Rhythmic Groupings (Jazz and Grass Lick Breakdown)

This one has a few things to unpack.

I feel like a broken record every time I say this, but this one, harmonically, is relatively simple. Over the Dm7b5 chord, I'm playing a line that I would have no problems playing over a static Fm. One thing you could take away, is when you see a half-diminished chord, think of it as a regular minor chord (or a m6 chord) a minor 3rd up. That is a less confusing concept for me to formulate ideas on.

The next thing I want to take a look is the directional groupings of notes. This is something I'm trying to be more mindful of. The groupings I see in this line are 2-2-3-2-3-5. That last grouping could be looked at as a 4 and a 1, but either way is fine for this experiment.

I encourage you to try clapping on the first note of each group. This creates a figure that I think would be nice as a comping rhythm. I'm always trying to hack different ways of creating lines. An interesting exercises would be to take your favorite comping rhythms and use that as the basis for creating a line with interesting groupings. They don't have to all be played in the same direction. If you look at what I played, the first three groupings are descending, the fourth grouping is ascending, and the final groupings are descending.

As always, experiment, find sounds you like, and explore those sounds thoroughly enough to incorporate them into your playing in a way.

Happy practicing!