Music Theory: Learn to Read Rhythm

By Edina Balczo

When I was a child, my first music teacher told me that my poor sense of rhythm would prevent me from ever becoming a successful musician. Now, I make my living as a rhythm guitarist.

How do you count time in music? Are you in time when playing your songs? Do you want the music and rhythm to sound exactly as intended when learning a new song?

This course, which includes 50 videos and 14 exercises at 7 difficulty levels, will provide you with an easy method for counting time in music; teach you how to use the metronome as a practice aid; show you how to change rhythm within a beat. If you feel that you have a terrible sense of rhythm, I can assure you that like any other music-related topic, rhythmic sense is something which can be learned. The included exercises will help you to master off-beats, triplets, and the ability to count and clap any rhythm in rock-steady time.

You will learn:
•All the note and rest values, triplets, dotted notes, off beats, etc.
•How to count and clap any rhythm.
•How to remain in time and change rhythm within a beat.

This course also includes a guitar song example for each level and a flamenco guitar bonus lesson (not obligatory), so you can see how the rhythms sound when played on a real instrument.

If you play an instrument, you will almost certainly have to learn how to read rhythm. Furthermore, if you plan to play with other people, everyone involved needs to be able to maintain the same and consistent rhythm. So, for anyone contemplating a future in music, the material covered in this course is essential.

Whether you’re a beginner seeking to unlock your natural rhythm, or an experienced player looking to resolve timing issues when playing your instrument - improve your rhythm with me and start your course today!

What others say:
“Just Wow, I had a blockade from the early ages where they kicked me out of Music School because I didn't get this at the age of 7. So, I just moved on making music for 20+ years, without ever being able to understand this with various teachers and tutorials. Now - No More Problems with the help of this tutorial! I'm so amazed, thank you so much! You really know how to teach it and have the perfect examples to train this, thank you!!!” – Ady

“This is what I was looking for many years” – Kris

“Really helpful, easy to progress through exercises - I recommend it to anybody trying to learn to read rhythms.” Sasa

“I liked the class, helped me quite good reading rhythm!” – Sarah

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edina Balczo
• Release date: Jan 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215925508

Edina Balczo

Edina Balczo is a UK-based professional guitarist, who has been playing more than 18 years. She is endorsed by GuitarPro software, and hosts a popular YouTube channel, The Spanish Guitar Hub, which has received millions of views and attracted tens of thousands of subscribers. With her Spanish guitar duo, De fuego, she has recorded and released two albums and performed throughout Europe, including appearances at the Glastonbury festival (UK), Sziget fesztival (HU), Meadows in the Mountains (BG), and Vegfest (UK). She has also performed in special events for Google, Green Peace, and the Commonwealth Nations Ceremony awards.

Book preview

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When I first started playing the guitar, I had no interest in learning how to read rhythm or music. I just listened to the music and tried to copy the way it sounded. Consequently, I always had issues with off-beats and never quite understood where certain notes should start. Having little experience with a metronome also made it more difficult. Learning to read rhythm came later in my music studies when I became interested in flamenco guitar. That music sounded very complex and it eventually became apparent that it was not going to be enough to try and imitate the music by just listening to it. If I wanted to play in time, I had to understand how to read rhythm and follow the metronome in order to sound good. Flamenco, after all, is a dance form and everybody has to follow the same rhythm (including the dancer, the guitarist, the person who claps (palmero), the cajon player, etc.). It was clear that to have any chance of becoming a competent and accomplished guitarist, I would have to take a step back and put in the work.

Reading and utilizing rhythm is a universal skill that is required of all musicians. Whether it be drums, saxophone, violin or any other instrument, the same rules apply. So, you do not need to play flamenco or even be interested in playing it in the future to learn this for your instrument.

Playing any kind of music requires timing (rhythm) and emotion. Because emotion requires that music be slowed down or speeded up, made softer or louder, or played on the off-beat, it usually comes after a good sense of rhythm is developed. The tool of choice for practicing rhythm is the metronome. It helped me and it will help you to become an excellent guitarist. Utilizing it is a great way to develop a better sense of rhythm, and to gain and track your speed. If you practice without a metronome, it becomes difficult to know if you are improving or not. The metronome makes music measurable. That is, it allows you to measure your progress and determine how much you are improving. I practice with the metronome daily, whether to work on a new technique or to learn a new song, since it is the best way to gain speed and sound accurate. Obviously, if you play classical guitar, it would be silly to perform songs with the punctuality of the metronome because of the emotional aspect. Nevertheless, practicing classical pieces with a metronome at the beginning, especially some of the masterpieces, would be beneficial since fast speeds are hard to obtain without it.

Learning to read rhythm and music is a skill that can be developed at any stage of life. I have some students who started playing the guitar when they retired. And yes, they were able to learn how to read rhythm and how to work with a metronome. The method herein is designed to make it easy to understand and develop such skills. Some of my students, who failed to learn to read rhythm previously, became successful with this method. I call this the circle method, but more on that later. Please be advised to have an open mind and tell yourself if a student who never played music before can learn this at the age of 68, so can I.

This course was initially released on Udemy and Skillshare (online course websites). Because of the many positive feedbacks which it received on those platforms, I have decided to also release it in book format. Here are some of the reviews I received:

"Just Wow, I had a blockade from the early ages where they kicked me out of Music School because I didn't get this at the age of 7. So, I just moved on making music for 20+ years, without ever being able to understand this with various teachers and tutorials. Now - No More Problems with the help of this tutorial! I'm so amazed, thank you so much! You really know how to teach it and