Q&A: BOOK/LEARNING AID RECOMMENDATIONS

---

Hi Jan,
 
I bought your book, I know it’s going to be super helpful in the future but a lot is too advanced for me right now. I can play a lot of the examples but don't understand them etc..
 
I was wondering do you have a book that would serve as a good basis before I start on this? Or if you don't, could you recommend me which ones are good?
 
Man thanks and all the best from London :)
 
Patrick Walden
(London)

---

Hi Patrick,
 
Thanks for writing.
 
Since I don’t know which concepts you are having problems with, I am going to write a list of books/learning aids that I like best for practicing “primer” or “foundation” concepts you should understand.

With rhythm books, I think that the goal is to find one with as many rhythmic permutations as possible.

Here are a few recommendations:
 
1.“Encyclopedia of Reading Rhythms” by Gary Hess – It’s almost as if Hess wrote out every possible permutation involving whole notes, halves, quarters, eighth note triplets, quarter note triplets and sextuplets.

2. “Factorial Rhythm” by Mick Goodrick and Mitch Haupers - Very hard to find. The copy I own was bought out of Mick's defunct Mr. Goodchord website.  I really like the progression of this book as well as Mick’s tradition of giving you the material and expecting you to do the work.

3. “Practicing Tuplets” and “Practicing Tuplets II” posts on the “LEARN” section archives of this site.

4. “Gateway to Rhythm” DVD by John McLaughlin and S. Ganesh Vinayakram – I’ve mentioned this one quite a bit. It will help you with assigning syllables to rhythmic figures. Some of the material discussed will act as a primer for polyrhythms and implicit polymeters.

5.You should read this post as well…


Extras:

Modern Rhythmic Notation

by Gardner Read: Just about everything you will ever need to know about notating complex rhythm.

Practice Exercise Structure:
 
Look at how the “Dividing Polyrhythms/Polyrhythms within Polyrhythms Exercise Sheet” is constructed on pages 38-51 of the book. There is an attempt to show all the permutations of each group of rhythmic figures. Practice your rhythmic figures like this. The only thing I would change is that I would place the brackets starting on each possible beat. I didn’t do this in the book because I wanted to give you a constant phrase to keep you grounded. (Training wheels…) When practicing, you should eliminate this crutch...
 

Always follow I.M.T.R. (from page 89 of the book)

Isolate
Master
Transition
Repeat
 
That’s enough for now. Just practice these until you are ready to go into the book.

Avoid "analysis paralysis" at all costs!

Best,
Jan

---