Meter, Subdivision and Groove

Harmony gets the credit. Rhythm does the work. In rock and metal especially, a riff is rhythm first and pitch second.

The idea

Meter is how beats are grouped into bars.

Meter	Feel	Examples
4/4	Four beats. The default.	Most rock, pop and metal
3/4	Three beats. Waltz.	“Manic Depression” (Jimi Hendrix)
6/8	Two big beats, each split in three	“Nothing Else Matters”, “House of the Rising Sun”
12/8	Four big beats, each split in three	Slow blues
5/4, 7/8, 7/4	Odd meters: a bar that is “one beat too long or too short”	“Take Five” (5/4), “Money” by Pink Floyd (7/4), much of Tool

Subdivision is how each beat is split, and it is where style lives.

Subdivision	Count	Style
Straight 8ths	1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &	Punk, pop-rock
16ths	1 e & a 2 e & a …	Funk, fast metal chugging, djent
Triplets	1 trip let 2 trip let …	Slow blues, 12/8 ballads
Shuffle or swing	long-short, long-short	Blues, boogie, swing

Hear them. Set the subdivision, then try the “2 and 4 only” mode:

The backbeat is the snare drum on beats 2 and 4. It is the spine of all rock and pop. Your riffs are in conversation with it.

Syncopation means accenting the off-beats or the weak 16ths: playing where the listener does not expect an accent. It is the difference between a march and a groove. A typical rock move is the anticipation: hitting the next chord an 8th note early, on the “and” of 4, instead of on beat 1.

A basic rock beat, then the same idea in 6/8. Click the cells to change the patterns:

On your instrument

• Your strumming hand is the clock. For 8ths, the hand goes down on the beats and up on the “ands”, whether or not it hits the strings. For 16ths, the same motion twice as fast. Rhythms come from which strokes you leave out, not from stopping the hand.
• Mute to hear rhythm alone. Lay your fretting hand across the strings and strum muted. Without pitch you can judge only the time, and that is the point.
• Tap your foot on the beat, not on the notes you play. If your foot follows your hands, you are not keeping time. Your riff is.

Worked example

One riff, two placements. Four power-chord hits in a bar, first on the beats and then anticipated:

On the beat        1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
                   X . X . X . X .

Anticipated        1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
                   X . . X . . X .      and the next bar starts on the "&" of 4

The first version marches. The second groups the 8th notes as 3 + 3 + 2, the most common syncopation in rock, pop and Latin music. Play both against the metronome above and feel the second one pull forward.

Exercises

1. Set the metronome to 60 with “click only on 2 and 4”. Strum any chord: straight 8ths for a minute, shuffle for a minute, 16ths for a minute. Stay locked. This is the classic feel trainer.
2. Take a riff you know and move it to start half a beat earlier. Compare the energy.
3. Count and clap, five minutes a day for a week: clap rhythms in 6/8 and in 7/8 while counting out loud. For 7/8, group the counts as 2 + 2 + 3 and accent the first of each group.
4. Play the 3 + 3 + 2 pattern with muted strings over the rock beat above until it feels natural, then put a power chord on each hit.

Common mistakes

• Rushing. Almost everyone speeds up when excited and when the part is easy. Record yourself with a click and listen back.
• Practicing only with the click on every beat. The “2 and 4 only” mode makes you supply beats 1 and 3 yourself, which is what playing with a drummer is like.
• Counting only when it gets hard. Count out loud from the first bar. By the time it gets hard it is too late to start.