Roberto Fasciani
Rhythmic Solfeggios for Bass
© & ℗ Roberto Fasciani 2021
All Rights Reserved
www.robertofasciani.com
layout: Roberto Fasciani
audio samples by Roberto Fasciani
cover design: Eleonora Salerno
www.eoodesign.com
thanks to Carlos Fonseca for helping with the translation
ISBN: 9788894661408
Preface
The study of rhythmic solfeggio is a very important topic if you want to learn and understand
all the different tempos and note values that exist in music. When you feel and control the tim-
ing, you play with confidence and give it your best.
When you improvise or make phrases you could lose the beat, maybe you are playing too many
notes and when you are supposed to go back to the groove you are still playing the fill; if you
lose it, you'll need to be able to get back to it.
Timing is one of the most important things for a musician. Feeling it and sharing it with other
players is where the good music is; you can surely develop it by listening to tons of records
(best teachers ever) and playing your instrument as much as you can as well as playing with
bands. But, if you study rhythm, meter and note values, you will improve your skills and get a
better understanding of what you are playing and/or listening to.
Remember that music never stops; you can make some mistakes but you have to fix them as
fast as you can.
I'd like to suggest you to focus on the musical aspect of each exercise: a very clean and defined
sound, constant dynamic and rhythmic accuracy. If you have a problem with a specific note
value, meter or bar, just isolate it and loop it until you have it down. Do it whenever you have
this problem, and when you fix it you'll be able to read the full exercise. It's important to play
the exercises with no errors, so study it as much as you need; then you can move on to the
next one. If you have to play a quarter note, always be careful about its duration: it must last
1/4, not less, not more. Use a metronome or a drum loop, set it at 60 bpm and then slow it
down or speed it up; you'll realize how hard it is to play at slow tempos...
The book is provided with audio samples of all exercise, so if you have problems reading the
scores, listen to the sample of the exercise you are studying and use your ears; click and choose
the excercise you want to listen, scrolling down the info of the web page. Internet connection
is required.
Go to www.youtube.com/robertofascianibass and look for “Rhythmic Solfeggios for Bass”
playlist, in which you will find a video for every chapter of the book.
For any questions or advice you can send an email to [email protected], I'll be happy
to help.
Thanks for purchasing it and have fun!
Roberto
Rhythmic Solfeggios for Bass
Index
- Note values and rests pag. 4
- Time signature 5
- Quarter, eighth, half, whole notes and rests 6
- Sixteenth notes 15
- Dotted notes 24
- Triplets 29
- Syncopation 36
- Tie 40
- Sixteenth note triplets and sextuplets 44
- Compounds 49
- Cut time 54
- Summary 58
- Odd time signatures 66
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Note values and rests
name duration note rest
whole note 4/4
semibreve
half note 2/4
minim
quarter note 1/4
crotchet
eighth note 1/8
quaver
sixteenth note 1/16
semiquaver
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Time signature
Time signature or meter is referred to the number of beats you find in a bar (or measure) of
a musical piece and sets the rhythmic feel of it.
The most common metre is 4/4: it means that we have a defined rhythmic space that turns
its cycle every 4 beats. The beat value is 1/4 and we have 4 of them; in a 3/4 meter we will
have three beats and so on...
When the time signature is 2/4, 3/4 or 4/4 we have a simple meter, and we can divide the
beat into two 1/8 notes or four 1/16 notes, etc.
But we can also find a compound meter, like 6/8, 9/8 or 12/8: it means that we can divide a
single beat into three 1/8 notes. The rhythm sounds different due to the subdivision of 3 notes
per beat. For example, you can think of a slow blues tune.
There are also "odd time" signatures in which the number of beats could be 5,6,7... and the
single beat duration is 1/8 instead of 1/4. We will discuss them later.
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Quarter, eighth, half, whole notes
The quarter note is the value that defines every single beat of a bar; when you use a
metronome it plays quarter notes, unless you program it to play eighth notes.
If you divide a quarter note into two notes with equal duration you have the eighth note.
A half note has the duration of two quarter notes, and the whole note is made of four quarter
notes. Check the scheme at page 5.
When you listen to music try to find out what the time signature is, maybe by listening to a
rhythmic loop played by the drum or bass. You can also count how many beats a chord or riff
are played. Follow what the bass player (and all the other musicians in the band) is playing:
this lets you understand what musicians use and "think" when they play, and in the meantime
you also absorb endless ideas that enrich your musical background.
The best way to learn is to listen to records, play along with them and create your own
basslines, solos, etc...
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ex. 1
ex. 2
ex. 3
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ex. 4
ex. 5
ex. 6
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ex. 7
ex. 8
ex. 9
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ex. 10
ex. 11
ex. 12
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ex. 13
ex. 14
ex. 15
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ex. 16
ex. 17
ex. 18
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ex. 19
ex. 20
ex. 21
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ex. 22
ex. 23
ex. 24
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Sixteenth notes
Dividing a beat into four notes leads you to sixteenth notes: they must have the same duration,
so be careful how you use them.
