Speeding up?

[John Blackburn]

Rudy... [img]wink.gif[/img] [img]biggrin.gif[/img]
Did that come as standard, or did you have to order the virgil signature toyota!

[Lee Collins]

John, yes, I had to order the virgil donut signature toyota. They added a nice touch to the practisepad by drilling 2 holes to hold drinks.
[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

[John Blackburn]

Thats customer service...

Back to the origional thread, appologies:

I remember when i played with a local 'light blues' band, that all had terrible time. I also had pretty terrible time, but i noticed the biggest improvement over a couple of little tours when i just started to focus purely on that. Not just whilst playing, i was lucky enough that we had a load of driving to do between gigs (never thought you'd hear someone say that did you...) and i just thought about where things had moved a bit in the last gig. For me, it was always the transitions between ideas, apart from the louder slow tempo 12/8 feel things that just seemed to continuously creep up as the band (on revueing tapes later, the bass player) got excited.

I think the main thing is not to worry about it TOO MUCH. By just being aware of it, your starting to correct it (IMHO), if you focus too much on it, its going to make the problem worse. Billy Ward (love him or hate him) has some interesting - perhaps not new - stuff to say about that on his DVD 'big time'.

Hope thats of use...

P.S. Or you could just hook everyone upto a click and an electrode, everytime someone misses by a certain amount. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAPPPPPP!
That should sort it out...

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 17, 2006 06:53 PM: Message edited by: John Blackburn ]</font>

[Riddim]

Practicing with a click is great, but on the gig, I think the bottom line is to listen. Get the tempo in your body, sing the subdivisions to yourself self, and listen to the vocal or solo instruments. Is the tempo too fast for them to cleanly execute their phrases? If so, it's too fast.

Excitement and adrenalin are normal. Learn to recognize, and compensate for them on the gig. If I'm playing with folks who are chronologically impaired, I'll bring a Rhythm watch (assuming desired tempos are known) or Beat Bug to the gig. The latter is a great and objective way to curtail any drummer tempo allegations.

[sjj123]

....and more thanks....John I agree. Focusing too much HAS created a bit of a problem. Relaxing and listening have been key. The last 2 practices have been better. Some of these old slow blues songs are just sick! I did not agree with LD guy on another thread when he said that once you have a few blues tunes down you've got them all. Getting them to groove is quite challenging I feel.

[sweetrock]

sjj123, I have an Alesis HR16 drum machine that I use exclusively for practicing and teaching. One tool that I use to improve my time is to program one pattern of quarter notes and another pattern of silence. Then go into song mode and you can compose a "song" that has four measures of the click pattern and four measures of the silent pattern. You can then choose the loop option. By practicing this way at different tempos, you can see your tendencies to rush/drag. Once you ge the hang of it, try putting a one bar fill in the last measure of silence... that is really challenging. You can also do a four bar phrase of 3 measures of click and one measure of silence.

[S.P]

Sweetrock, thats exactly the technique that steve recommends in his video "shed some light",

he nails it too!

[sweetrock]

S.P., that is too ironic... I just ordered "Shed Some Light" last night to add to my collection of instructional DVD's. I REALLY like that exercise. Growing up in the midwest, we took family vacations every summer that involved driving through tunnels. I'd be tapping along to the radio and when we drove through a tunnel, I'd see if I could keep the correct pulse when we pulled through the other side. When I got my drum machine back in the day, I decided to try that exercise. It is hard, but really good. I can't wait to see Steve nail it (as if he wouldn't!). It really does separate the men from the boys!