The last four chapters were about rhythm on paper: the beat, durations, meter, syncopation. This one puts it in your hands. The most common trouble when learning to pick a chord is not the fingers, it is time: the metronome clicks four times a bar, the pattern has eight notes, and it is not clear which notes go with the click and which do not. The answer is exact, and once you can say it out loud, the pattern stops being a blur.
By the end you can
- Say what the metronome click marks, and why most notes of a picking pattern do not fall on a click.
- Give every note of a bar its address by counting "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &", and compute when it sounds: t = k·T/2.
- Assign the fingers: the thumb on the bass and the strong beats, i, m and a on the top strings (or the two hands on the piano).
- Practise with the metronome in steps: count, thumb alone, fingers alone, everything, then raise the tempo.
- Plan a chord change so the new chord is ready on the 1, starting k = ⌈h/τ⌉ notes before it.
A metronome clicks the beat, the pulse you would tap your foot to (chapter 5). In 4/4 there are four beats in a bar, and the first is the strongest (chapter 7), which is why many metronomes give it a higher click. That is all the metronome says: where the beats are. It knows nothing about your notes.
A typical picking pattern plays eight notes in that bar, twice as many as there are clicks. So "do I play with the click?" has two answers: half of the notes, yes, exactly with it; the other half, no, exactly in the middle between two clicks. The confusion comes from treating all eight the same: trying to hear every note as "with" a click, or filling the gaps with whatever fits and hoping. The cure is to give every note a name before you play it.
Split each beat in two (an eighth note is half a beat, chapter 6) and count the halves out loud: "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &" (in Portuguese, "1 e 2 e 3 e 4 e"). The numbers are the beats, so they fall on the clicks. Each "&" is the second half of a beat, so it falls exactly halfway to the next click. Every note of the pattern now has an address: the thumb on "1", the index finger on the "&" after it, and so on. Instead of "the second note, somewhere after the click", you know that it is the "&" of 1, and where the "&" is.
At 60 BPM the clicks are one second apart, which makes the numbers easy to see:
| note k | you say | time (60 BPM) | where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 0 ms | with a click |
| 1 | & | 500 ms | halfway between clicks |
| 2 | 2 | 1000 ms | with a click |
| 3 | & | 1500 ms | halfway between clicks |
| 4 | 3 | 2000 ms | with a click |
| 5 | & | 2500 ms | halfway between clicks |
| 6 | 4 | 3000 ms | with a click |
| 7 | & | 3500 ms | halfway between clicks |
"Halfway" is meant exactly. In a steady stream of notes, trained ears notice a note that is off by a few percent of the gap, around 10 to 20 milliseconds at these speeds. An "&" that drifts towards the next click sounds rushed, one that hangs back after its click sounds lazy, even when every number lands perfectly.
Faster patterns: four notes a beat
Some patterns play four notes a beat: sixteenth notes. Count them "1 e & a 2 e & a…" (in Portuguese "1 i e a 2 i e a…"). The method is the same, with τ = T/4 and sixteen addresses a bar instead of eight: "1" with the click, "&" halfway, "e" and "a" a quarter of the way on either side of it. Learn the eighths first; the sixteenths are the same idea, cut once more.
On the piano the same pattern is shared between the hands. The left hand plays the bass: the fifth finger on the chord's root (for C, the C an octave below middle C), the thumb on the second bass note. The right hand holds the three upper notes of the chord and plays them one at a time, with fingers 1, 3 and 5. The notes are the same ones a guitar plays in that chord, so the patterns in this chapter are the same for both instruments; on the piano they are called broken chords, and the left-hand bass alternating with the chord is the oldest accompaniment in the book.
As on the guitar, the bass lands on the strong beats. Keep the left hand with the click and let the right hand fill the halves in between.
Why the bass on the strong beats? Partly harmony: the bass note tells the ear which chord it is, so it belongs where the bar is felt most. Partly the ear itself: in 2014 Michael Hove and colleagues played two streams of tones, one low and one high, and nudged a note off time in one of them. Listeners' brains caught the slip better in the low stream, and when they tapped along, the low stream moved their taps more. Low notes carry the rhythm, which is why bass players and drummers keep time for the band.
| part | guitar | piano | usually on |
|---|---|---|---|
| bass | thumb p, strings 6–4 | left hand, fingers 5 and 1 | the numbers: 1, 3 (or 1 2 3 4) |
| top notes | i, m, a on strings 3, 2, 1 | right hand, fingers 1, 3, 5 | the "&"s, and the numbers the bass leaves free |
Start at 60 BPM and say the count out loud with the lit column. The notes under a click sound together with it; the notes under an "&" sit exactly halfway to the next click. Turn the notes off to hear only the click and keep counting, then turn them back on. The thumb (purple) lands on the strong beats: it is the anchor that keeps the fingers in place. Click a cell to add or remove a note. Piano: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC-BY 3.0).
The four 4/4 presets are the patterns that open most method books. Say each one aloud with its count before playing it:
| pattern | count | fingers | what to notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| p i m a | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | p i m a p i m a | the thumb on 1 and 3; m lands on the clicks of 2 and 4 |
| p i m i | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | p i m i p i m i | i plays every "&": the easiest one to keep even |
| alternating bass | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | p m p i p m p a | the thumb on every click, switching strings; the fingers only on the "&"s |
| pinch | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & | pa i m i pa i m i | p and a pluck together on 1 and 3, like a small chord |
In 3/4 there are three clicks a bar, and the count is "1 & 2 & 3 &": six eighths. The waltz pattern is the plainest of all, bass on 1 and the chord on 2 and on 3, "oom-pah-pah". An arpeggio fills the halves: p i m a m i, the thumb alone on the 1.
