How to Develop Good Rhythm
Part 1
When a Jazz Band Director counts off the group, he swings his arm up and down and snaps his fingers.
The dynamic tension created by the muscles in the body as well as the movement of momentum through space and its interaction with gravity is the key to what the jazz band director is doing.
This man has great ryhthm. This man can keep a steady pulse!
Keeping a steady pulse is the foundation of great rhythm.
If you have difficulty keeping a steady pulse, you may be trying to use your mind alone to estimate when the next beat will be, purely based on your perception of time.
Another potential pitfall could be that you are using your muscles alone to guide your creation of the pulse.
The key to creating a steady pulse comes from our ability to feel the swing, and to allow the swing of some part of our body through space.
This is not something that you control, it’s something that you feel into.
It’s a flow. It’s a dance.
So, what’s the best way to get started?
Try lifting up your arm, then release.
Allow your arm to fall freely. Just let it drop.
Do that a couple times. The more you can relax the better.
This time guide it into a rebound right back up again, like a roller coaster.
Focus on creating a smooth path at the bottom. Take as much of the downward momentum as you can and send it back up.
That feeling at the bottom, that’s the key!!
Remember that feeling!!
The next step is for you to take this to some music.
Feel free to choose your own music, but here’s something nice from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
Try swinging your arm to the beat of the music. You might even like to snap your fingers at the bottom - it helps.
This song has its emphasis on 2 and 4, so that’s when you might want to snap.
Remember that feeling you felt at the bottom of the swing. That’s what you want to focus on feeling, now with the music.
It should feel like dancing.
Feel free to feel it in other parts of your body and even just dance!
At this point you should have it. You now know how to create a steady pulse.
In fact, this may have been obvious to you.
But if you’re a musician, you need to learn how to apply this concept while making music.
I’ll cover that in my next post:
Until then, keep swingin’.