Setting the metronome for playing the 2 and 4 backbeat was a standard technique used when i was a guitar student to teach accurate time and how to swing. One of my teachers made me do that until I could play 8th notes at both really slow AND burn tempi. It worked. Stick to it.
Great! Now I have this mental picture of a marching rock&roll band. Talk about wanting to have your amp on casters ...
Back beat is when the accent notes fall on the 2 and 4 as opposed to the accent being on the 1 and 3 but in the 4/4 time the second accented beat is not as strong as the first accented beat. If it bout the first and third beats are accented the same it will sound like a 2/2 time. that is the problem with using a metronome each accented beat is of the same volume.
I don't agree with the distinction you are trying to make. The snare on 2 and 4 are accented equally.
That's why the jazz teachers liked to use the metronome set on the 2 and 4...even if it is "equal", it's still swinging.
You have said this a couple of times and I still have no clue what you are saying. Setting the metronome on 2 and 4 is swinging??? How so?
I fully agree with this, when you spend a lot of time playing with backing tracks, you get the feel of the beat, and as important, the feel of the silences. To me, a metronome is robotic, I guess it helps with the timing initially but when you use a backing track, and you need to learn the backing track, not just noodling along with it , the pulse of the song will come to you. Play the backing track by itself until you are almost sick of listening to it, then it will gel for you, and it gets easier as you move from different genres of backing tracks. I for one, can't deal with a metronome, it sterilizes the music for me. Also get some drum beat tracks, basic ones, 85bpm, 105 bpm, 120 bpm and 144 bpm. They cover a lot of ground. So many songs work around these beats it's surprising. You don't want to become a timing machine, you want to fit into the timing of the music. And when it clicks, you will know, it's a smile on the face feeling. Try to do it with other players as well, when you all smile at each other, you know it's there. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Exactly what I'm trying to say, you just used less words more accurately. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
It also develops your ear for soloing. You'll learn to hear the chord changes in the backing sound and change the notes you're playing to fit well with the chord changes.
When you are first learning about rhythm, it is best to study with good examples of solid time. In my early days I played along with a lot of albums by the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, neither of which held to any given meter for very long. Keef is a flagrant violator, and has been known to get so far behind the beat to actually land on the next one. A large percentage of today's music is sequenced, or synced to a click track, and is very consistent.
Lot's of great info and advice here. For me, foot tapping was the game changer and being able to focus on that and not get distracted by what the others are doing. Over time you pick up cues in what they are doing that keeps you in line. Mind you, by early band years were a Rush cover band which can be complex. What's been blowing my mind this past year is trying to figure out the various polyrythm in modern prog-rock. It's three dimensional music compared to the good old 4/4. Here's Danny Carey and Tool putting on a master class. It's mind boggling when you listen to the drums, bass, guitar and vocals often playing different signatures layered over each other so musically.
