"99% of you can't play this simple exercise"

[@klaus8456]

"Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to keep time." Thelonious Monk.

[@markdemell3717]

AYE!

[@bobgreen8142]

@@user-mm8vw1ow1x Thelonious Monk is God.

[@andrewmair7371]

Good one … 👍 😆 🤣 💃

[@bluedragon5544]

for those, who have troubles: find a name or any word or sentence with the right amount of syllables and go along with it! if you want to play 1 note per beat, for example "Joe" , 2 notes "Peter" , 3 notes " Barbara" , 4 notes "how do you do", 5 notes " Annamaria" and so on , just fit the name into the beat. I hope, my explanation helps ???

[@dbuczek2035]

Pamela Anderson

[@michaeldominguez3081]

Arnold Schwarzenegger

[@PaulDavids]

So... can you play it? Let's do the challenge! Try it out and use the hashtag #rhythmchallenge I'M SURE YOU GOT IT!

[@joem9360]

No...I cannot

[@lukejakoinao209]

I didn't understand a thing

[@AsitShouldBe]

You won! Lol.

[@mh287]

It was very easy actually.

[@benyoung2014]

How many people can get the 5/beat section first time idk - I definitely can’t

[@chandlermason1796]

That intro was 11/10 on editing and comedy and realism 🔥

[@NACHOOFF]

Amazing intro.

[@merijn4440]

This is actually something my former drum teacher made me do (but on the drums ofc). Very very cool exercise for your rhythm feeling. It hurts your brain more than your fingers

[@gayming4197]

I learned this on the piano: with scales, both hands parallel and both hands opposing directions, and then quarters left hand and eights right hand, then quarters left and triplets right, then eights left and triplets right, or dotted quarters plus eights, and so on... endless fun...

[@AGlimpseInside]

So I’m a drummer, I can play this in my sleep as most of us can. However play guitar as well I can see how if I was a exclusively guitar player, these types of rhythms would have not been ingrained in the early process as they are in the percussive world

[@tombstone1055]

Same here, 5's were a bit weird trying on the guitar, but tapping it out was easy.

[@Pauld62]

Well said, my guitar playing improved so much just learning some basic 4/4 drum beats. I can imagine it would improve alot more if i learnt some more complex drum stuff

[@sethgardner8209]

I thinks playing the drums gives you a massive advantage for guitar, amplified even more with bass. While I’m not the greatest player, I can play all three which gave me a huge head start

[@jaminpaul4389]

Drummer as well, I immediately thought of Tool's 'the grudge'

[@michaelmcintyre8250]

I started as a drummer too. Now let’s try a paradiddle....

[@DiegoHL]

I have been playing drums for some years now, so I’m a little bit used to move my hands to the sound of a metronome. Also, I’m a little familiarized with subdivisions and give them syllables. For example, for triplets we use Ta-Ki-Ta (also for sixtuplets, just double the speed). For quintuplets use Da-Ni-Ke-Na-Dum. Or Ta-Ka-Ta-Ki-Ta About the exercise I had troubles with the quintuplets. Thanks for the video, teacher Paul

[@federicozabatta1612]

Hey Paul! I know that exercise for a long time (even I keep practising it). But I'd learnt it with a simple "melody". 8th notes: A-B-A-C / A-B-A-C Triplets: A-B-C-A-C-D / A-B-C-A-C-D 16th notes: A-B-C-D-A-C-D-Eb / A-B-C-D-A-C-D-Eb Quintuplets: A-B-C-D-F#-A-C-D-Eb-F# / A-B-C-D-F#-A-C-D-Eb-F# Sextuplets: A-B-C-D-Ex-F#-A-C-D-Eb-F#-G / A-B-C-D-Ex-F#-A-C-D-Eb-F#-G

[@versnellingspookie]

1:24 much like my cat, your cat doesnt care what you're doing whenever he wants attention

[@astewart9410]

Same here.

