Syncopation

Lesson 3/39 | Study Time: 5 Min
Course: Blues Lead Guitar
Syncopation

Syncopation

A good way to become more comfortable with eighth rests is to play a scale with a rhythm pattern containing an eighth rest on every beat and an eighth note in between every beat, which creates a syncopated rhythm. Syncopation means displacing the normal flow of accents, usually from on the beat to off the beat.

This is demonstrated in the following example. When using rests, counting is particularly important so you don’t get lost and play notes in the wrong place.

Now try improvising with set rhythms which contain eighth rests. As mentioned earlier, it is best to memorize the rhythm on one note first, and then to improvise with it. Here are some examples of this type of playing.

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Peter Gelling

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Class Sessions

1- Arpeggios 2- New Techniques - The Trill 3- The Minor Pentatonic Scale 4- The Blues Scale 5- INTRODUCTION 6- Sixteenth Note Rhythms 7- Understanding Rhythms 8- The Major Pentatonic Scale 9- More on Eighth Note Rhythms 10- The Triplet 11- Five Forms of the Pentatonic Scale 12- Syncopation 13- Minor Arpeggios 14- Enharmonic Notes 15- Swing Rhythms 16- Combining Scales 17- Set Rhythms 18- Common Sixteenth Note Figures 19- Identifying Scale Patterns 20- Tremolo 21- Fretboard Diagrams 22- The Shuffle Rhythm 23- Dominant Seventh Arpeggios 24- The Rake 25- Using Ties 26- Scale Degrees 27- Left-Hand Fingers 28- Twelve Note Positions for Triplets 29- Combining Scales and Arpeggios 30- Analyzing What You Play 31- Tablature 32- Staccato 33- Set Rhythms Using Triplet Figures 34- Twelve Eight Time 35- Tablature Symbols 36- Thirty Second Notes 37- Playing With Pick and Fingers 38- Jam Along Progressions 39- Listening

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