Re: Static Loops, Quantized Sequences and Music that Breathes

["L.A. Angulo" <labaloops@yahoo.com>]

bro, somehow i didnt get the breathing druming
excercise post youre talking about but you could
resend it to me,and congratulations on the drum
article you sure deserve it ma man!
Luis



--- RICK WALKER <looppool@cruzio.com> wrote:

> --
> 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
> not '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)
> 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 like 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
> 
> 


www.myspace.com/luisangulocom


       
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