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

1:22 but it has cat's eye in weird places

[@JoePariseauMusic]

@Paul Davids I like to use the TaKaDiMi system (similar to Konnokol or Indian Solfedge like John McLaughlin endorses) for this! Totally worth a deep dive into this subject. I've fixed so many of my students sense of rhythm with this system! Rules: Ta is always on the downbeats and Di is always on the &. Round 1: Clap on all downbeats while verbally saying the syllables. Round 2: Clap only one 2 and 4. Round 3: Replace claps with foot taps while playing instrument. The Syllables: Quarter Note = Ta Eighth Notes = Ta Di Eighth Triples = Ta Ki Da Sixteenths = Ta Ka Di Mi Quintuplets = Ta Ka Di Mi Ti Sextuplets = Ta Va Ki Di Da Ma Septuplets = Ta Va Ki Di Da Ma Ti 32nds = Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka Di Mi Quarter Note Triplets = Ta Da Ki

[@JoePariseauMusic]

Can you figure out why a Quarter Note triplet is Ta Da Ki while an Eight Note triplet is Ta Ki Da?

[@michaeltellurian825]

We all know you're a great guitarist. We all know that you're a great teacher. This is my question: Did you produce this video on your own? Because if you did, you're also a great video producer. Outstanding work whoever did it.

[@danielbartling5477]

Pretty sure Paul does everything himself, he mentioned this in his latest studio tour.

[@cameronf1460]

99% can't grow a beard like yours

[@NorbertNagyNorc]

Most can. Just not on the chin.

[@santiagobarraza28]

@@NorbertNagyNorc that means they can't

[@nicholasindalecio8211]

It’s definitely a sweet beard

[@lindsayheywood7195]

Well for sure, 50% of us can’t. At least I would hope not!

[@UsedBookStore]

I'm a drummer, I can play it. But ask me to add notes and a melody, and I'm lost. Bloody left hand fingers.

[@pashahillyard8763]

Ever played marimba?

[@ProphayniaX]

Paul is the lightbulb guy for me. I’ve been fiddling around with guitar since 1978 And he still makes lightbulbs go off friggin awesome

[@haridev8386]

Well we should appreciate him. Today, he's having a match against Juventus and he's teaching us guitar. Really multitalented ❤ Lol

[@vincentbeemer5269]

Goat🙌🙌🙌

[@thefryingpan8041]

😂😂

[@arpannaskar7462]

Lol😂

[@antoniaryanto5022]

Asuuuu 😂

[@jicklesjingles8134]

But he's three times the height... 🤷‍♂️

[@ARCHDEACONMUSIC]

Awesome exercise Paul! I've been playing guitar for 32 years and I'm a performing musician and the better I get the more I'm realizing it's all about the RHYTHM in music! I put the metronome on 70 and I was able to do it on the 2nd try, which isn't bad. I think I'm going to incorporate this into my practice and make sure I nail this exercise. I've been working on quintuplets a lot lately as it's such a cool & different sounding grouping of notes & it's a fun challenge to keep increasing the speed with it. I'm actually considering writing a song in quintuplets as well as that would be totally different. Anyway, always great to watch your videos bro! I've been putting in about 4 hours every day practicing my lead playing for the past 2 months and I'm definitely enjoying the process as that is most of life. Thanks so much for all you do as it's great to watch your videos and learn from you as you are an AWESOME musician and seem like such a genuine person as well! You deserve all the recognition & having so many people subscribe to your channel! BTW I saw that your friend Rotem Sivan is playing at The Blue Note in NYC as I went there last night with some friends to watch some live music as John Popper (Blues Traveler), Paul Schaeffer, DJ Logic, and friends were performing. Much respect & keep rockin'! :)

[@pianoworld89]

Level 2: left hand keeps the beat instead of a metronome, right hand does the exercise. Works without a guitar ;)

[@MicaDeLaSierra]

Thank you for sharing! Unsual sort of excercice and feels so helpful! 🙏💚

[@flutechannel]

Nailed it! :)

[@no3rdseat]

Man, you've really upped your game Paul! Production values and content are through the roof! Great video! :)

[@GabrielBPerez_]

I see a Paul Davids video, I click...

[@digitalchris6681]

A challenge back to you, Paul: with your acoustic, strum 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 times per beat. These are all common Flamenco rhythms. It's not really possible to do by metronomes and counting, you just have to spend years practising the sound and feel. And no, I can't do it yet, at least to anything other than a dead slow beat....

