Varying Your Timing

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
Once there was a time when you were expected to be on beat all the time. I think back in the day, Jimmy Page was credited for breaking the studio rules, in terms of accelerating and decelerating a song.

Since the advent of computer recording and playing to a click track, it seems we have regressed back to the style of playing on beat consistently.

Many of the great Blues, and Rock artists ran their own clock. Granted this is not something you can go into a blues jam and start going all over the place, people have to be able to follow you. And too much alteration may cause people to think you are playing jazz. God forbid.

This guy breaks it down using Hendrix as an example.

 

Griff

Vice Assistant General Manager
Staff member
That's interesting how he mapped it out, but I probably could have drawn the tempo map by hand without the aid of the computer...

Anyone who has ever played with a band, while not using a click, knows that there are natural tendencies to speed up and slow down in the choruses or the verses or intros, etc.

My band often plays to a click on stage because if I let things get carried away, they will. I hate listening back to a recording of a live show and realizing that, for whatever reason, I was playing 20 clicks faster at the end than the beginning of a tune.

What ends up happening is you learn to keep a good groove without changing the tempo because the drummer is on a click - and a good drummer will make it feel like you're going faster or slower, by playing on top of or behind the beat, even when the tempo stays put.

"Good time," is not at ALL the same as "good tempo." Good time means that you play the thing on beat 1 that goes on beat 1, the thing that goes on beat 2 gets played on beat 2, and not beat 2 1/2. Good tempo means that the distance between 1 and 2 is the same as between 3 and 4. It's tough to explain that difference.
 

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
I know I, and believe that dude in the video are not dissing click tracks or metronomes, but rather strict adherence to them, as opposed to free feel.

But as you mention it can get out of hand

Yous reference to "Good time," is not at ALL the same as "good tempo" would make for an interesting Griff Hamlin video.
 

Silicon Valley Tom

It makes me happpy to play The Blues!
If you do not have a drummer (this has happened to me), then your bass player will provide all that is needed. I love bass players as they are in "their own world", the good ones that is, and they know what is going on. A good bass payer knows how to follow and lead. They are an essential glue to help keep things together.

I have been fortunate as the groups I played with played together. We spent a good deal of time rehearsing and that sure helps.

Tom
 

Griff

Vice Assistant General Manager
Staff member
I know I, and believe that dude in the video are not dissing click tracks or metronomes, but rather strict adherence to them, as opposed to free feel.

But as you mention it can get out of hand

Yous reference to "Good time," is not at ALL the same as "good tempo" would make for an interesting Griff Hamlin video.
Indeed...

It's also HUGELY stylistic. Classical music is all about tempo changes at appropriate times... it's one of the purposes of the conductor, to keep everyone at the same tempo.

Blues, same thing, a lot of classic blues recordings go up and down regularly. But I wonder how much of it is "on purpose" and how much is simply the fact that they did not know? There were no "click tracks" back in those days so playing to one was not an option. Would Hendrix have used one if he could?

Hard to say... I wish we could know.
 

Elio

Student Of The Blues
Indeed...

It's also HUGELY stylistic. Classical music is all about tempo changes at appropriate times... it's one of the purposes of the conductor, to keep everyone at the same tempo.

Blues, same thing, a lot of classic blues recordings go up and down regularly. But I wonder how much of it is "on purpose" and how much is simply the fact that they did not know? There were no "click tracks" back in those days so playing to one was not an option. Would Hendrix have used one if he could?

Hard to say... I wish we could know.

A few years ago I remember reading about Muddy Waters and other American blues players going to the U.K. in the late 50's. They apparently drove the British bands a little nuts because guys like Muddy would keep time by tapping his foot, despite the drummer. When he really got into a song and got excited, he would tap faster, leaving the band trying to catch up to him before he would change again. I think that a lot of the issue was the fact that many of those guys were used to playing solo, with no drummer to compare time to, so if they shifted around the tempo, it was a lot harder for them to be aware or for the audience to notice.
 
Last edited:

ChrisGSP

Blues Journeyman
John Lee Hooker really messed me up when I first heard him - I was maybe 16 and had already heard Muddy and Wolf, so I knew a bit about elastic time, but John Lee was an entirely different thing. Yeah, here it is (holding LP record); John Lee Hooker The Real Folk Blues, with "The Waterfront" (aka I Cover the Waterfront). That was impossible to count.
 
Top