It is a big part of their heritage and they told us all about it when we were visiting on tour. as well as other countries departed from this small port town. Many of the Africans that were brought to the U.S. It just so happened that this was a major slave port back in the day. On a side note.back when I was in West Africa in 2007, I went to a small town called Tia Salle. As a result, he is one of the most swingingest cats on the scene. He did this on purpose as a way of training himself never to lose that feel. Eric Lewis, the famous jazz pianist, told me that he tapped his feet on 2 & 4 all the time, whether it was on gigs, practicing at home or on recordings. The coordination it takes to tap 2 & 4 perfectly with the metronome and also incorporate it into your playing will transform your feel. Now, the only difference is that you are making the music and tapping to it at the same time. Make sure to tap along with the metronome on beats 2 & 4, just as with listening to music. Don't be in a rush! Remember that fast practice makes slow progress and slow practice makes fast progress. Then progress to a faster tempo.but little by little. Practice tunes, scales, repeated notes & improvisation with the tempo until it feels easy. When beginning to practice with the metronome on beats 2 & 4, make sure you start off as slowly as you need to feel comfortable. That being said, there is no substitute for playing with a real drummer or rhythm section. You can play at home perfectly with a metronome at quarter note=400 on 2 & 4 and still sound sad on a gig with real musicians playing at that tempo. A metronome is simply an outline (perfect as it is) of the true feel of 2 & 4 that can only be acquired from listening to great players. Since music is an aural art form it makes sense to incorporate listening into acquiring the 2 & 4 feel. Just tap on 2 & 4 until it starts to feel more natural at several different tempos. Perhaps you can start off easy with some old Louis Armstrong Hot Five tunes and progress to Charlie Parker and beyond. Make sure you start with some nice slow recordings first. The battle of acquiring the "feel" is mostly a mental one, so by practicing 2 & 4 without your instrument first along with great musicians and dealing just with your voice and your feet, you can get to the right feel even quicker than trying to do it on your instrument right away.
Just as a Latin musician must learn to play within the son and rumba clave to acquire the true feel of the music, the jazz musician must learn to play within the 2 & 4 clave.īefore beginning practice with 2 & 4 on a metronome, check out some jazz recordings and just try tapping along on 2 & 4 only. It makes sense that the pulse of the music also has a built in unevenness as its clave (2 & 4), if you will. Whether playing eighth or quarter notes the emphasis should never be completely equal in jazz music- it would sound "corny". This is not a loud energy, but more of a suspenseful inertia bringing you to each next 2 & 4.Ī very large part of the jazz feel is the unevenness of the notes. Ironically enough, a large part of emphasizing 2 & 4 so much is to bring out the energy of 1 & 3 even more. Having an emphasis on 2 & 4 creates a more energetic drive to the next beat. However, in jazz music (as well as country, rock'n'roll & some other more contemporary popular music) beats 2 & 4 are heavily emphasized as opposed to the 1 & 3 feel more prevalent in European classical music. Classical players often practice with their metronomes sounding every downbeat of the meter they are in (ex: 1 2 3 4). There are many benefits to be gained from practicing with a metronome on beats 2 & 4.
Practicing with the Metronome On Beats 2 & 4
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