[@OliverLeu_Gitarrenunterricht]

When it's coming to quintuplets, it's not a basic exercise anymore, I'd like to add. Most hobby musicians never played them.

[@streetwiseguitar5113]

Jaysus Paul, those were a lot of shots you did to make the first scene! Hats off to you!!!!! Lots of work!

[@joxidearmageddonator882]

"I'm terrible at guitar! I can't do it! NO!" - Paul Davids, 2020

[@mandrewcurry9416]

Did it the first time I tried it ... 4 decades ago. Yeah, my teacher was frustrated with me being late, then early, then late on a Bach piece that had a 7 position shift, so he had me do this. Syncing the metronome if the key. Thanks!

[@krk064]

I had to do this as a picking exercise given to me maybe a month into taking lessons... It was painful then but hey, it was all worth it to be able to prove that random person on Instagram wrong am I right?

[@mateojimenez5905]

Hey Paul I bought ur course during the summer and I stopped doing it when school started. I'm planning to start up again just wanted to say I love ur vids and appreciate all the work you put into them and into the course

[@breadyegg]

Bonus challenge: do it with a cat bothering you. [Edit] tip for quintuplets, repeat "tiki taki ta" (or similar)

[@tolkienfan1972]

I have four cats, so yeah... They bother me whenever I'm trying to something.

[@cynthiahawkins819]

Or say 'university'. I got that from a drummer.

[@stevekirby7333]

I'm more of a guitar player than drummer, but I was taught this exercise on drums. There the object was to go alternately between hand and foot, stepping though the divisions. First the right hand and foot, then reversing to the right foot then hand. Then the same thing on the left side. The thing with doing no note value or staccato things to a metronome is to "bury the click". It's very easy for the brain to fool itself reacting near instantaneously thinking that it's simultaneous. If you can hear the click then you aren't on it. Another trick is to play in between the clicks. Start with playing quarters on the ands of the metronome. With no noise going on, you'll find it's much harder to keep together with the metronome. Then you can try playing quarter notes on the various "e's" of the count. The crazy good guys can go though this kind of quarter to triplet progressions against each sub division of the beat. That's how David Garibaldi comes up with some of his insane patterns. Now I'll have to try some of this on guitar. 8-)

[@AnonymousCowardly]

Ha! I saw the title and "rhythm pyramid" was the first thing that popped into my mind. My guitar teacher made me practice it.

[@mfstraight]

A nice warm-up I like to do that is somewhere between Level 1 and Level 2 is to pick a left-hand position and play finger 1, 2, 3, 4 in quarter notes on the lowest string, then subdivide into eighth notes (11223344) on each fret of the next string, triplets on each fret of the next string (111222333444) and so on until you are playing sextuplets (111111222222333333444444) on the last string, then do it backwards, starting with 6 notes per finger/fret and ending with single quarter notes on each fret. Going backwards/slowing down is harder but sounds cooler.

[@denobro1]

I see Paul David’s. I click. I don’t hesitate. You’re my hero.

[@cardosoguitarra]

Bravo, Professor! I’ll try it just now! Keep up the good work. Best regards from São Paulo/Brazil

[@thomasbyrne7372]

Where this exercise really gets tricky is when you try to jump around the divisions. Hopping from 2 to 5 to 3 to 4 to 7 to 2.

[@Fig_8]

Damn, I can't do it perfectly, and I was just drumming

[@berndkoelbl3852]

Hello Paul, it`s a good exercice and I got my problems by playing the quintuplets. Kenny Burrell once said: "Before you learn a lick learn the rhythm first.

[@LuisCorreadAlmeida]

Check out Wynton Marsalis Autumn Leaves in his 1987 Columbia release Standard Time Vol 1

[@Jamsville]

Hahaha yeah, it's basically this exercise but turned into an arrangement!

[@davivify]

I've been doing a variant of this recently. Sort of. Vibrato practice on fiddle. Set the metronome to, say, 60. Start by alternating your finger position on each beat. Back, forth, back, forth. Then do a back and forth on each beat. Then back-forth-back, forth-back-forth. Then four times. That's about as high as I think I need to go.

[@tirthanair1507]

Lol I really can’t play such a simple exercise...!!😂🙈

[@maffooo2040]

@Peter Martins theyre just quintuplets then sextuplets, quintuplets are quite hard at first, but sextuplets are very easy if you know triplets.

