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Hi, all. I’m a returning member having had a foray into Blues Guitar Institute and Blues Guitar Unleashed. In particular, Griff Hamlin from BGU is really big on counting. I notice Brian isn’t. Also I notice Brian seems to adopt a more ‘organic’ approach, whilst the other sites seem more structured. I would appreciate other members views, in particular the value of deliberate counting vs. let it happen naturally as your skills improve. Thanks.
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Brian counts in every song he plays. Once he gets going, it’s all about matching the metronome or using a backing track to stay in time. 4/4 time is not that difficult. Some of the slow 12 bar blues is beneficial to count all 12 eighth notes in a bar and get used to hearing the hi-hats drill out those 1/8th notes. The snare hits are on 4 and 10 and accenting the 1, 4, 7, 10 are really good habits to get a good groove going for slow blues.
There are times when some music has an extra beat or a missing beat in a measure and knowing the count during those tricky parts are best to be familiar with so you don’t loose your place during performance.
If you have good musical feel, I don’t think it to be that important. If you don’t, then counting can be very beneficial.
How good is Griff’s teaching in his blues course?
Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.
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Michael
I can say that Griff’s courses are exceptional and his material is well worth the time to study. (and before someone gets a burr under their saddle – No, I’m not elevating Griff over Brian. I’ve had this happen in the past when a different instructor is mentioned and have seen some pretty heated exchanges over this)
If you watch any of Griff’s performance videos, its easy to see that he is heavily influenced by SRV but doesn’t have the voice for Stevie’s vocalsNot to stir a debate but you might be surprised at the results of counting as Griff teaches it. As I followed his teaching on this subject, I found that there is much more to it than I first realized.
He has a course – Blues Speed Building Blocks – that centers around counting and as Griff mentions in it, if a student will patiently work on this course, the counting above all, you will be very surprised what it will do for your dexterity and speed
Working on that course has caused me to look at note values as I’m working on a piece of music and have caused me to evaluate my playing as I go.Bottom line, counting correctly will only improve anyone’s playing, making you very aware of where you are in a measure and giving you the ability to stay in the good graces of your bandmates. As you can tell, I’m very much in favor counting as you learn a piece of music regardless if a player has a feel for it or not.
Keith
aka GnLguy
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The problem I have with counting out loud is that it is another thing I have to think about or do, that doesn’t add any value to playing what is arguably very simple to play without it and just concentrate on the metronome or drummer for the gist of the tune. If a song had a lot of stops, time signature changes, or other weird timing involved, sure it becomes a more important factor. To elevate one single element like counting and put it at the top of the list of things to learn would only be correct for someone that doesn’t know musical rhythm and how to read it correctly. I already know all that stuff from being a drummer so I don’t think it adds anything super important unless you have no rhythmic skills to listen and mimic a rhythm. If you cannot do that, then it probably would be very valuable to you.
In fact, the best way to concentrate on rhythm skills is to take the left hand fretting out of the equation and just play rhythms only. This gets me in the groove and have a locked in feeling, just like playing drums only on the string or strings. There down beats, off beats, and syncopated beats. Most of the stuff I have worked with on Brian’s site does not deal with complicated rhythm parts, so I don’t put a lot of weight on counting myself.
I would be totally open to learning about how his exercises actually are done. It never hurts to try or do something you don’t normally do.
Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.
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1/4 notes left foot, 1/8 notes right foot. I just have a hard time finding the correct note, between video and tableture.
Me too. Sometimes even the first note in the measure is difficult to ascertain.
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Michael
I can say that Griff’s courses are exceptional and his material is well worth the time to study. (and before someone gets a burr under their saddle – No, I’m not elevating Griff over Brian. I’ve had this happen in the past when a different instructor is mentioned and have seen some pretty heated exchanges over this)
If you watch any of Griff’s performance videos, its easy to see that he is heavily influenced by SRV but doesn’t have the voice for Stevie’s vocalsNot to stir a debate but you might be surprised at the results of counting as Griff teaches it. As I followed his teaching on this subject, I found that there is much more to it than I first realized.
He has a course – Blues Speed Building Blocks – that centers around counting and as Griff mentions in it, if a student will patiently work on this course, the counting above all, you will be very surprised what it will do for your dexterity and speed
Working on that course has caused me to look at note values as I’m working on a piece of music and have caused me to evaluate my playing as I go.Bottom line, counting correctly will only improve anyone’s playing, making you very aware of where you are in a measure and giving you the ability to stay in the good graces of your bandmates. As you can tell, I’m very much in favor counting as you learn a piece of music regardless if a player has a feel for it or not.
Keith
aka GnLguyAgree with your sentiments re Griff. He is adamant that his students that adopt counting out loud progress faster than those who resist.
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1/4 notes left foot, 1/8 notes right foot. I just have a hard time finding the correct note, between video and tableture.
What do you mean exactly by not able to find the correct note between video and tab? The correct note is exactly how it sounds when it is played in the video. I’m amazed that some cannot listen to a phrase and then cannot repeat it back or hear it back in your head. I find this very easy to do. Now if there was no video demo of the tab and I had to go by tablature, I would have to slow it down and work it out. I would prefer regular sheet music for that instead of tablature except to verify which exact note is used which tablature does a very good job at. Regular musical notation does a better job with the rhythm part of what is being played.
Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.
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Nobody ever told me to count. I just started doing it naturally when I began learning guitar. Likewise, nobody ever told me to chew my food, I just naturally started doing it when I was a baby.
If you’re interested in counting and rhythm, check out Dalcroze Eurythmics Exercises on Youtube. Or the blue Man Group, where they teach you the basic head bob, the vertical fist pump, etc which you can use when attending a rock concert.
Sunjamr Steve
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Not sure where to post this question. It is in regard to counting. So I thought I would ask here. In EP LEG 019, (yes quite an old post!) I am wondering how you count bars 5 and 6. Thank you.
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Hi Paul
Those LEG lessons are a definite blast from the past; Brian could only post 10 minute videos due to the limitations of You Tube at that time
I think Brian had just released LEG015 when I first started working on his lessonsI think that there is quarter rest symbol missing in Measure 5 because this solo is basically eighth notes throughout and overall,I would count the entire piece as
1 & 2 & 3 & 4
but it’s easy to see that the notation doesn’t indicate that
To get those runs correct, Measures 7 & 9 would require counting 16th notes on the quick flourishes that Brian played.I would count Measure 7 as
1. 2. 3 e & uh, 4 e & uh (using Griff Hamlin’s counting terminology)
The notation software that Brian was using at that time left a lot to be desired and he upgraded shortly after this
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