Putting Your Lines in the Pocket Learning to better play single note lines in time. Excerpts are from my book "Expanded Blues Guitar" and "Foundations for Guitar" "Black Market Hearts" is available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, CDbaby and many other online retailers! For more information please check out MarkWein.com! ©2014 Wein Music LLC Basic Music Reading When we want to communicate a musical idea on paper, we can use both Standard Notation and Guitar Tabulature or “Tab”. We will talk about Standard Notation first. Standard Notation is the system of writing music that all instruments have in common, and I think that it is the most important to learn early since it is the most difficult for Guitar players to master and it most completely communicates musical concepts to the player. We write Standard Notation on a Staff, which is composed of five lines and four spaces (numbered bottom to top). Single Notes Strum Rhythms Slash Notation Rests ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ Å Å ] §§§§ À ¶¶ Final Bar Line Time Signature One Measure Bar Line Treble Clef Definitions: Treble Clef: This indicates that we are playing higher pitches or sounds. Time Signature: Defines how we count and feel time. Bar Line: Divides the staff up into Measures. Final Bar Line: The end of a piece of music...stop when you see this! Measure: The space between two Bar lines...this will be one grouping of our Meter (more on that later!) Notes: These tell you what "Pitch" or musical tone to play. What they look like will tell you how long to play the tone, and where it is on the staff will tell you what tone or note to play. Strum Rhythms: We use these to tell you what rhythm you will use to strum a chord...they will not tell you what notes to play! The chord will be written above the staff. Slash Notation: Freedom! Play whatever rhythm and chord voicing you feel works for the music (the chord will still be written above the staff). Rests: The "anti-note"! These tell you how long not to play for. 10 Tablature is another type of notation for guitar. In this book we will not use it very much, but it is a very useful tool. If you look below you will see both a staff in standard notation and a staff in Tablature (or more commonly “Tab”). The staff in Tab has six lines instead of 5, with each line representing a string on the guitar. The top line is the first string (or the thinnest string), and each line going down on the staff is another string going up physically on the Guitar. The numbers that you see on each line tell you what fret to put your finger on for that string. If the numbers are stacked in a row vertically the notes are played together as a chord. ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ This is the top line - it represents the thinnest string, or the string closest to your feet 1 0 2 3 This is the bottom line - it represents the thickest string, or the string closest to your head Ì ¡ ¡ Ì Ì Ì Ì ¡ ¡ Ì Ì 1st string Ì Ì no finger 0 53 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 3 2 0 5 0 6th string When the notes are stacked vertically no finger like this they are played at the same time 1st string 1st string 5th fret 3rd fret Repeat Signs Repeat Sign - go back to the beginning and play the section again ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ Repeat a section of music between repeat signs ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ 11 Quiz #1 Basic Music Reading 1. What are the two ways we can write guitar music on paper? _________________________________________________________________________ 2. What is Standard Notation written on?________________________________________ How many lines and spaces does this have?_____________________________________ What direction are the numbered?_____________________________________________ 3. Definitions: Treble Clef:__________________________________________________________ Time Signature:________________________________________________________ Bar Line:_____________________________________________________________ Final Bar Line:________________________________________________________ Measure:_____________________________________________________________ Note:________________________________________________________________ Rest:________________________________________________________________ Strum Rhythms:_______________________________________________________ Slash Notation:________________________________________________________ 4. Explain how Tablature works: __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ 12 Time and Rhythm Rhythm is the second component of music that we have to understand in order to play the guitar. I like to think of Rhythm as how pitches relate to each other in time. The most basic element of Rhythm is what we call the “Pulse” of the music. It is a steady stream of beats that runs through every piece of music. The pulse is supposed to be an unwavering stream of beats that does not slow down, speed up or pause during a song, unless the music is specifically written to have "speeding up" (Accelerando), "slowing down" (Decelerando) or any other rhythmic irregularity. Otherwise, your music should be consistent in time. The word “Tempo” refers to the speed of these beats and it is measured in the number of beats per minute or “BPM”. Throughout this book we will be using a metronome to practice with. The metronome is a device that will play this steady stream of beats at whatever tempo we need. Using this metronome to practice with is vitally important because the average person does not have a naturaly steady sense of time. Practicing with the metronome over the long term will teach your body how to feel this pulse evenly, allowing you to play music with other people without speeding up or slowing down or losing the pulse. If you listen to any song, it will not sound just like the metronome clicking away. We have a concept called “Meter” that determines how the music will feel. The basic idea is that we will group beats into patterns of three and fours (or other numbers, but we won't get into that right now!) to create the basic rhythmic feel that we need. Most of the music that we will be playing will have four beat groupings. Turn your metronome on and count to four in time with the click. The first and third beats are the strong beats and should be slightly accented or counted louder: ONE two three four ONE two three four ONE two three four Now try the same idea but only count in groups of three: ONE two three ONE two three ONE two three You should feel a difference between the two patterns. The group of three will have an almost “rolling” feel. A group of four will feel more even. Note Values - this is how long a note will last or sustain for. Whole Note Half Notes Quarter Notes Eighth Notes 4 beats 2 beats each 1 beat each 1/2 beat each E ] ] ] Å Å Å ÅÅÅ Å Å Å Å Å Å Counting 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 14 Rest Values - a "rest" tells you how long not to play for Whole Rest Half Rests Quarter Rests Eighth Rests 4 beats 2 beats each 1 beat each 1/2 beat each À À ¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶ Count: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and Time Signatures - a definition of our Meter Below are four measures with different Time Signatures. The top number of each Time Signature tells us how many beats are in each measure. This is also the definition of our Meter. The bottom number tells us what kind of note is counted as one beat. In the third measure below, the bottom number is an "8", so the eighth note gets one count, the quarter note gets two beats and so on. The fourth measure has a "2" for a bottom number, so the half note gets one beat, the quarter note gets a half of a beat, the whole note gets 2 beats. ÅÅÅ Å Å ÅÅÅ ÅÅ Å Å Å Å Å Å Å ] Å Å 1 2 and 3 1 2 3 and 4 1 2 3 and 4 5and 6 1 2 and As we get further along in the book, we will explore different time signatures more completely. Most of what we will be playing will have 4 as the bottom number, and the major difference will be the top number telling us if we have 3 or 4 beats per measure. 15 Quiz #2 Time and Rhythm 1. What is the definition of Pulse?______________________________________________ 2. What is Tempo?__________________________________________________________ How is it measured?_______________________________________________________ 3. Why do we practice with a Metronome? _______________________________________________________________________ 4. What is Meter?___________________________________________________________ 5. Write how many beats each note or rest gets Whole Note ___________________ Half Note_____________________ Quarter Note__________________ Eighth Note___________________ Whole Rest ___________________ Half Rest_____________________ Quarter Rest__________________ Eighth Rest___________________ 6. Time Signatures What does the top number tell us?____________________________________________ What does the bottom number tell us?________________________________________ 16 Basic Rhythm Exercises On this page we are going to work on our ability to feel time, read rhythms and develop our rhythmic coordination. Each of these exercises are to be done with the metronome set to 60bpm. You are going to clap each of these rhythms, making sure that you are tapping your foot on the pulse in time with the metronome and counting OUT LOUD. It is important for you to tap your foot because we are teaching you to feel the pulse consistently with your own body (what we call “Internalizing the Time”) and you need to count out loud because it will help you catch any mistakes that you might make. Many students think they are counting mentally when they are just looking at the rhythm and feeling their way through.