[@celinefivez3709]

Not yet😜😂

[@SomeOfTheJuice]

I actually learned this technique from a drummer as a warmup to get my fingers moving when playing bass. Quintuplets are the only ones I struggle with and that's because I rarely encounter them in my normal playing.

[@rodiusmaximus]

This is almost an ad for metronome. I’m like ‘I don’t have one. I need one.’

[@markrages]

Type "metronome" into Google. Now you have a metronome.

[@the_spaghett_boy4331]

dude I love your videos, they've helped me learn so much. Especially that video on John Mayers Neon, I was having all kinds of issues with that last year...

[@biharcourt]

Coolest, most stylish KZbin guitar teacher!! 😎 That's all I'm here to say!

[@zyighzag4050]

I used to play guitar for 11 years before I took my first guitar course. My teacher taught me this exercise I still do because it's sooooo efficient and essential. I remember feeling so dumb when I did it for the first time, but also how great I sounded when I actually mastered it

[@drothberg3]

I made up a similar exercise but skipped the quintuplets. That’s the hardest one.

[@quarter_bob]

starting guitar after an 8 year career in marching percussion has benefited me in ways just like this

[@kieranmcgee3610]

Paul doesn't make lesson videos, he makes lesson movies!!

[@williamreid7388]

The production quality of your videos never ceases to amaze, truly a multi talent

[@ujaan15]

How meta is it that the clickbait title got me to click on this video (I didn't notice the inverted commas)... I should be asleep now.

[@c_s_b_9_4]

"inverted commas" you mean the quotation marks? lol

[@ujaan15]

@@c_s_b_9_4 they’re known differently based on where you are from 😅

[@GeorgeSPAMTindle]

@@ujaan15 They're not known differently. Inverted commas are 'single commas at the top of the script', whereas quotation marks are "doubled commas at the top of the script". They serve different purposes and are not interchangeable. The quotation marks used in the title for this video are correct, as Paul was quoting a title of a tweet by another person. Punctuation can be a nightmare, but that is no excuse to not get it right; or even worse, avoid it altogether. Try using a question mark when you ask a question, and the misuse of the ellipsis isn't particularly good to see either. Work on it, you will get there eventually.

[@supplant9124]

u mean quotation marks? Lmao

[@anthonyparkernearlifeexp]

It took me about 3 tries then I had it. The hard part is the "5's". The rest(not including the 5's) is similar to an exercise I have my students do all the time.

[@zolin6840]

I was thinking: wait I already played this once, I know that. And then I remembered it is the bass drum pattern of the Tool song The Grudge at 1:12 of the song. Edit: what a coincidence that Paul plays the exercise the first time also at that timestamp. Too bad my comment probably will be buried.

[@TechMetalRules]

The "toughest" part for most would be going from fours to fives, but as Guthrie Govan says, "Ineffective Telemarketing".

[@TinOrcen]

Man, that intro! :D I feel like it's getting better with each video. Good work with the editing !

[@MassimilianoSarigu]

"Resist clickbait!" :-D

[@WhiteCranK]

Your editing here is just awesome!! big up

[@jitendrasolomon7879]

"I can't play this because i don't have a guitar like his" - Me on my first day playing guitar

[@Ryan-op2ng]

Exactly ! mom buy me a Fender so I can play like this!

[@sandimtavares]

Love the video, Paul. I'm happy to see you exercising your creativity with video editing and scripts as well.

[@DavidOakesMusic]

More like 99% of guitarists don't care about this exercise and just have fun playing.

[@PaulDavids]

Why not do an exercise and also enjoy it? It's not opposites.

[@marceloramos8927]

Thanks to your video now I know why I had problems learning the beginning of the guitar solo of Juicebox by The Strokes; it starts with fast pull-offs from the 14th to the 12th fret on the D and G strings in 16th notes and then suddenly switches to an arpeggio in 8th notes triplets, and because this change of rhythm happens so fast my brain kind pf gets lost I guess. It doesn't even look like a challenging solo until you try to learn that first part. Great video Paul!!!

