Lesson 6 ex 6-1 counting?

JeffreyS

You are never to old to learn something new.
How should this be counted 1 and2 and3 and4 and or 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a ?
 

jmin

Student Of The Blues
I just looked at my BGU book, Lesson 6.1 (The Tore Down Rhythm) - it's in "4/4" time and lots of the notes are tied 8th notes. So, I would go with the "One and Two and Three...." If I see a 12/8 time signature and "triplets" (3 notes tied together), then I would go with the "one-and-uh, two-and-uh, etc
 

HotLks

Blues - it's in me and it's got to come out.
If you counting tied 8th note triplets then you count for the first 8th note: 1&. the 2nd 8th note is uh. Griff calls this the swing feel. They are the same as the 12/8 notes, counted 1&a, 2&a, 3&a, 4&a for a total count of 12.

Griff explains this in some depth in Acoustic Blues Guitar Unleashed in one of the earlier lessons.

See you down the road! :thumbup:
 

david moon

Attempting the Blues
First, Griff hasn't been entirely consistent when counting a swing/shuffle rhythm. Sometimes he counts out loud 1 and 2 and etc.but it's in the shuffle rhythm. The 1 is longer than the and. You could also count 1 (and) uh 2 (and) uh

The clue or cue here is at the top left of the chart. It says (symbolically) 2 8th notes should be read as triplets divided into a quarter (two 8th triplets) and a 8th. So it's a shorthand notation that says play these "8ths" with a shuffle feel. The whole chart could be re-written in 12/8 with quarter eighth quarter eighth and it would sound the same.

The same notation is used in following lessons 7, 8, 9, and probably more.

So I'm in violent agreement with HotLks

I've seen the same thing in big band and theater music, where it is written in 4/4 with 8th notes but swing is expected. On a couple of occasions I had to ask: Do you want this section played straight or swing?
 
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