RE: Maybe why Avante-garde looping in US...

["loop.pool" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Warren wrote:
"And my mantra for rhumba clave is:

Foot, da foot, da foot big foot"

Cool Warren,

I love pnemonics............this particular one that you choose, however, 
works to remind you of  when you
learned the rhythm initially;    another piece of holographic stored 
information that reminds us of the experience.
but if you gave it to some one who didn't know the rhythm or wasn't there 
when you learned it,
there is too much information missing to reconstruct the rhythm.

What I mean is that there are rests between the syllables.

But, how many rests are there?    I know because I know the music but a 
rank 
beginner might not be able to reconstruct this particular one.

This mantra is also clever in the fact that it gives you the reference to 
the downbeat, but again, for someone who didn't know it
in the first place, they would think that Rumba Clave has 7 notes in it, 
when in fact, it has 5.


Using that Indian phrasing system is a little bit more of an accurate map 
because it includes all of the points
in what I call the *Syncopative Resolution of the rhythm.

Rhumba Clave is

(Ta ki ta)(Ta ki di mi)(Ta ki ta)(Ta ki)(Ta ki di mi)

or in Western rhythm speak:
  >            >                >           >         >
  1  e   +   a   2  e  +   a   3  e   +   a    4   e  +  a


  (and by the way,  because this mantra works for you, it is as accurate a 
map of the rhythm
as you need because you can find your way there, right?)


* About the phrase Syncopative Resolution,  I hate making up terms but 
Western Classical music, to my knowledge,
has no exact term for the lowest common note resolution in a groove.  For 
years I used the word Meter and then found out that I had
used the term incorrectly.   It only means the time signature,  NOT the 
lowest note value used, underlying the entire rhythm.
So, by Syncopative Resolution, I mean the lowest note value that is part 
of 
the 'groove' of a piece of music.  In other words if you have
a 16th note funk groove and the drummer plays a little 32nd note 
embellishment on his or her hi hats  the Syncopative Resolution is
16th notes,  NOT 32nd notes.

When you are analyzing a rhythm to try and get it's feel correctly, it is 
very important that you know what that resolution is.
Remember that if you have two measures of 8th notes in a pop groove and 
there is just one single 16th note offbeat on a kick drum
that the entire piece has a Syncopative Resolution of 16th notes,  NOT 8th 
notes.

I tell my drum and bass students that it only takes one offbeat 16th note 
per two measures to turn a Rock or Soul groove into a Funk groove.