I've been playing Adams Crossroads, and have a problem staying on tempo if I tap my foot. The beat I believe is on the downbeat and I can stay in "the pocket" if I listen to the music, but if I tap my foot I'm all over the place. Is this just a bad case of white mans disease or what? Adam has it down to a science and I'm just trying to get close. Does anyone else have this problem and are there any exercises you can use to remedy this?
No, and it's time for you to start investing in a metronome and now you're only just beginning to barely understand what groove is all about and if the groove is crap, everything around it is crap as well. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Time is one of a few classic reasons why harp players are often dissed because too often, their time is flat out HORRIBLE and it perpetuates one severl negative stereotypes of why the harp player is often thought of by people who play other instruments as the dumbest musician on the bandstand.
Time and GROOVE work hand in hand because without good time, there is NO groove and if there's no groove, everything is a mess and totally undanceable.
Littleeasy (don't take this as a personal diss because this is NOT that at all) is showing a classic example of a great band with a great rhythm section and how it will carry a lead player who has one of the biggest weaknesses of all, and that's bad time and it will also show you why a band with great lead players cannot hold down a groove regardless of skill level without a solid rhythm section with great time.
The band on the recording was carrying Littleeasy, but once the recording stopped, he saw a big weakness that too many harp players often don't bother to address and it is VERY IMPORTANT.
Even if a crowd you play to doesn't dance, if they clap their hands, tap their fingers, stomp their feet, you've got them and if that ain't happening, you've lost them regardless of how great you think the solo is.
Time and groove is often VERY HIGHLY ignored and misunderstood and too often not well taught.
It has nothing with white man's disease, but in many white bands, the weakest part of their bands is in the rhythm section and in self produced recordings, you can often hear that they've spent FAR too much time working on the solos and too little on the groove and if time and groove is lousy, everything else is as well.
Kudos for you littleasy for at least making an attempt to correct that!!! ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I've had one of those new-fangled digital metronomes for awhile, I hate the damn thing. Bought an old Seth Thomas wind up mechaical metronome on e-bay and love it. Maybe it's seeeing the pendulum swing to-and-fro, or the solid click sound, but for me, anyway, much better results.
But yes, get a metronome. ---------- I used to be young and foolish. Now I'm not so young.
Last Edited by on Mar 04, 2011 11:17 AM
I do have a metronome on a keyboard in my woodshed. I try to use it at least every two days. I stay on the beat MOST of the time but if i listen to myself more than the music, or concentrate more on my playing, I will wonder off the beat. So, after reading barbequebobs response, I believe I am going to fire up that metronome daily!
Littleeasy, one of the things pros do is listen to BOTH the music around them as well as themselves at SIMULTANEOUSLY 24/7, but also listening to everything in great DETAIL, sometimes called listening with BIGGER EARS, so it means not just listening to what you're doing (which too often is the way too many people listen), but also the line the bass player plays, what the drummer does, the time, the groove, EVERYTHING, and this is the way real professional musicians, recording engineers, and record producers listen to the music, wheras most people who listen as a fan, or in the open jams, they tend to listen to the solos first and everything else is absolutely DEAD LAST.
Get your time together first, and then along the way you'll starting noticing things more like how certain genres mess with the time, yet their time is right there with the metronome, but it seems like it's either faster or slower, which is generally known as being rewpectively, ahead or behind the beat. At this point in time, you're not ready to get into that because you need to get your time straightened out ASAP and once you get that squared away so that you never need to think about, then it'll be time to get into the other stuff.
There's an entire thread called The Beat that discusses ahead or behind the beat, but again, you're NOT ready for that just yet until you have your time straightened out so that you never have to think about it and it just comes naturally. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
The main problem with any musician, not just harp players, is that they rush parts that they perceive as being difficult, or just plain play too soon.
Using a metronome will show you that there is loads of time. It was very surprising to me when I started using one, how much time there was.
This may seem strange to some, but get one and you'll see what I mean.
Another thing to try if you are learning a phrase, is play it 3 or 4 times slowly, then turn the metronome up a click and repeat, turning up the tempo until it you cannot play it. After this you'll find its "easy" to play at the correct tempo. ---------- The Pentatonics Myspace Youtube
"Why don't you leave some holes when you play, and maybe some music will fall out".
Here is a link to a free online metronome. There is a choice of different styles of metronome on this website even one to download onto your mobile phone if it supports Java.
When you arent messing with your metronome, listen to lots and lots of Jimmy Reed. Tap your door to it. Eddie Taylor and Earl Phillips were human metronomes. If you can't feel the groove and tap your foot to it, keep listening until you get it. If the harmonica is too distracting, listen to the cuts without the harmonica.
I own a digital metronome that has a pendulum that I watch as it is hard to hear that 4th beat on the metronome whilst playing-the metronome is a korg which is a very good product
Great thread. I am going to exhume my toy electronic keyboard because it has a built-in drum function which will serve as a metronome when I go to the shed.
Last Edited by on Mar 05, 2011 7:26 AM
