Intro to Licks with Metric Modulation

Superimposing Time

The goal of this series is to actually put a jazz guitar lick under your fingers. Here, there’s no more searching for ideas in the sea of jazz theory information.

We’ll give stuff you need to play and be creative. We will be talking about superimposing time to create some rhythmic interest in your soloing and comping.

Original Example

Today’s idea is taken from the November 2016 Tune of the Month Club edition for “So What”. In this lesson, we will be discussing how you can add some rhythmic interest to your soloing as well as your comping by superimposing different times.

Sometimes, as improvisers, we are looking for different ways to add some rhythmic interest to our playing. Today we will be going over different ways to do that.

Strap on your helmets! This kind of thing can make you dizzy very quickly! ;-)

How It Works

Here, we are basically superimposing time signatures over our given time signature of 4/4. This is kind of like a themed restaurant from another country. You're still in your home country, but it feels like you're somewhere else!

We will also get into some basic polyrhythmic stuff to give us the ability to play over the barline and add rhythmic interest to our phrasing. We will take different lines and arpeggios and use them to structure our ideas.

Download ALL of the licks here: "Intro to Metric Modulation" PDF
Join our Community here.

More Examples

Now let’s get into some more examples.

Example A

In example A, we are taking arpeggios in groupings of 5 and playing them over a 4/4 phrase to blur the barline. Basically, we are implying three 5/8 measures and rounding it off resolving to the third of C.

This one can be a little weird to follow, so try to make sure you know where the "1" is at all times!

Example B

Here is Example B. In this one, we are playing a note every 3 16th notes, giving us a feeling of a different tempo while sustaining the current one. This is what’s commonly known as a 4:3 polyrhythm.

It might also help to think of it this way. Imagine it as if you were playing a beat every three 16th notes. The red dots indicate where this lands.

Example C

Here is Example C. In this one, we are taking the same 4:3 polyrhythm mentioned above and applying it to some comping. This is a neat way to create some rhythmic tension when accompanying another player.

Once again, use this chart to help "feeling" the rhythm.

Jump In

Now you try! I’ll try some of these ideas in a ii V I in C, then you can try it.

Download ALL of the licks here: "Intro to Metric Modulation" PDF
Join our Community here.

Thanks for joining us for Hands-On Jazz Guitar, Volume 15. We hope this has helped you and that you can add some rhythmic interest to your improvisation and comping.

If you liked this lesson, please subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can find many more like this!

You can also tell your friends and everyone else by sharing this lesson. Spread the word!

How Licks Can Keep You Out of Trouble - Check out our blog post on how licks can get you out of a tight spot!