Re: How can you play in the correct speed if you don't hear the drums first?

["Michael LaMeyer" <mlameyer@rcn.com>]

Please share!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Walker (Loop.pooL)" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 10:19 PM
Subject: How can you play in the correct speed if you don't hear
the drums first?


> Matthias wrote:
> I never thought of this option. How can you play in the
correct speed
> if you don't hear the drum first?
>
>
> For what it's worth Matthias, in a new wave band I led in the
early
> eighties, Tao Chemical, we wanted to be able to start songs
without count
> ins for maximum theatricality.   We practised
> starting the song without the guitarist and the bassist
knowing what the
> tempo was (well, we knew what the relative tempo approach
is)....just a
> visual cue from me about where the downbeat occurred.
>
> A great trick we developed to teach ourselves how to do this:
Make sure
> that what ever you are going to loop (your melodic part, that
is) has a
> value of at least one eight note (if your meter is in 16th
notes) but
> preferabbly a dotted eighth note or a quarter note.   Since
you are
> controlling the "on" event, you hit the downbeat melodic or
harmonic figure
> as you hit 'play' on the drum machine and listen like hell!!!
What happens
> is that you will hear at least the down beat and the next
'hihat' or
> hihat-esque sound if not 3 or 4 of these metric units before
you have to
> play your next chord or melody note.  You then teach yourself
how to get
> tempi from only two or three events.
> This is very jarring at first, but, believe it or not after
you have done it
> 10 or 20 times at a few different tempi you get the hang of it
and, most
> importantly, you quit being anxious about coming in with your
next event
> (the anxiety that almost invariably causes human beings to
play ahead of
> the beat).   This is very effective in performance.  It comes
across as very
> organic even when one is playing to a sequenced track or a
drum machine.
>
> Another good thing to do is to learn how to play behind the
beat or ahead of
> the beat with total impunity.  This is a longer discussion and
if you or
> anyone else wants to hear it, I'll be happy to
> post a very cool trick I invented for teaching a rank beginner
how to do
> this against a metronomic track.   Just let me know.   Right
now,  I'm about
> to clean install my whole friggin' system to prepare for a big
> production/writing gig that starts next week.   My system has
been
> increasingly buggy and I can't afford for it to fuck up on me
next week.  I
> may be off line for a day or two, consequently.    Wish me
luck,    Rick
> Walker  (loop.pool)
>