doglooseAll musical expressions occur through rhythm. While the spark for musical creativity often originates from an emotional and spiritual place, rhythms are governed by mathematical values.

...

The

All musical expressions occur through rhythm. While the spark for musical creativity often originates from an emotional and spiritual place, rhythms are governed by mathematical values.

The building blocks of music, including note and rest values, chords, intervals, scales, time signatures, counting, downbeats and upbeats, form and tempo are all based on math. While developing “good rhythm” ultimately comes down to feel, groove and inspiration, an understanding of the arithmetical nature of music has the potential to help improve your skills, increase the number of musical choices at your disposal, and enhance your overall performance.

Based on its raw simplicity, the acoustic guitar, which songwriters have long drawn upon in the evolution of crafting pop songs, provides the ideal starting point in the journey toward developing a solid sense of rhythm. Players like Django Reinhardt, Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucia and John Mclaughlin come to mind as true masters of rhythmic precision in their execution of brilliant acoustic lead runs.

The vitality of Neil Young’s strummed guitar chords and the elegance of Andrés Segovia’s classical lines collectively reveal the multifaceted expressions and diverse rhythmic possibilities offered by the acoustic guitar. Equally impressive is the playing of the great Delta Blues musicians like Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Nelson, whose use of silence, or “space,” between responsive expressions continues to strike a chord in our souls. In the 21st century, the latest evolution in popular guitar performance can be attributed to the “percussive acoustic” genre.

Antoine Dufour and Andy McKee’s steady sense of time while creating interplay between harmony and percussion in the absence of drums creates moments of intensity, sentimentality and reflection. The instrument’s organic, honest nature can leave a guitarist’s every strum and subtle motion exposed, and so mastering rhythm will strengthen your ability to perform in all

Read more from our friends at Guitar World