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Looper's Delight
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Andrew Pask wrote: "The back of the beat seems to be the province of horn players and piano players, check out how far back Keith Jarrett can get sometimes." In my experience, most horn players who were classically trained have been so brow beaten by conductors to 'not rush' that they have a very strong tendency to play way, way back of the beat. This can cause some problems in performance (especially relative to live playing and relating to loops). To whit: I once played with a professional Motown band. I thank them profusely because it was like going to the college of time playing with them. They were all good players, but the time situation was thus: The guitarist was a perfect metronomic, unwaivering player. The entire horn section dragged like motherf*ckers but were consistent in their sense of time. This situation alone was fraught with problems with that situation alone. Add to this the fact the bass player (who was a really good musician) started off everysingle night by downing 4 cups of very, very sweet coffee, one right after the other...................he then proceeded, very methodically, to drink beer after beer after beer. consequently, like clock work, he played on top of the beat for set one (this was in bar wars, mind you), came to the middle of the beat in the middle of set two, started dragging in set three and then dragged horribly as he got completely drunk by set four. I did so many gigs with them in a short span of time that I could set my watch by this process. All night long I was trying as hard as possible to rectify the lack of cohesion in the band, rhythmically and it was really, really difficult. What was great about it, is that I had to listen harder than I've ever listened in my life to really, really subtle details of where the beat lies. I ultimately quit the band over this issue, but it was a great teacher to me: the greatest teacher until I started purposefully screwing around with the placement of the beat relative to a loop. Steve Lawson, if you happen to be reading this, please tell us all about your concept of stretching of phrasing relative to loops that are hint at metricity but don't play strictly metronomically. You would do it better justice than me. You, along with Debhashish Battycharya (the great hindi classical slide guitarist from Calcutta)have been my rhythmic gurus in the last year........:-) Oh yeah, and that crazy guy on the Santa Cruz Mall who plays tambourine that has NOTHING TO DO WITH any kind of repetitive rhythm or syncopative resolution.............He is so out, that trying to reproduce what he does has me absolutely fascinated. If I can cop his shit, I will put myself up for Rhythmic Guru status............LMAO!!! Well, my fingers are tired and I just heard that there is a killer UK DJ performing downtown tonight (on a Wendesday night?) so I'm going to go and jack hammer dance with all the young 19 year old drum and bass freaks. Wish me a heart attack free dancing experience, y'all. later, Rick (loop.pool) PS, I also thought I'd share this little concept with you all about visualizing the placement of the beat in a rhythm. In considering the placement of the backbeat (beats 2 and 4 on snare in most pop songs) I tell my drum students that I try to visualize one side of my drum studio as the 2 and the opposite side of my drum studio as the 16th note after two and I try to visualize myself as putting the backbeat somewhere in that space. Make this be the 16th before 2 and the 2 if you are trying to play 'on top' of the beat. Am I being clear? I try to visualize that space as being as large physically as possible and imagine my place in it, relative to the metronomic note that I am trying to play. Try this exercise.......it really stretches the mind, but I think you can do it.