This week I’m going to show you how you can work on your rhythmic accuracy and feel using offbeat 8th notes.
What Is The ‘Offbeat’?
The offbeat is the rhythm that falls in between the pulse of a piece of music and you can think of it as playing a note exactly halfway between the beats.
Today, we are going to focus on nailing your offbeat accuracy – this is a common problem for bass players as a large part of our job includes playing on the beat.
For a simple exercise to being with, set a metronome to a comfortable tempo and alternate bars of onbeat crotchets and offbeat crotchets.
If we add notes to this rhythm, we can create an offbeat riff using the notes of the C dominant chord:
Once you have nailed the first riff, you can start to move it around. Here is an example progression:
Variation
We can alter the previous riff slightly to add more emphasis to beat 1. This may make it a bit easier to keep grooving on the offbeat for the rest of the bar.
In a progression:
I like the PDF option. Thanks
As usual, Mark, your lesson on syncopation is “on point”! It tells me, as you often emphasize, the importance of practicing with a metronome. I’ve learned a great deal from your insightful, clear and patient instruction. I’m 62 and have been at it (the Bass) for a couple of years. I’ve progressed more in the last 6 months, thanks to your videos, than the previous 18. Unfortunately, I’ve no band to practice with…for now. I’ve still a long way to go…but you definitely make the journey easier, educational and enjoyable. Thanks.
I find counting to be (a) very necessary, and (2) brutal. Two things have helped me are, (1) Go slower, and slower until it feels like I am not rushed and (2) make up small downbeat,up beat pattern that lets me rest before I do it again, mine is: down,, down up (1,-2 and (3 and 4 and) I only have 3 beats to get correct in the measure, two down beats and one up beat. After I played that 10 times or so, I could add in “and 4 and (up down up” . Of course the next time I tried I was off again, but at least I know if I practice I can get started on reading rhythm. D-DU-UDU Is, of course , Mark McKenzie’s “rock beat” which he breaks into two pieces for learning and when I added the metronome, trying to do a whole bar and stay with the metronome was a lot, breaking it into pieces helps me. Also, I play the down beats on the root and the up beats on the 5th, cheating I am sure but it sounds like music and I am starting to get into sync with metronome so cheating is okay with me. I heard in a video that Paul McCartney made where he teaches the bass, guitar and drums for a song, that he had click track that was going at about 240 BPM, that must take some getting used to, but it would answer Mark’s point that the “and” has to be spaced properly. I think that 60 is plenty fast for me to learn this, but I may try 120 so I have a click on the “and”. I will never need that click track. Half of Paul’s speed seems plenty fast to me.
Hi,
thanks for all ( sorry for my engl. )
Grazie per tutto lezioni molto interessanti