[@comrad_dytar8633]

"99% of you can't play this simple exercise" Well, "simple" for this man doesn't really say much, for all i know it's probably the hardest challenge i've ever encountered

[@merlynscave]

I am a drummer who also plays guitar and piano. I learned that idea on the drums, so I adopt it on guitar as well. It is always good to get the rudiments sorted.

[@ExposingEvil_]

I can only do quarters and eighths gonna be honest, who here is with me?

[@_Moses44]

As a drummer/guitar player (started with drums) I’ve noticed that a lot of guitar players I’ve played with over the years often do have rhythm troubles. This is a great way for guitar players to get the FEEL for the rhythm

[@RC32Smiths01]

Not all things appear as they seem in the world of music and guitar

[@TheJayBee1990]

As a pianist, drummer and a guitarist who came from thrash metal (heavy e-riffing) i think this is quite simple... I did this with downstrokes up to 4 strokes per beat when I tried to copy James Hetfield's style. Nowadays I prefer alternate picking on electric guitars and fingerpicking on acoustic (i barely use any pick on my acoustics). With fingers this is easy, when you are used to tremolo pick the lower e-string

[@Justin_Gonsalves]

As if wielding Thor's hammer wasn't enough, Captain America is playing a guitar now!

[@theharvardyard2356]

I feel like the little slide you do up to the 12th makes it harder for my brain. Reorganizing my fingers so I didn't have to slide that note made it easier for me to divide the notes up in my head.

[@NihalNair]

wait how many guitars do you have!?

[@erianasvow9744]

yes

[@thisiswhoiam3467]

Not enough!!! 😅

[@doc221978]

This is a great lesson.... It was a rudimentary lesson for drummers 30 years ago. Because of that, switching timing is pretty easy for me. I believe every musician could benefit from a little time with percussion.

[@marialuciaandradecantarino2375]

Before watching:"Are you challenging me?" After watching:"I can't play this"

[@matroid4996]

I played guitar in my schools jazz band for about 6 years and clarinet in the symphonic band for 8. This was an exercise we did constantly to work on double tonguing and I translated it over to work on my alternate picking. It’s a great exercise

[@jenspahl8357]

I failed at triplets, always ended up in a shuffle, not "even triplets"

[@t3hgir]

Think "trip-puh-let"

[@InventorZahran]

A shuffle is basically triplets, but with the middle note of each triplet removed.

[@fatwillie7854]

Well, I'm a keyboardist. Playing this exercise is a bit different on the keys...you can play it as scales, or on a single note, which gives you a couple of different options - you can alternate between hands using a single finger on each, shifting to two fingers on one hand for the odd-numbered figures or sticking with alternating one finger on each hand, or you can play what's called a "single-note trill" (at least, that's what *I* call it...) where you use one, two, three or even four different fingers in succession on the same key. How hard this turns out to be is certainly related to how fast you're playing, of course - but if you spend some time learning how to do it, you can eventually work your way up to some fairly breakneck tempos. However, I think I'd rather just practice One Note Samba. ;-)

[@AkosKovacs.Author.Musician]

It's called syncopation. Al Di Meola was talkin about that a long time now.

[@mr.person555]

This is not syncopation, it's just subdivision changes. Syncopation has more to due with the rhythmic accents of the notes where they may fall on "off beats" but generally still on the same grid/subdivision.

[@ecrecords615]

I'm a guitarist but I got some lessons from a drummer friend of mine who took me through this exercise! He even expanded upon it to septuplets, 32nd notes, etc. etc.

[@laurentdetaille4111]

Super interesting exercise. Would have never thought about it, thanks !

[@korento3000]

You are really the ideal YT teacher/educator. Excellent content, good humour, positive, and well produced. Fantastic teaching. Keep making videos! I'd love videos giving tips on how to go about writing songs that you can i) sing while playing, in a way that sounds smooth and professional but still expresses your own musical vision; ii) double with another guitar (Kings of Convenience style) or instrument, like the bass or drums.

[@DaveSheremata]

No problem.... started off playing orchestra drums in the mid eighties. :)

[@CheffreyCook]

Your editing is so great just gotta tell you 🤯🤯

[@matthewjamestaylor]

"Make the metronome sound great." That is such a strong piece of advice. Great video. Cheers.

