Deepening Grooves/Pushing Pulling

Playing Technique
#1

Hello.

Curious what strategies/exercises people have to assist in expanding rhythmic control.

Currently I am a bit rushy, when I check my playing in Reaper/on the grid I’m just a LITTLE further in front of the beat then I’d like. I don’t feel confident that I’m really in the middle/front. This is especially true when trying to sync to a kick drum, for some reason I tend to ‘hear’ the timing wrong, where I either rush or drag a bit too much. Feels almost like my brain processes kicks at a different speed then higher pitched instruments.

#2

Have you ruled out latency issues in your recording setup?

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#3

Not entirely, though I suspect it is not a major factor. (Though I will look into this further).

Though I am looking to expand my rhythmic abilities on a technical level. I would like to have more control. Would like to feel less like a ‘Russian Dragon’ ya know :wink:

#4

I’m a fan of the Metronome Boot Camp at GuitarOS. Here’s a link to lesson 0. I found going through the whole course worthwhile, but lessons 2, 4, and 15 are the most relevant for what you’re describing. Whether you do the whole course or not, once you get the general idea, you can design your own bury the click exercises pretty easily. I didn’t get a fancy metronome for the course, I just used the one on my phone.

Edit: Forgot to add that the course is free.

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#5

Cool. Will check it out.

#6

I find the work of this gentleman very helpful, although his videos are quite ponderous.

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#7

definitely check the latency side of things. Even when you are using direct monitoring or playing through an amp to monitor there will be issues. Check out how to solve this here:

Recording Latency Manual Offset in REAPER - YouTube

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#8

Metronome practice - but not just 1, 2, 3, 4 and stay with it. Stuff like this:

It’s harder than we think.