10 comments

1. Mike Long Posted about 14 hours later

   Had to look up "hemiloa." I am learning music theory late in life and I *love* picking up new (to me) terms. Thanks.

2. Always Moronic Posted about 15 hours later

   I wonder if Robbie goes to the Lifetime by Old Orchard. Maybe today I will have him crank-paged. No, better yet I will jajah his phone to Ann Coulter or something.

   Those heavily-embroidered clod-hopping fiddle squeakers in Eastern Europe are responsible for a lot of weird jaunty tunes. Accompaniment for hanky dances and wicked strong homemade hooch. Makes me want to dress up knit footie pajamas and make static with other people in knit footie pajamas (is *that* moronic enough for you, Pantera?)

   For some reason I am imagining Robbie on the treadmill and Sober by Tool comes on the TV.

3. Mr. Pink Posted about 18 hours later

   As a drummer who grew up in the 7o's bct(before click tracks)at least in the bands I was playing, I was used to the ebb and flow of music. Speeding up/slowing down; we hardly noticed or cared. Some nights we played everything faster, other nights everything slower. Some nights a little of both. The when I switched to playing country professionally in the late 80's all the bandleaders would insist on playing to a click. I came to enjoy playing with the time slightly using the click as a guide. However as much as it makes the show the same night after night,on the downside it makes the show the same night after night. And of course the bandleader/artist didn't want to be subjected to listening to an annoying click in his ears all night, but they had no problem forcing me to. And as much as a couple of beats per minute can change the feel of a song I always felt that music should be allowed a little room to breathe from night to night. So I developed a little trick that works for me. I start every song with the click and then shut it off as soon as I can. That way you get the best of both worlds. You get the consistency of starting at the same place from night to night and the bonus of being able to let things slide to where they feel right depending on the external factors that can affect a performance. eg. size and enthusiasm of the crowd, amount of caffeine or other substances I or other band members ingested, what you had for dinner(steak vs. vegetarian can actually make you more or less aggressive believe it or not). I have yet to be questioned by a bandleader except for one who caught on to my trick of shutting off the click partway through the song, who guessed incorrectly that I had used the click all the way through because "it felt so much tighter that time". Most important to this whole idea is what Robbie got right - does the paying audience know or care about the difference? I think not.

   It reminds me of the drummer joke. How can you tell when a drummer is knocking at your door? The knock speeds up and slows down.

4. Nick Barber Posted about 19 hours later

   When music speeds up and slows down and everything stays in synch - that's when you know that your band is playing well..."feel" is good. There's been a "humanize" option in drum sequencers for quite a while - Groove Agent was one of the better ones, but even that is predictable in its unpredictability and it's computerised random nature throws in some odd shots because nobody is reacting to the dynamic of the whole band; it's just an algorithm.

5. Justyna Sokolska Posted about 23 hours later

   Robbie,

   I don't even think you need to go to the gym. You're pretty hot anyway.

6. Anselmo Posted 2 days later

   Thanks for confirming my conclusion, Tara. Again.

7. Have Some Amore, Anselmo Posted 2 days later

   Thanks, Anselmo. I do try.

   This place hasn't been the same since the remodel, though. And it's so anonymous and cold in this antechamber. I guess I'll slink back down to Friends of Bill and see who's up for a game of webcam poker with a recovering.

   xox

8. Arty Hill Posted 4 days later

   I think another reason time got more metronomic was the way the basic rocknroll beat got straightened out over time. Early RnR, ala Sun Records, swung pretty good. Over the years, that swing feel pretty much disappeared in RnR, and as country went more and more pop, it disappeared from that music too.

   Generally, I call the tempos in my band, but once we start, I know everyone in the band is gonna negotiate how the song actually gets played. If it's a little faster or slower than normal, that's cool, so long as the "feel" is good. Hopefully, we'll all eventually get to the point where the feel, rather than the tempo, dictates how we're playing. Hope they don't kick me out before that happens...

9. lazyranchhand Posted 4 days later

   What next, indeed. Perhaps the musical equivalent of the 'Automavision' as used by Lars Von Trier in 'Direktoren for det hele', a computer making calculations as to camera shots, pans and zooms - further sophisticated by an algorithm for 'human error', based on random chance.

   Brave new world, indeed. I bet most people don't notice, as you implied. Recorded music is being debased all the time, and in my opinion will only heighten the thirst for live music as time goes on. Bad news for record companies, and those who make a living from other people's endeavours. Good news for musicians.

10. doug allen Posted 11 days later

    Robbie,

    I actually like "God isn't real"....makes /made me think.

    Robbie, God loves you.

    There is no acceptable answer to the question...Why?... that can answered in this life.

    You have been granted a talent that will influence many...

    Doug