The Tie Trick to deal with syncopated rhythms
There’s one type of rhythm that stumps many players cold: syncopation.
Something like this, from a Mitch Foreman tune called Reunion with Will Lee on bass (Gary Burton/Reunion):
The Tie Trick
In the Rhythm Matrix we work our way up to complex rhythms like this, but here is a quick tip: take the tie out first.
Play the figure with every note struck, no ties, until your hands know exactly where that sixteenth sits inside the beat.
Once that’s clean, and only then, put the tie back. You’re not learning a new rhythm at that point.
You’re just not restriking a note you already know how to place.
If you listen back to the “no-tie” version in your mind, you have now improved your accuracy big time.
No-tie version:
That’s the whole idea behind subdivision work. You can’t sustain what you never learned to attack. Know the subdivision, and the tie stops being a trick. It’s just math you translated into a felt sense.
⚡️ Practice Spark:
Try the above.
To hear what it should sound like listen here, first the no tie version, then with tie:
To nail rhythms like this
That’s one concept out of the Rhythm Matrix Cohort, that’s built around subdivision, pocket, and the internal clock you can actually reproduce on command. Starts September 3. 12 weeks, 5 units, 4 live sessions with me, plus a coach in your corner the whole way.
Rhythm Matrix cohort starts Sept 3. Don’t miss it.
