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-------------- Original message --------------
From: "RICK WALKER" <looppool@cruzio.com>
> --
> D. wrote:
> " the drummer doesn't like clicks or
> flashing lights & in any case, we all think that for the music to be
> able to "breathe", we don't want quartz-locked BPM.
>
> Having been a live and studio drummer professionally for 30 years I feel
> compelled to
> chime in here. All music, including quartz-locked BPM loops or sequenced
> music
> has the ability to 'breathe". It just takes a more sophisticated
> drummer (and other
> musicians) to make it appear to breathe.
>
> In the case of playing to quantized sequences or static loops, it is
> efficacious to
> practice playing anywhere from way behind the beat (in a musical fashion
> that does
> no t 'lose' the connection to the quantized part) to way, way up on top of
> the beat.
>
> Early on in studio playing (and before the advent of computerized recording
> that allows
> people to edit so effortlessly with digital crossfading like anyone can do
> on a home
> computer these days) we learned that we could make recordings much faster
> (and
> hence, way less costly) by using click tracks that kept the musicians more
> honest in
> terms of overall tempo (there's breathing in this case and there's just
> plain old shitty
> timekeeping, if you know what I mean).
>
> At the same time, rigidity is the first inherent problem of trying to learn
> how to play to
> clicks.
>
> We were forced , back in the day (early 80's when I did the bulk of my
> professional
> studio work) to try and figure out how to make the music feel organic even > if we were
> playing to a quantized click track.
>
> During that process, we learned that if we were to get off of the click
> that we needed to
> drift back to it instead of trying to jump immediately to the proper tempo
> (in the former,
> you never hear the mistake in the recording; in the latter, you hear the
> 'bump' in the
> time immediately).
>
> Learning how to do this...............to play at a different place in the
> beat, that still is
> musical then helped prepare us when we encountered people from other
> cultures who
> 'felt' the beat differently (Southern soul musicians who play very, very
> laid back and
> behind the beat, West coast funkateers who are way up on top of things,
> Brazilians
> who have great time but don't play to a 16th note evenly spaced grid in
> their playing,
> etc.)
>
> I have to say when I hear of a drummer who says, "I hate click tracks or
> blinking lights
> or playing to static loops" I think, here is a drummer whose overall
> understanding of
> the concept of keeping time is not real sophisticated.
>
> The drummer, probably more than anyone, is capable of imparting great
> difference in
> the way a piece of music if felt, vis a viz time. The drummer can make
> really
> locked quantized parts feel very organic and can make completely
> unsynchronized
> musicians feel very rigid and static depending on how he or she plays.
>
> Time is a deep world. It's a fascinating world. Like all things, it's
> really good for
> one's musicianship to stay flexible when it comes to playing in any musical
> setting.
>
> A mentor of mine (a guitarist who had backed Aretha Franklin for several
> years) once
> said, "Every song can groove at any tempo...........it's your job to
> figure out how to
> make a song groove" (and breathe) if it is played at an uncomfortable
> tempo or if it is
> locked to a quartz-locked BPM. If someone calls 'Sunshine of your Love" at
> a
> ludicrously slow tempo, you can make it groove like hell if you play way
> behind the
> beat and in a very heavy manner. The same is true if it is called too
> fast.
> This musician taught me that any audience can hear if you change tempo in a
> song
> (especially if you are compensating at the start of a song because it
> 'doesn't feel right.'
> He said, "The audience never knows if you are doing a rendition of a tune
> or trying to
> play it authentically..........they only know if your time is strong or not.
>
> He would drill our band at the time by purposefully call different (and
> unconventional)
& gt; tempos for different tunes in our repertoire...............if we complained
> that such a song
> was at the wrong speed, he would yell at us, "Find the groove, find the
> groove".
>
> It was one of the best disciplines I ever learned as a professional touring
> and studio
> drummer and, to this day, it feels unprofessional when someone tries to get
> me to speed up or slow down because a song feels wrong................lol,
> it's just not
> always appropriate for me to yell, "Find the groove, find the groove you
> guys!!!!"
>
> Rick Walker
>
> ps Earlier on this list, I believe that I posted a series of exercises
> that I have been
> using with great success with beginning beginner drummers and bassists so
> that they
> can learn how to 'breathe' and play with different relaxed feels to a click
> track.
> Check it out if you feel li ke you don't know how to do this yourself. It
> only takes a
> couple of hours of work to learn how to do this and your whole musical world
> will
> change if you learn the concept. There's only one little
> warning.......once you learn
> how to play effortlessly and with a natural 'breathing quality' to a click
> track you will
> begin to notice how many musicians out there don't know how to do it and are
> xenophobic when it comes to the concept.
> If you can't find the exercises, I'll repost them. Just let me know if
> you are interested
>