Pulse

How important do you people consider pulse to be? Lately I've working up speeds in a number of areas and couldn't figure out why some riffs I could play with ease, and others I couldn't no matter how much I went over them. Then I realized, it's a matter of pulse that allows a musician to play at decent speeds cleanly.

Example - This doesn't work:

|----------------------------------------
|----------------------------------------
|----------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------9-
|-------------9-10-12-10-9-10-12------
|-8-10-12------------------------------

This does:

|-------------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------
|---------------------9-------------------9
|-----------9-10-12------12-10-9-10-12---
|-8-10-12----------------------------------
...........................................| here is the end of the pattern (3 groups of triplet 32nds or 16ths whatever)

Emphasize the beginning of each group or cluster of notes and actually arranging your riffs in groups (triplets, 4 16th, ... groups of 5 etc) so you CAN emphasize the beginning of each one will allow you to play so much faster, right?

no. the thing is practice and getting familliar with all sorts of fretboard-situations. of course some things feel easier and more natural than others, but thats normal. for the other patterns you need practice and sooner or later they´ll feel natural aswell - thats all! :o

I've got to disagree. The simple matter is, you can't play a riff pulsed wrong as fast as you can if it's pulsed right. That's the point I was trying to make. It will be disjointed and uneven and generally slower, IMO right now. It'll probably change though and I'll see the wisdom of your words.

Probably in time and the more you play it, one will gradually begin to pulse it right by the natural learning process.. but I bet if you take the time to figure out exactly what you're playing and where the pulse should go, your playing will improve just that much faster.

what IS the right pulse? are you talking about beeing off the groove? in that case you are just inacurate and need metronome-practice. but when you are talking about uneven groupings of notes or uneven/unusual emphasisis of the notes then its just practice.

Yeah.... you might want odd groupings and wierd time signatures anyway, in that case the pulse is going to be wierd timing. So if you keep practicing to get it acurrate to every even beat, thats no good if you want to accent the notes in between too.

So IMO you want to try all sorts of odd and even groupings, and positionings on the guitar, that way you can do it all!

Does that make any sense at all? :p

- J

It is possible to make both work, it just depends on what you want to hear. If your talking about accenting notes, and you want to accent a note other than the first. You may need to just move the run forward or back so that the note you want to be accented occurs ryhthmically where the pulse occurs in the music (T.S.). So instead of the first note occuring on 1 (T.S.), the second note does and the first note then acts as a leading tone (rythmically). Not getting one to work may just be a problem with your phrasing.

If your just starting out it would be better to start by playing the notes you want accented on the accented beats first. Then as you because accustomed to the pulse and how to phrase things together. Then you'll be better prepared for setting the accented notes in syncopation with the pulse. Like Az said it takes alittle practice.

Yeah I don't know what I was talking about. In general... I didn't have the terminology right or really a clue. Takes practice is the bottom line. I guess initially I meant to say that if you're playing a whole slew of notes in a run or phrase, certain notes have to be emphasized (accented, whatever) in order for it go smoothly. To which you guys say yes and no, depending on...

Well, consider that 2nd example. You could start that anywhere in the measure, right, and if they're groups of triplet sixteenths you'd want to emphasize the first C and then the F# on the A string (right after I said where the pattern ended). It doesn't matter if the accented notes in the riff land on the T.S. pulses, right?

That's going to be thick to read and I've got to go just now or I'd clean it up. I'll do it later.

Originally Posted by: basicsIt doesn't matter if the accented notes in the riff land on the T.S. pulses, right?

I'd let the song your writting answer that for you. If the music progresses naturally when the accented noted are syncopated with the T.S. pulse then it is OK. But if it sounds wrong, then the answer would be YES (it does matter, bad phrasing tells you so [remedy is in the previous post]). You will find depending on the case, the answer could be either yes or no. Go with what sounds natural and right. Accenting rhythm's against the T.S. naturally occuring pulse is a cool dynamic effect.

Ok, now does accenting certain notes in a phrase, instead of others which could possibly be accented, or having no accents at all.. Does accenting certain notes in a phrase allow one to play the phrase faster?



...OR, is it possible to play a badly phrased riff as fast as you can a well phrased one in your opinion?

Originally Posted by: basicsOk, now does accenting certain notes in a phrase, instead of others which could possibly be accented, or having no accents at all.. Does accenting certain notes in a phrase allow one to play the phrase faster?

AT first I think it is, but as you practice you can learn and find that there is no difference in difficulty in playing whichever notes accented in a fast lick. Yeah, accented a note in a lick will slow you down a bit but if you practice with a metronome properly you should learn to develop the technique to do so without causing a noticable loss in speed. Afterall your just hitting that note alittle harder than the rest. It takes alittle practice that's all.

...OR, is it possible to play a badly phrased riff as fast as you can a well phrased one in your opinion?

Yeah people do it all the time, goofying off wanking on the guitar. Haha.