Re: AW: visual metronome

[Edwin Hurwitz <edwin@indra.com>]

At 6:43 PM +0200 4/24/05, Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill wrote:
>There is no guarantee that someone will be able to follow an auditory
>cue, either, even if they have some prior experience ;-)
>
>(call this: "professional experience gathered by a(ny) bandleader")
>
>



I have yet to meet anyone who can reliably follow a visual click (as 
opposed to a conductor). If you want to have a drum track that can be 
used with looped or sequenced tracks, the drummer has to lock in 
really tightly with the click. If the drummer doesn't like using a 
click, try giving him a loop that is at the tempo you want. It's much 
easier than playing to a straight click, much more reliable than a 
visual click and can add an element of groove and feel that a 
straight click doesn't have.


Edwin
I have also met a number of conductors who don't have an ability to 
provide a visual cue! I played at Fiddler's Green here in Denver with 
an orchestra playing some hits of the 60s. It was a rhythm section 
with orchestra. We, as a rhythm section, had played a lot together, 
so we knew how to hit a groove quickly. However, throwing the 
conductor into the mix was a nightmare as he had no sense of how to 
convey a solid tempo. I guess the orchestra was used to working out 
their own tempo and had gotten used to it. Any decent conductor 
should be able to define the tempo simply with the pickup. I have 
worked with good ones and they leave no doubt as to where the tempo 
is.
-- 

Edwin Hurwitz
Boulder CO
http://www.indra.com/~edwin
http://www.cafemontalban.com Location Recording Services