What’s up? In this video we are going to cover accents. To put it in simple terms, accents emphasize notes. When we see an accent on sheet music, it tells us to play with more force when we push or pull the record. This means accents are played with a stronger attack. Because accents are played with more force, we have to have control over our strokes. The good news is that practicing accents gives us the opportunity to develop our stroke control.
Using accents is a great way to make our playing more interesting because they create variation. This variation allows us to change the feeling of a rhythm by putting an emphasis on different notes. Where you place an accent can completely change the way a rhythm feels. Listen to the difference between the rhythms with and without accents.
Example 1
Let’s take it a little further and make things more interesting. This time I’m going to play accents on Beat 1 and on the & of Beat 2, as well as on beat 4.
Now we can see how the placements of accents can change the way the rhythm feels. When I started learning how to play accents, I knew how to accent notes, but I didn’t understand the concept of stroke control.
Example 2
Technically it’s easy to accent notes. But at that time, I was playing the accents aimlessly. The part that I didn’t understand was there should be some consistency to how they sound. The good thing is this can be achieved with time and practice. You just need to get the reps in.
You can find accented rhythms to help you develop stroke control in our book scratching made easy turntable method. Link is in the description. See you next video! Peace!
