Rhythm and time are two of the most important aspects of sight reading. By improving your ability to recognize rhythms, you will greatly improve your sight reading abilities. I struggled sight reading music in a swing style for a while…until I realized there were approximately 12 rhythms that kept reoccurring.

Click here for the 12 basic swing rhythms!

Once I developed a system to see an imaginary barline splitting each measure in half, I was able to quickly identify rhythms and play more accurately. Below is an example of my “imaginary” barline for the first 8 measures of Charlie Parker’s “Moose the Mooche”.

Imaginary barlines for “Moose the Mooche”

Check out my two videos below. The first has a series of exercises for you to try. The second one goes a little more in depth with the process of spltting measures in half and seeing rhythms. Hope you enjoy!