In this chapter you will also find a combination with eighth and sixteenth notes.
To understand them you only need to consider an eighth note as two sixteenth notes together:
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ex. 25
ex. 26
ex. 27
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ex. 28
ex. 29
ex. 30
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ex. 31
ex. 32
ex. 33
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ex. 34
ex. 35
ex. 36
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ex. 37
ex. 38
ex. 39
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ex. 40
ex. 41
ex. 42
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ex. 43
ex. 44
ex. 45
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ex. 46
ex. 47
ex. 48
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Dotted notes
The dot increases the duration of a note by half of its original value. Therefore, a quarter
dotted note has a duration equal to 1/4 + 1/8. An eighth dotted note has 1/16 more of its du-
ration and so on.
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ex. 49
ex. 50
ex. 51
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ex. 52
ex. 53
ex. 54
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ex. 55
ex. 56
ex. 57
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ex. 58
ex. 59
ex. 60
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Triplets
The triplet is an irregular group of notes that divide the single beat in three notes:
Triplets can also be played using quarter instead of eighth notes:
The single quarter note is like two eighths of triplets together.
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ex. 61
ex. 62
ex. 63
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ex. 64
ex. 65
ex. 66
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ex. 67
ex. 68
ex. 69
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ex. 71
ex. 72
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ex. 73
ex. 74
ex. 75
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ex. 76
ex. 77
ex. 78
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Syncopation
Syncopation is a particular rhythmic effect in which you play off-beat: it means you are not
playing your accent(s) together with the flow of the quarter notes in the bar, but in the middle.
In the example below, you can easily see the notes playing against the accents:
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ex. 79
ex. 80
ex. 81
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ex. 82
ex. 83
ex. 84
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ex. 85
ex. 86
ex. 87
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Tie
The tie is a curved line that unites the head of the notes. Add the value of the notes and play
them like they are one.
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ex. 88
ex. 89
ex. 90
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ex. 91
ex. 92
ex. 93
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ex. 94
ex. 95
ex. 96
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Sixteenth note triplets and
sextuplets
When you divide a beat into 6 notes you get sixteenth note triplets and sextuplets, with every
note having equal duration. The difference between these two figurations is the accent: one
accent every three notes for the sixteenth note triplet and one accent every two notes for the
sextuplet; this makes the part sound different.
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ex. 97
ex. 98
ex. 99
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ex. 100
ex. 101
ex. 102
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ex. 103
ex. 104
ex. 105
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ex. 106
ex. 107
ex. 108
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Compounds
In this kind of time signature you always count three eighth notes per beat, so you don't count
the meter in quarter notes anymore.
A 6/8 meter is equivalent 2/4, 9/8 is equivalent to 3/4 and 12/8 is equivalent to 4/4, with three
eighth notes in between each beat.
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ex. 109
ex. 110
ex. 111
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ex. 115
ex. 116
ex. 117
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ex. 118
ex. 119
ex. 120
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Cut time
The cut time (or cut common time) is a time signature that has a C with a vertical line through
it, and you count it is as a 2/2 (every beat is now a half note). It's heavily used in latin music.
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ex. 121
ex. 122
ex. 123
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ex. 124
ex. 125
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ex. 128
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Summary
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ex. 130
ex. 131
ex. 132
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ex. 133
ex. 134
ex. 135
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ex. 138
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ex. 139
ex. 140
ex. 141
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ex. 143
ex. 144
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ex. 145
ex. 146
ex. 147
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ex. 148
ex. 149
ex. 150
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Odd time signature
This particular meter sounds very irregular if you compare it to the other time signatures we
had in the previous pages. You need to count a bar every 5, 6, 7, etc beats, and the beat has
a duration that could be a quarter or an eighth note.
Some examples: a 5/4 rhythm is made of five quarter-notes, a 7/8 rhythm is made of seven
eight-notes...
Be aware that they could have a different musical accentuation: for example, an 11/8 meter
could be subdivided as a 3+3+3+2 eighth notes, or it could also sound like a 5/4 with an eighth
note added (5/4 = 10/8, then you add 1/8).
Sometimes in the time signature you can find this kind of notation: 3+3+3+2/8, but if it's not,
then you need to count and listen to the rhythmic pattern of the instruments.
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ex. 151
ex. 152
ex. 153
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ex. 154
ex. 155
ex. 156
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ex. 157
ex. 158
ex. 159
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ex. 160
ex. 161
ex. 162
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ex. 163
ex. 164
ex. 165
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[email protected]
www.instagram.com/robertofascianibass
www.facebook.com/robertofascianibassplayer
www.youtube.com/robertofascianibass
© Roberto Fasciani 2021
℗ Roberto Fasciani 2021
Rhythmic Solfeggios for Bass
