four into 3 Lesson 37: Subdividing the pulse in six into 2 or 4 Lesson 38: Bending a pattern between four and six 13 Glossary FOR FURTHER STUDY AND ENJOYMENT 14 Rhythm walking Blank charts Sources: books, videos, CDs, and audiotapes Also available from Dancing Hands Music RHYTHMIC CONCEPTS The tendency of the largest gap The flexibility created by the unaccented pulse The power of a limited number of voices The tra nce effect of repetition The circular effect of overlapping ONE The disorienting effect of obscuring the pulse The stabilizing effect of ending on ONE The diffusing effect of ending on the beat after ONE The suspended effect of ending on the beat before ONE The tendency to group notes in the same voice together This book is a roadmap to rhythm for any musician. It’s for guitar players intrigued by the rhythms of world music. It’s for keyboard players who’ve studied scales and chords and now want to study rhythm in a systematic way. It’s for drummers, bass players, and sax players who want to groove and solo with a deeper understanding of rhythmic structure. Whatever your instrument, if you want to play funkier and don’t mind using your head to do it, this book is for you. The patterns in this book come from African and Afro-Cuban rhythms, the source for the groove in most contemporary music. But our purpose here is not to teach any specific style of drumming. Our purpose is to illuminate the subject of rhythm in general so you’ll be able to navigate comfortably in any rhythmic territory. To do that, we’ve organized representative patterns according to their structure, arranged them roughly in order of difficulty, and presented them in bite-sized lessons. While we present the patterns, we also present rhythmic concepts and techniques you can use to create patterns of your own. And we include plenty of examples of how patterns can be varied and combined when you improvise or solo. We’ve tried to make this book as user-friendly as possible. For example, we use big, easy-to-read charts that are so simple even non-musicians can understand them. Any time we introduce a new concept or technique, we highlight it in the margin for easy reference. Any time we introduce a new term, we put it in bold letters, define it on the spot, and add it to the glossary at the back of the book. We’ve also included some blank charts you can photocopy and use to write down patterns of your own. We’ve even used a special binding that makes the book stay open without the help of a shoe. The CD that comes with this book helps create a realistic, three-dimensional rhythmic context for you to play in right from the start. It contains two reference rhythms you’ll be playing with while you practice. Each of those rhythms is recorded for about five minutes at each of seven different speeds so you can practice at your own level. And as soon as you feel like putting your instrument aside and using your whole body to learn the patterns, check out the chapter on rhythm walking. From time to time, we tell you that a pattern comes from a particular African or Afro-Cuban rhythm. We do this to acknowledge our sources where we know the name of a rhythm and as a reminder that the patterns in this book aren’t just mathematical abstractions. But just because we say a pattern can be found in a particular rhythm, it doesn’t mean the pattern can be found only there. Most of the patterns in this book are found in many rhythmic traditions around the world and many can be heard in rock, funk, jazz, and other contemporary styles. We hope this book will help you express yourself better in the language of