Category: Rhythm

“I’m just not great at reading rhythms.”

This article is for exactly that. I’ll cover

the basics of quarter notes, eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes,

and

a practice video you can play along with right away to drill all of them.

The Difference Between Quarter Notes and Eighth Notes

Quarter Notes

For every single metronome click, you play one pick stroke. That’s a quarter note.

If the metronome clicks four times, you play four notes — one per click. That’s the effect of a quarter note.

Here’s how quarter notes are written. (The “x” marks below the staff represent the metronome click.)

Jazz 4-feel basslines are built almost entirely out of quarter notes.

Eighth Notes

For every single metronome click, you play two pick strokes. That’s an eighth note.

If the metronome clicks four times, you play eight notes — two per click. That’s the effect of an eighth note.

Here’s how eighth notes are written.

A steady stream of eighth notes is very common in rock 8-feel grooves.

Triplets and Sixteenth Notes Are Worth Knowing Too

Triplets

For every single metronome click, you play three even pick strokes. That’s a triplet.

The key is keeping all three notes evenly spaced within that one click.

This rhythm shows up a lot in shuffle grooves.

Sixteenth Notes

For every single metronome click, you play four pick strokes. That’s a sixteenth note.

If the metronome clicks four times, you play sixteen notes — four per click. That’s the effect of a sixteenth note.

Here’s how a 16-feel is written. It’s commonly used in funk 16-feel grooves.

A Practice Video to Drill All These Note Values Right Away

This video lets you practice quarter notes, eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes.

Use it as part of your daily practice routine.

· Things to watch out for

Try not to let your note volume become uneven, and keep your rhythm steady without drifting.

Just five minutes of this a day. It’s simple enough that you won’t notice much change in the moment, but stick with it seriously for a month and your sense of rhythm will improve substantially.

Hopefully this gives you something useful for your practice.

Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?

This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.

At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.

Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.

Check Out the Lesson Service →

This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he recommends a jazz standard that’s secretly one of the best off-beat workouts around.

When people think of off-beat practice, they usually picture dry metronome drills or monotonous repetition. And honestly, that kind of practice is hard to stick with long-term.

So instead, here’s a way to train your off-beat feel using a real tune. First, take a look at this performance starting at 2:35:

The tune here is “Evidence,” a jazz standard written by Thelonious Monk.

The melody is very distinctive — full of phrases that start on the off-beat, along with long rests like dotted-quarter rests and half rests. To lock in with the timing here, you need to feel the “and” of the beat just as strongly as the beat itself, or you’ll end up out of sync.

Just getting comfortable playing along with this tune will naturally train your sense of the off-beat, your control over rests, and the overall stability of your phrasing. If standard metronome drills aren’t your thing, try training with a real tune like this instead.

Off-beat feel like this is notoriously hard to judge in your own playing — a teacher listening from the outside can usually pinpoint exactly where you’re drifting.

Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?

This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.

At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.

Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.

Check Out the Lesson Service →

This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he shares a rhythm drill that makes your walking bass time feel dramatically more solid.

If any of that sounds familiar, this drill is worth trying. Here’s a 1-minute video first:

The idea is to split each quarter note into a triplet, and place the metronome on the 3rd note of that triplet.

It’s on the harder side if you’re just starting out, but it’s extremely effective for building a stronger sense of swing.

Let’s break it down.

How to Practice: Quarter Notes Against a Triplet’s 3rd Beat

Here’s the breakdown of how to count it.

1. Start by setting your metronome to play straight triplets.

2. Next, feel the metronome’s click as landing on the 3rd note of each triplet.

3. With the metronome still landing on the 3rd note, play a quarter note on the 1st note of each triplet.

4. Put together, it looks like this:

5. Counting “1-2-3, 1-2-3” out loud while you play gets tiring fast, so let’s swap in some easier syllables instead:

Each triplet gets counted as “PA-su-TA” — like the word “pasta.” Pick on the “PA,” and the metronome should land on the “TA.”

That’s the whole drill.

For those reasons, this drill is genuinely effective for building a stronger swing feel.

Rhythm feel like this is notoriously hard to self-check — a teacher listening from the outside can usually tell in seconds whether your “TA” is actually landing where it should.

Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?

This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.

At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.

Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.

Check Out the Lesson Service →