How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

edsmith

edsmith

New member
Though I think I have finally reached a point in my soloing where I want to practice a lot less and create more music, I really want to brush up on my rhythm playing.

For some reason I seem to be in that group of people who approach songwriting from the melody first. I have a difficult time creating a song from a rhythm unless something fantastic hits me or I stumble upon a nice rhythm sound in practice. I often wonder how other people approach rhythm creation and songwriting.

What methods do you employ and would you say that most of your songwriting starts with melody or rhythm?
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

I write on bass or sequence a bass line 90% of the time, then I get right to the vocal melody. If those two gel it's a song and the rest just drops into place.
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

Heck, most of my stuff doesn't have any melody at all! I'm only now feeling confident enough in my abilities to start adding some melody lines.

I'll often have an idea of what kind of style I want to do; a hooky chorus riff w/all chords, a spidery verse riff with no chords, etc. A lot of the time I'll have an idea of a band or song I want to sound like, & go from ther in trying to recreate the feel or atmosphere of the original without actually copying the song itself.

Drum loops are a great jump start for me. My foot starts keeping time, & I just start bashing stuff out, then if I hear something I like pass by, I'll keep repeating it & refine it from there.
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

While I play leads, I am really primarily a song writer. I write a lot when I'm in a band where I need to get some songs, and I write much less when I'm not under any pressure. Usually I just sit around playing chord patterns, and stuff comes out. Once in a while, I'll get an idea for a melody, and then write around that. I used to write lyrics later, but lately I find my self sketching lyrical ideas, and building the music around that.

I know that isn't much of an explanation. I've just really enjoyed writing songs for a long time, and that may be what helps me in terms of writing.
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

From playing guitar in a jazz band, mostly. All sorts of weird rhythms come easily to me. Before I played jazz, I was primarily (read: pretty much only) a rhythm player, so I just picked up on things I can do that add to the song and sound natural in the songs context.
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

I write everything to a metronome set to a continuous beat, which means every count is a 1.

It's like "1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1" ad infinitum.

It lets me create the melody and accents and the actual rhythm is almost incidental. I wind up writing stuff in some pretty weird time sigs sometimes, switching several times in the same song. I don't worry about it. If I sat down and started counting or trying to write in a particular time signature I think it would compromise the spontaneity of my creative process.

So, while stuff will count out strangely sometimes, it always makes melodic sense, doing odd-meter time more like Soundgarden did instead of how Meshuggah does.
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

Right now I'm more into writing the melody first. Sometimes I combine both, sometimes I start with the lyrics though. Whatever gets me going.
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

I start by counting to four.

I guess the most important thing you can do is value rhythm. Sounds silly, but it's true. It doesn't matter how you write something as long as you take care to make sure everything grooves. Even if your sense of time is good, think to yourself 'is this in the pocket?' 'should I push the groove, or lean back?'
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

Hot _Grits said:
I start by counting to four.

I guess the most important thing you can do is value rhythm. Sounds silly, but it's true. It doesn't matter how you write something as long as you take care to make sure everything grooves. Even if your sense of time is good, think to yourself 'is this in the pocket?' 'should I push the groove, or lean back?'
Click to expand...

Whoa, easy now! Who do you think you are, a bass player?! : popworm:
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

edsmith said:
Though I think I have finally reached a point in my soloing where I want to practice a lot less and create more music, I really want to brush up on my rhythm playing.

For some reason I seem to be in that group of people who approach songwriting from the melody first. I have a difficult time creating a song from a rhythm unless something fantastic hits me or I stumble upon a nice rhythm sound in practice. I often wonder how other people approach rhythm creation and songwriting.

What methods do you employ and would you say that most of your songwriting starts with melody or rhythm?
Click to expand...

I started out on guitar playing a lot of reggae, funk, and some soul. Just throw on some songs in those genres and jam for 20 - 30 min. That usually gets me some rhythm inspiration.
 
Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

almost all my rhythm playing stems from sitting down, dialing in a pleasing sound, and playing "automatically." basically ray bradbury's automatic writing method, but on guitar. i just goof around and play wherever my hands fall, find patterns, get into a groove with the right hand. eventually, a riff pops out, and i record it (really roughly) so I don't forget it. if I'm stuck, I'll dig into my saved riffs and build on ones that really catch my ear.

I don't worry about a drum beat/metronome/BPM until I start writing a song. When the drums start getting programmed, more riffs tend to pop out.
 
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Re: How Do You Approach Rhythm Creation?

GuitarStv said:
I started out on guitar playing a lot of reggae, funk, and some soul. Just throw on some songs in those genres and jam for 20 - 30 min. That usually gets me some rhythm inspiration.
Click to expand...

+1 ... usually the best rhythm ideas come from genres where the guitar takes a back seat to bass and drums.

I'd also recommend Santana's self-titled album (the one with the space man on the cover). That album's just great for so many reasons.
 
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