Time Feel - Working your Internal Metronome

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Rhythm Style: Any Style

Excerpt: Hi guys! Welcome to this tutorial - a lesson all about developing your internal metronome and time feel. Time in music is without a doubt the most important aspect of your playing. This has been demonstrated most graphically in my mind by guitarist Scott Henderson. He presents the idea that a tune can be understood and recognised without any need to play th...

Media Length: 2:49

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Rhythm Style: Any Style

Excerpt: Right - Here we go! The first thing we'll need to be able to do is to play both on and off the beat whilst feeling each beat of the bar with your internal metronome. To demonstrate this, here's a visual representation of 2 bars of 4/4 sub-divided into 8th notes or quavers.  1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +         &...

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Rhythm Style: Any Style

Excerpt: Here's a demonstration of Exercise 1. In the video my metronome is set to 82bpm. Refer to the TAB if you're confused in any way and tap your foot at all times throughout this exercise.

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Intermediate Topic: Rhythm Style: Jazz

Excerpt: Okay, hopefully you were coping well with that last lesson. In the previous exercise our physical metronome and internal metronome were playing on every beat in the bar. The premise of the remaining exercises is to gradually remove more of the physical metronome and replace it with your internal metronome in order to improve the precision of your time feel....

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Intermediate Topic: Rhythm Style: Jazz

Excerpt: Here's the video demonstration of Exercise 2. Metronome is set up at 82 bpm on beats 2 and 4 giving me a perceived tempo of 164 bpm. Remember to tap your foot on beats 2 and 4 also and try to match my feel in the video. Try other chord progressions or single note lines/melodies as required. Again, this exercise is very customisable. I improvise somewhat w...

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Rhythm Style: Fusion

Excerpt: The remaining three exercises follow the same premise we used for exercise two (with an easier chord progression) except that we'll gradually be leaving more and more space in between the physical metronome clicks leaving your internal metronome with more work to do. As you practice you should find your accuracy getting better and better and see yourself loc...

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Rhythm Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here is the video demonstration of Exercise 3 with the click set to 41 bpm giving a perceived tempo of 164 bpm. Refer to the TAB below for the chord progression and again try to match my feel. Keep that foot going on beats 2 and 4! I improvise somewhat with the rhythm of the chord sequence but this is not written out as I don't want you to have too much t...

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Rhythm Style: Fusion

Excerpt: This exercise mirrors number 3 except that out click is now perceived on beat 4 of the bar instead of beat 2. Again the click is set to 41 bpm to display this beat 4 giving us a perceived tempo of 164 bpm. Your internal metronome now has to fill in beats 1, 2 and 3. The chord progression is the same as in the previous exercise. Good luck.

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Rhythm Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here's the video demonstration for Exercise 4 with the metronome set to 41 bpm to represent beat 4 of the bar. Remember to tap your foot on beats 2 and 4! Again, I improvise somewhat with the rhythm of the chord sequence but this is not written out as I don't want you to have too much to learn when you should be focusing on the time feel and rhythm. Simply...

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Crazy! Topic: Rhythm Style: Fusion

Excerpt: In this final exercise we're really making life very hard for your internal metronome. This one I struggled with and found an area where I need to do some significant practice! Now we're going to set our click to represent beat 2 of the first bar and then nothing in bar 2. It can be represented as follows 1  2  3  4 | 1  2  3 ...

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Crazy! Topic: Rhythm Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here's the video demonstration of Exercise 5. Again, the perceived tempo is 164 bpm. Refer to the TAB for the chord progression which is the same as the previous exercises. Again, I improvise somewhat with the rhythm of the chord sequence but this is not written out as I don't want you to have too much to learn when you should be focusing on the time feel ...

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Rhythm Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here's a very long metronome beat for us to use. This click is on beat 2 of bar one and sequences as follows: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 | 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 | 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 | 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 | Bear in mind that you could use this click to represent any beat of any bar. At this speed we get an equivalent tempo of 164 bpm. Good Luck! This is certainly tricky!

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