So I’m working on 2 performance pieces along side beginner to badass. And by coincidence both songs are heavily syncopated. They are David Bowie’s ‘as the world falls down’ and Sade’s ‘smooth operator’. Does anyone have top tips for measuring timing in practice? Would a metronome do the job or am I better off trying to find a backing track?
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Try this one.
If you’re interested, here’s the complete notation (no tab).
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When I’m struggling with a rhythm, I put the tablature in Guitar Pro (or an equivalent) and slow it down considerably while activating the Guitar Pro metronome. This really helps me “feel” where the notes are played in relation to the beat. And you can hear if you’re playing in sync with the tab.
For syncopation, I mute the right-hand string as if I were playing a note; this helps avoid “gaps” in the playing.
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Great tips, thank you!
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I really dig Smoothe Operator. Great track.
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A simple song to practice syncopation on is Papa was a Rolling Stone by the Temptations. It’s a repeated groove of 5 or 6 notes with one syncopated, and runs for 12 minutes. It helped me find the pocket with syncopation.
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Unless you are a session musician there’s not a whole lot of demand to read and count your syncopation. You can just listen and absorb your music. If it doesn’t click with you the first few dozen times try “Air Bass” the song. You’ll get much better results than trying to keep up with the sheet.
Most if not all of the music I listen to have Syncopated bass lines.
Here’s my take on the Smooth Operator, funny I just played this yesterday at @booker_t place. 
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Awesome thanks for that, and what a brilliant rendition! If I can get it half way to that I’ll be happy 
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