Subdivisions
Splitting the beat into two, three or four equal parts so you can play eighths, triplets and sixteenths precisely.
Applied
Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
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Splitting the beat into two, three or four equal parts so you can play eighths, triplets and sixteenths precisely.
Applied
To subdivide is to split each beat into equal parts and feel them even when you don't play them all. It's the secret of steady rhythm: if you feel the eighths or sixteenths between the beats, every note lands where it belongs.
The same 80 bpm pulse split into one, two, three and four parts:
| Subdivision | Parts per beat | How to count it |
|---|---|---|
| Eighth notes | 2 | 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and |
| Eighth-note triplets | 3 | 1 trip let 2 trip let… |
| Sixteenth notes | 4 | 1 e and a 2 e and a… |
Pick whichever counting system feels natural, but always count the same way.
Set the metronome to 70 bpm and switch on each subdivision. Mute the strings with your fretting hand and strum the rhythm: down on the beat, up on the "and". Then move to triplets and sixteenths without stopping your foot.
Eighths at 70 bpm Triplets at 70 bpm Sixteenths at 70 bpmIn strumming, the subdivision drives the hand: your hand always moves at the speed of the subdivision, whether it hits the strings or not. If the pattern is in eighths, the hand goes down on each beat and up on each "and". When a stroke is silent, the hand still passes without touching. That way you never lose your place.
Try an Em7 strummed in sixteenths, accenting only the first stroke of each beat.
Swing takes eighth notes and plays them unevenly, like the first and third notes of a triplet: long-short, long-short. It's written as normal eighths with an indication at the top. Play a scale in straight eighths, then swung, over the metronome set to triplets.
Rhythm & accompanimentStrumming patternsKeep your arm moving steadily while following a pattern and changing chords.Moving between subdivisions inside a phrase (eighths, then triplets, then sixteenths) is a common soloing device to create a sense of acceleration without changing tempo. Quintuplets (5 per beat) and sextuplets (6) widen the options. Practise them with the metronome, accenting the first note of each group so you don't lose the downbeat.
Quintuplets at 60 bpm