[@MapleAudio]

As you said it comes down to practice and for me as a drummer & guitarist it is quite easy to switch from binary to tertiary rhythms without counting it in my head most of the time I just feel it. HOWEVER I never played a lot of quintuplets and for me they feel neither binary nor tertiary rhythm. So when playing quintuplets I always start with counting 12312-12312... and so on in my head just to get into the quintuplet-feeling. After a while I can do it without counting but it never is just as easy to switch to quintuplets like it is to switch to triplets or sextuplets. Maybe this helps some people when they try to play this.

[@LesterMitchell]

That's one of my favorites. I used to do that a lot back in the day when I was full into shred. Then I'd bump up the bpm an start over. On each string.

[@YazadIrani]

I love the way you edit your vids man!!

[@HeyDropthat]

@0:18 "OK" this absolutely sums up my experience when I know I shouldn't click, but do anyway

[@ULGuitar]

I am now trying to show my friends with first basic with many song of practice the basic rhythm... thanks for this video😍

[@SeanPat1001]

Thanks Dave. A great idea. I play by ear. Even tablature is a problem for me. So, these kinds of drills inform my mind of my body’s capabilities and improve my ability to improvise. I would just mention two things. Record practice sessions and listen to them. Listen to the whole recording. Ask, does it sound good? You may be better or worse than you think. Then 3 or 6 months later, compare your old recordings to you recent ones.

[@circlemover]

I can see real value in practising this exercise but - although I know I should - there comes a time after playing for more than 50 years where I need to use what little left I have in my fingers to compose...but I am with you bud...thanks.

[@citizenkang01]

I came up with this exercise to help my swing feel in blues guitar (stole from a common drum exercise and applied to my guitar playing), should have known it was pretty common. Increasing and decreasing subdivisions at first, then randomly jumping between them. Switching from 16th notes to quarter note triplets to dotted eighths is "fun". Highly recommend.

[@thormusique]

Excellent, thank you! Actually, this is an exercise that John McLaughlin advocated many years ago. His approach was to take it up to (or down to) 32nd notes, then reverse the sequence. I started using it at conservatory in the 80s, just playing it with different scales/modes. I did it every day for about a year and found it to be a great sort of centering excercise, if only because it's difficult to be thinking about other things going on in your life while you're doing it. :-) I still occasionally pull it out just for fun.

[@diegonapoles2469]

you really upped the production value here. Respect.

[@conradgittins4476]

I wholly agree with this exercise no matter what your instrument. Practicing to an external pulse helps you lock in to the rhythm of your band or orchestra and even train your inner metronome.

[@clockwerk76]

Hahah! This is literally my warm up. I started doing it a couple of years ago when I realized I was repeating certain groupings way too much. The difference is incredible and my right hand improved dramatically.

[@Joseph_C4JB]

This was a big part of rockschool grade 8 drums, except all the way up to divisions of 10. Had words with syllables of each division and for 10s the trick is use "u-ni-ver-si-ty" but only count the right hand (or downstroke for you guitarists i suppose!)

[@mansisawant6185]

Hi Paul,the exercise was beautiful and also triggered my sense of timing in a very good state it was awesome bro. I have a request to make a video on how to perform live especially if you don't have any band with you and you are not a good singer,what songs and techniques will you prefer to nail that show. Please help. 🤘🤘

[@aqqaluksrensen5799]

Nice one!! Great exercise! I couldn't, know I can individual rhythms but not combined, thank you for that!! something to improve!

[@RupesMcDGuitar]

Bossing it again paul!

[@MrUniverse]

Got it first time whoop. BUT I'm more interested in the tab for that little old fashioned dream sequence you played at the start!

[@Zdravko7]

There were no quintuplets in the conservatory exercise, but we did do it with arpeggios for all the chords in a tonality, within a single position on the neck. Tricky stuff. This was the lesson from Leendert on Codarts if I remember correctly :) Very cool video, also the advice on slow bpm metronome practice is great, 30-40bpm, wish I'd started that earlier.

[@eljhmt]

Thanks for giving us this rhythm challenge Paul! I can’t wait to get started :D

[@billvilla7799]

Love you videos Paul...most I don't even try. I am a hacker at strumming, just love watching people who are really good at what they do!