A musician's guide to understanding and improvising with rhythm. This book is a road map to rhythm for any musician. It's for guitar players intrigued by the rhythms of world music. It's for keyboard players who've studied scales and chords and now want to study rhythm in a systematic way. It's for drummers, bass players, and sax players who want to groove and solo with a deeper understanding of rhythmic structure. Whatever your instrument, if you want to play funkier and don't mind using your head to do it, this book is for you. This step- by-step comprehensive course includes: hundreds of patterns drawn from African and Afro-Cuban rhythms explained and organized according to their structures; Rhythmic concepts and techniques you can use to create your own patterns; Bite-sized lessons arranged in order of difficulty; Easy-to-read charts that even non-musicians can under- stand; A CD that creates a realistic, three-dimensional rhythmic context for you to practice in; Exercises to reinforce your under- standing and help you build on what you're learning; and a chapter on rhythm walking--a fun way to create rhythms with your whole body while you walk.

Getting Started

1 Who this book is for and how it works
2 Understanding the charts and basic concepts
Pulses and subdivisions
Four and six
Timelines and cycles

3 Adapting the patterns to your instrument
Hand drums
Drumset
Guitar, bass, and other string instruments
Piano and other keyboard instruments
Sax and other wind instruments
Voice

4 A method for learning any new pattern applied to the timelines on the CD
Say-it-and-play-it
The timeline in four
The timeline in six

5 Triple weave practicing

Patterns, Concepts, and Techniques

6 The pulse and parallel figures
Lesson 1: Playing the pulse on your instrument
Lesson 2: The pulse and the beat before
Lesson 3: The two beats before the pulse
Lesson 4: The pulse and the beat after
Lesson 5: The two beats after the pulse
Lesson 6: Three note figures

7 Pathways through the grid in four
Lesson 7: Consecutive eighth notes
Lesson 8: Numbered beats and offbeats
Lesson 9: Offbeats
Lesson 10: Singles and pairs
Lesson 11: Backbeats
Lesson 12: Sixteenths
Lesson 13: The offbeats before or after the pulse
Lesson 14: Timelines

8 Pathways through the grid in six
Lesson 15: Consecutive eighth notes
Lesson 16: The odd numbered beats - the 6-pulse and 3 over 2
Lesson 17: The odd numbered beats - patterns
Lesson 18: The even numbered beats
Lesson 19: Backbeats
Lesson 20: The offbeats before or after the pulse
Lesson 21: Singles and pairs and timelines

9 Three not-quite-equal groups of beats in four
Lesson 22: One-bar clave patterns
Lesson 23: Shifted one-bar clave patterns
Lesson 24: 5/5/6 patterns
Lesson 25: Shifted 5/5/6 patterns

10 Three groups of four beats in six
Lesson 26: The 3-pulse and 3 over
Lesson 27: Set 1
Lesson 28: Set 2
Lesson 29: Set 3
Lesson 30: Set 4

11 Cross-Rhythms
Lesson 31: 3-beat cross-rhythms in four
Lesson 32: 6-beat cross-rhythms in four
Lesson 33: 8-beat cross-rhythms in eight
Lesson 34: 5-beat and 7-beat cross-rhythms

12 Polyrhythms with uneven grids
Lesson 35: 3 over 2 eighth notes in four and six
Lesson 36: Subdividing the pulse in four into 3
Lesson 37: Subdividing the pulse in six into 2 or 4
Lesson 38: Bending a pattern between four and six

13 Glossary

For Further Study and Enjoyment

14 Rhythm walking

Blank Charts