6/8 also has six eighths, but grouped the other way (chapter 7): two beats, each split in three. Count "1 2 3 4 5 6", with the weight on 1 and 4. The metronome is usually set to those two beats, the dotted quarter, so each click is followed by two notes before the next one, a third and two thirds of the way: τ = T/3. If two clicks a bar feel too sparse at first, set the metronome three times faster so it clicks every eighth, and slow it back down once the groups of three feel natural. Many picked ballads sit in 6/8; the slow, rolling feel of "House of the Rising Sun" is exactly this pattern.
Playing in time is a skill of its own, separate from knowing the notes, and it is trained the same way: slowly, one layer at a time. The order below adds one thing per step, and each step uses the one before as its scaffold:
| step | what to do | why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pick a tempo where you can play the whole pattern without a single slip, even if it is 40 BPM. | every slow, correct bar teaches the timing; a fast, messy one teaches the mess |
| 2 | Start the click and count aloud "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &" for a bar or two without playing. | you hear where the "&"s are before your hands have to find them |
| 3 | Play only the thumb, still counting. | the thumb is on the clicks: the easiest part, and the anchor of the rest |
| 4 | Play only the fingers, saying the numbers where the thumb would be. | most finger notes are between clicks; alone, you can hear if they are in the middle |
| 5 | Play everything, counting aloud. | the count holds the two parts together |
| 6 | Turn on a soft click between the beats, then turn it off again. | the extra click checks each "&"; without it, you supply the halves yourself |
| 7 | After a few clean bars, raise the tempo by 4 or 5 BPM. When it breaks, go back down. | small steps keep you on the edge of what you can do, not past it |
| 8 | Advanced: set the click to half speed and hear it as beats 2 and 4, or only as the 1. | the less the click gives you, the more of the beat you keep inside |
Expect to be early at first. When people tap along with a metronome, their taps land on average a few tens of milliseconds before the clicks; researchers call it negative mean asynchrony, and it is one of the best-documented results in the study of timing (reviewed by Bruno Repp in 2005). Musicians show less of it, but it rarely vanishes. The play-along widget below shows your offsets; an average of 20 ms early is normal, 100 ms is rushing.
Start it and listen to one bar of clicks, counting out loud; then tap from the next 1. Begin with the thumb alone: it lands on the clicks, so it is the easiest part. Then tap only the fingers while the widget plays the thumb: now most taps fall between clicks. Last, tap every note. Green is inside the window, amber close, red off (or a tap with no note near it). Raise the tempo only when the bars come out clean. The space bar taps too once the button has focus. Your device adds a few milliseconds of its own between a tap and the sound, so treat small offsets as approximate. Piano: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC-BY 3.0).
The other big source of trouble is the chord change. The new chord has to sound on the 1 of its bar, but the fretting hand cannot jump instantly: lifting the fingers, moving them and pressing them down takes time, h, maybe 300 to 600 ms while you are learning. If you only start moving on the 1, you are already late. So you start before it, and the counting grid tells you exactly how much before.
Three habits make the change easier. First, the note you pick while the hand is in the air rings as an open string; that is normal, and guitarists rely on it, which is why the last "&" of so many patterns is a top string. Second, put down first the finger of the bass string, because the thumb needs it on the 1; the others can land a moment later. Third, if you are late anyway, keep the beat: play the 1 on time even with the hand not ready. A slightly wrong chord in the right place sounds far better than the right chord late, and the band (or the song in your head) never stops for you. Practise the change alone, too: switch between two chords for a minute, with no picking at all, and count how many changes you make; the number goes up quickly.
Start with the hand lifting on the last "&" and needing 400 ms. At 70 BPM a column lasts 429 ms, so the new chord is ready in time, and the one note picked in the air is an open string. Now raise the tempo, or make the hand slower: once it lands after the 1, waiting makes the bar stumble, and keeping the beat plays the 1 on open strings. Move the lift one column earlier and the 1 is safe again. Of the two failures, keeping the beat is the one listeners forgive. Piano: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC-BY 3.0).
| what you hear | usual cause | fix |
|---|---|---|
| the "&"s come too soon, the pattern rushes | the fingers move as soon as the click sounds | say the "&" aloud; turn on the soft click between beats |
| the 1 after a chord change is late | the hand leaves the old chord too late | lift k = ⌈h/τ⌉ notes early; bass finger first |
| the song speeds up as it goes | easy bars get played faster, hard ones slower | keep the click on from start to end; record yourself |
| the beat gets lost in the notes | the top strings are brighter and drown the bass | play the thumb a little stronger, most of all on the 1 |
| every mistake stops the music | fixing the note matters more to you than the beat | keep going: the next 1 comes anyway, be there |
This closes the rhythm section: pulse and tempo, durations, meter, syncopation, and now playing them in time. The next section turns to the notes themselves: their names, the keys of the piano and why they come in a pattern of 7 white and 5 black. That pattern was already in the last widget of the syncopation chapter: spread 7 notes over 12 pulses and you get the West African bell, gaps 2 2 1 2 2 2 1. Keep it in mind; it will come back as the major scale.
Key ideas
- The metronome clicks only the beats; a picking pattern of eighth notes has twice as many notes as clicks.
- Count "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &": notes on the numbers sound with a click, notes on the "&"s exactly halfway between two (t = k·T/2).
- One finger per string: the thumb on the bass strings and the strong beats, i, m, a on strings 3, 2, 1; on the piano, left hand bass and right hand chord.
- 3/4 counts "1 & 2 & 3 &"; 6/8 counts "1 2 3 4 5 6" with clicks on 1 and 4.
- Practise in layers at a tempo with no slips: count, thumb, fingers, everything, then +4 or 5 BPM; being a little early is normal.
- Start a chord change k = ⌈h/τ⌉ notes before the 1, bass finger first; if late, keep the beat.