Shaganappi
3 posts
Jan 07, 2013
6:59 PM
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A simple question I think. Are most of the main blues beats on the 2nd and 4th beats or as a few say (including a drummer friend of mine), that blues players just "move" ALL the notes backward or forward one beat in the whole piece more or less so this "feels" like this happens. It would be easy to do so, particular if not putting it on paper showing the bars. There is a rather short supply of discussion in music books on this IMO. They just say, "tap your foot".
And the second question is, what and how do players feel / think and mechanically tap so to emphasis those beats? I suppose if you have been playing forever, that maybe you don't think about it much, but if you can remember far enough back in time to where it did not come naturally and how you developed in that area, it would be interesting to know about. I sure know my rhythm could often use some help.
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Joe_L
2317 posts
Jan 07, 2013
7:58 PM
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Rhythms can be found everywhere in life. A number of years ago, I remember reading an article where the author surmised that the rhythm of black musicians after the Southern migration was so good because they were constantly surrounded by machinery in jobs at the stockyards, railroad, steel mills, etc... Coming from the fields, people adapted their paaterns of call and response to the very accurate sounds coming from mechanical machinery. It was an interesting hypothesis.
Does that matter to you?
Probably not, unless you can identify the rhythm in sounds around you.
How can you develop your sense of rhythm and time? You can sit around with a metronome and listen to it all day long. That's about as much fun as watching paint dry. A better solution is to find some music with a very pronounced rhythm that you can hear it. Try listening to artists with flawless time and a rhythm that is as subtle as a sledgehammer to the head.
Two artists come to mind. Jimmy Reed and Magic Slim. If you don't like those artists, then Blues may not be your thing. Buy their recordings. Listen to them. Find the beat and move to it.
Your goal should be to get to point where you can feel the beat. If you have to count, you're pretty much screwed, because you'll lose count on stage and be so focused on counting that everything else will suffer.
I listened to a ton of Blues. I wore out sets of Jimmy Reed records. I saw tons of live bands. I wore out even more records. It doesn't seem like work, when you are listening to something that you love hearing.
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The Blues Photo Gallery
Last Edited by on Jan 07, 2013 7:59 PM
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Shaganappi
4 posts
Jan 09, 2013
10:12 AM
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My question was more to the process of writing it down on PAPER. A notation thing. All one has to do is to shift the pickup beats one quarter note to the left or right and the beats will show on the 1st & 3rd as opposed to the 2nd & 4th. So the question is more to what CONVENTION do people do this? As said, a drummer friend (maybe misguided?) told me that the beats are always on the 1st & 3rd. Just checking to see if he is "off beat" in this matter.
Agreed that a performance should not have much conscious effort expended on the beats but when one practices, one can experiment with emphasis here and there to see what is best, etc. Joe, Thanks for your push to Jimmy Reed in particular. Have not gone there before and now I wonder how I missed this!
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lumpy wafflesquirt
673 posts
Jan 09, 2013
10:31 AM
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Everyone taps their foot differently.
If you were to look at a band all the feet would be hitting the floor at different times but the players would still keep the same time. That is why it is mostly frowned upon by bands to tap your foot loudly as the person next to you can feel the tap but it will not be the same at theirs and they get put off.
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"Come on Brackett let's get changed"
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timeistight
1042 posts
Jan 09, 2013
10:36 AM
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The basic pulse in 4/4 is on the 1 and 3, but other beats are often emphasized, sometimes just the 2 and 4, sometimes the second eighths or third triplet eighths of some or all of the beat. The placement of all those beats can be shifted around, too.
Most of this isn't notated at all, beyond some type instruction about the nature of the groove at the beginning. It's assumed that players will interpret notation with an appropriate feel.
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They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
Charlie Parker
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STME58
346 posts
Jan 09, 2013
11:48 AM
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I can attest to the musicality of machinery as mentioned by Joe_L. I was in a sheet metal stamping plant as it started up after lunch and slowly came to life. Starting with the smaller presses with quick rhythm and lower volume building up to the thunderous bass of the 500 ton presses. It struck me at the time as quite musical. Of course I also find the rhythm of tennis shoes in the dryer interesting!
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STME58
347 posts
Jan 09, 2013
11:54 AM
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One person in the brass quintet I am in taps his foot so far off the beat that the rest of us are careful to position our music stands so we can not see his foot. Just looking at it can through you off. His music is on the beat though.
I was taught in band and orchestra that you should tap your toe inside your shoe so there is not outward sound or motion to cause a distraction.
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