16th notes were the source of much stress and anxiety in the early days of my playing. With time and practice, I've come to grips with them. In this confession, we'll work on some exercises to help you get comfortable with 16th notes.
Single Notes vs. Strumming
In general, you are going to encounter 16th notes in two scenarios.
- As part of a series of single notes. See for example, the lead lines in One Minute Jam (Confession #26 - One Minute Jam!).
- As part of a strumming pattern. See for example, the rhythm guitar part in One Minute Jam (Confession #25 - Fret Hand Muting!).
Right Hand vs. Left Hand
The ability play the underlying rhythm correctly is primarily the job of your right hand. Whether fingerpicking, hybrid picking or using a pick, its generally your right hand that causes the strings to sound (ignoring for now phrasing techniques such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, etc.).
The ability to finger the single notes or chords correctly is the job of your left hand. Your left hand has to have the dexterity and speed to finger the notes before the right hand plays them.
The focus of the exercises that follow is on 16th note rhythm training, so they will be developing your right hand's sense of rhythm.
You can use any of the various warm-up exercises and finger independence exercises in previous confessions to work on development of your left hand's speed and dexterity.
Basic Training
This week we'll start with some exercises that put one pair of 16th notes in a measure, the rest of which is filled with steady 8th notes. Below the exercises is an audio only YouTube video which demonstrates each of the exercises, and gives you something to play along with to practice.
The demonstrations are at 60 beats per minute. Yes, this is quite slow. Once you've mastered the exercises at 60 bpm, you can pick up the tempo. Note that you should only increase the tempo 2 - 4 bpm at at time. Get comfortable at the new slightly faster tempo before increasing it any further. Big leaps in tempo will generally just lead to mistakes and frustration.
When practicing the exercises without the video, use a metronome! (see Confession #5 - Use a Metronome!)
You may want to apply a bit of palm muting when playing the exercises so that the string doesn't ring as much (see Confession #20 - Palm Muting! (Part 1)).
Counting
By now you are probably aware that we use the word "and" when counting measures containing eight notes. For example, one measure of nothing but 8th notes would be counted as follows:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
When playing measures containing 16th notes, we add the sounds "ee" and "uh" to our repertoire. Thus a measure of nothing but 16th notes would be counted as follows:
1 ee & uh 2 ee & uh 3 ee & uh 4 ee & uh
Personally, I find it doesn't roll of the tongue that easily, but I've never found a better answer. Since this is very standard, you'll need to learn it to be able to communicate with other musicians.
Picking
For all the exercises that follow, you should be using downstrokes on the beat, and on the "and" of the beat. So for the 8th note rhythm pattern above, the picking would be like this:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
d d d d d d d d
d = downstroke
You should be using upstrokes on the "ee" and "uh" of the beat. So for the 16th note rhythm pattern above, the picking would be like this:
1 ee & uh 2 ee & uh 3 ee & uh 4 ee & uh
d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u
d = downstroke
u = upstroke
You may be used to using alternate picking for 8th note rhythms, so it will take a bit of adjustment to get used to using strictly downstrokes for the 8th notes.
Exercise #1
The 1st exercise is just the steady 8th note rhythm pattern from above. The purpose of the exercise is to get used to using all downstrokes for eight notes instead of alternate picking.
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| Exercise #1 (Click to Enlarge) |
Count and pick this exercise as follows:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
d d d d d d d d
Exercise #2
The 2nd exercise puts a 16th note after the "and" of each beat in the measure, one at a time.
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| Exercise #2 (Click to Enlarge) |
Count and pick this exercise as follows:
"uh" of Beat 1
1 & uh 2 & 3 & 4 &
d d u d d d d d d
"uh" of Beat 2
1 & 2 & uh 3 & 4 &
d d d d u d d d d
"uh" of Beat 3
1 & 2 & 3 & uh 4 &
d d d d d d u d d
"uh" of Beat 4
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & uh
d d d d d d d d u
Exercise #3
The 3rd exercise puts a 16th note before the "and" of each beat in the measure, one at a time.
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| Exercise #3 (Click to Enlarge) |
Count and pick this exercise as follows:
"ee" of Beat 1
1 ee & 2 & 3 & 4 &
d u d d d d d d d
"ee" of Beat 2
1 & 2 ee & 3 & 4 &
d d d u d d d d d
"ee" of Beat 3
1 & 2 & 3 ee & 4 &
d d d d d u d d d
"ee" of Beat 4
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 ee &
d d d d d d d u d
Video
Next week we'll look at some exercises that use four 16th notes per measure.
Next Week's Confession - 16th Note Boot Camp (Part 2)
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