Now we're going to be working
on a classic T-Bone Walker track.
This is called papain salty.
It's from one of his very best records.
It's the first track you hear.
The first notes you hear on his T-bone Blues record,
this beautiful little intro course.
Now before we start that intro course,
we're going to learn some rhythm parts and work at
supporting that intro course.
What we're going to talk about right now is how
important the backbeat is to regroove.
The back beats are two and four as we count them,
[NOISE] One, 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
Every drum part you hear pretty much in
a shuffle or even funk parts,
and swing jazz,
the drummer's going to be accenting two and four.
Now in the lesson,
we've added a jukebox.
It has a number of great tracks in it.
Every one of those tracks features
the drummer just slam into backbeat.
If you haven't yet, I want you to
please go back and look.
Checkout friend Castrina with
the fabulous Thunder Birds just smack
and the backbeat as he plays with
Jimmie Vaughan on the tune, weight on time.
We've got Albert Collins
playing one of his classic instrumentals,
Frosty and the drummer just nails that backbeat.
It comes right through in the mix.
It's so important for us musicians to hear that backbeat.
I've put a number tracks,
I put some James Brown
tracks on there where you can hear in
a funk context and there's several tones up there.
Listen to everyone of them and listen for that backbeat.
You can't help but hear it's popping out in the mix.
Okay, so around the school and around Berkeley,
one of the common techniques
when people are studying jazz is
to play along with a backbeat on two and four.
But I do that with jazz what I also do with
blues because it just works great on a blue shovel.
Since the beginning of the blues and
the Chicago Blues when they started recording,
electric blues and everything,
the drummers, man if
that drummer wasn't playing enough backbeat,
the bandleader would say,
"Give me more of the backbeat.
I want to hear the backbeat." I'm going to be building
this exercise is popping
salty track up around a backbeat.
I'm going to be demonstrating to you how to play
along with a click on two and four.
Now, this is going to be a little
tricky until you get used to it.
I'm going to actually demonstrate that a little bit with
a metronome click and I'm going to count it so
you get an understanding of that at first.
I'm going to do it slower
and then we're going to move it up to
the tempo that you'll be playing
the T-Bone Walker song at,
but let's slow it down for this first time.
Listen to this click and how countered
in it is playing and how to feel the count in,
because that's essential getting the count in to put you
on track with that feeling that beat,
that click on two and four,
because many of us wanted to feel
that on one and three instead.
You're going to find out if,
you haven't done that before,
it'll be a bit of a challenge.
Okay, so let's try this.
I'm going to put a metronome,
just a slow click on it first.
I'll start with a very slow tempo on the metronome,
this is 40 clicks for a minute or 40 beats per minute.
If that's on the backbeat,
that means the quarter note would be 80 beats per minute,
but this is backbeats at 40.
Those clicks are two and four.
If you want to get a handle that on two and four,
one of the easiest things to do at first,
he's just say [NOISE] two, [NOISE] four.
[NOISE] Two four.
Now once I know where the two and four are,
I'm going to add one and
three in between watch, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 4, [NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4,
and [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
Now I kept go on for a few bars because
it's important for you to do that at first,
to make sure you can hang on that tempo and not
turn the B around or anything so let me do that again.
This is [NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 4,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 4,
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
This is just like the way
every band director for those of you
who might have taken band
or high school jazz band or whatever.
They count on track, they go "One, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3,
[NOISE] 4," and that is the backbeat.
You'll notice 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4,
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3.
If you've heard that before,
that is giving us the backbeat right there.
Now I'm going to say that same thing.
Only I'm going to sink in with those clicks,
making the click that my fingers were just doing.
Let me demonstrate that a couple times.
What you have to do when you do that,
you have to find that one and three between
the clicks it first and this is
going to take a little getting used to.
Now I'm going to turn the metronome
back on and demonstrate that for you.
Here's how I'm going to count it in
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4,
notice my first count one [NOISE] was
right between the clicks [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3,
[NOISE] 4 and that's how you count it one
more time[NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
Make sure, [NOISE] as you do this,
as you say in two and four,
the two and four are when the clicks sounding [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
That is the standard universal count off for bands,
almost everywhere we'd say.
In the old days, sometimes
a bandleader or even now you hear a bandleader,
they're just stops there for it to go.
[NOISE] They just don't even count.
You just hear this footstep.
[NOISE] That's the tempo,
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3,
[NOISE] 4, [NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3,
[NOISE] 4, [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
It could be up-tempo,
could be medium or whatever.
I'm going to try right now,
counting in a few different tempos for you
because you're going to have to practice
counting in a different tempo.
I'm going to pick the metronome tempo up a bit now
to maybe 60 beats per minute on the backbeat.
[NOISE] You can see that I'm going a little faster now.
I still need to start between the beats [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
Let me play a little something as I do that.
Watch this [NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
[MUSIC] That's how I lock a party with that.
With the backbeat on two and four,
let me take that to a faster tempo.
I'm going to move that up to a 100 clicks on a metronome.
This is getting in an up-tempo.
[NOISE] Okay.
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3,
[NOISE] 4, [NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
[MUSIC] so forth on
that basically or like this
[NOISE] [MUSIC] [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 1,
[NOISE] 2, [NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
[MUSIC] See that tempo of that click,
it better keep me dead on with my group.
It doesn't allow me to add any
half beats or anything like that.
It will ensure that I stay on with rock solid with
that toolbar form or whatever for I'm
on and I'm not adding beats or anything like that.
Playing with the backbeat at
various tempos is really important.
What I'd like to do now
is I'm going to take that click at
demonstrate just
playing a little bit of that march-in either we did.
This is how to feel that because
you can play this on all kinds of shuffles.
I'm just going to play
a little bit of that just enough to get you into
the groove until you understand how
valuable this is as a practice technique.
Okay, so here it is, little the matching-in,
just a start up,
[NOISE] 1, [NOISE] 2,
[NOISE] 3, [NOISE] 4.
[MUSIC]
So forth.
I don't need to have to play the whole thing,
I just want you to see that that's
a great technique for
practicing any of these
rhythm parts that are on a shuffle.
Put that metronome on two and four and practice it.
It will help you keep on time.