Back to the Basics - Using a Metronome
Back to the Basics - Using a Metronome by Geoff Hohwald
You may have heard or read of the great players saying that timing is everything.. "The power of the banjo break or the lick has more to do with timing than the lick itself." "Any lick played in perfect time is a hot lick." "You can stop your quest for the next hot lick and just look inside yourself and you will find power... you just have to harness it with good timing"
Case in point.. Most of the licks that J D Crowe and Earl Scruggs play can be played by any intermediate banjo player. If that is so then how come so many banjo players strive to copy them? The answer is because of the power they convey when they play based on their precise timing.
After conducting over a dozen banjo clinics in 2007 and working with high school students for 3 months in Dahlonega Georgia, I have been struck by the lack of basic knowledge banjo players have of playing in time and what it means to play in time. This seems to be prevalent among all age groups as the youngest student in these groups was 9 and the oldest 84.
My specific lack of precise timing was exposed when I recorded a CD with guitarist/mandolinist Curtis Jones last year. Curtis has recorded and played extensively with Dan Timinsky, Patti Loveless, Allison Brown, Bluegrass Etc, Blue Highway and has been a session player in Nashville's top studios. To make a long story short the CD Project quickly became an education for me in what playing in time really is.
Having a local reputation for having great timing, I was surprised by how hard I had to work to be in sync with Curtis. I spent hours working with a click track, recording myself, listening to it, making corrections, and then doing it again. As this process was going on my head would gradually clear of all non-musical thoughts and I would relax. Once relaxation set in I was able to play in perfect timing. As a result of the attention to timing, the CD turned out great. Listening to it carefully has actually helped several of my students understand the power of playing in time and the clarity that happens when the instruments do not overplay and crowd each other.
In order to use this information to help these students, Curtis and I have been conducting monthly Clinics/ Group Lessons to aid beginning and intermediate players to improve their playing, understand timing, learn to relax and develop confidence. As we develop techniques and insights I will share them with you.
Another thing we have noticed in these clinics is in almost all cases the students feel that they should be progressing much faster than they are. This causes them to not relax completely when playing. This small amount of tension actually slows the students down. In addition the students do not understand how to count or how to use a metronome. In some cases they understand the theory but aren't concentrating on the beat consistently.
The lack of formal bluegrass timing training comes from a long tradition of playing by ear and applies to all of the folk instruments. Because bluegrass instruments are not taught in schools, there has not been the urgency to get together and come up with standardized, agreed upon, ways of explaining and teaching music.
To further illustrate the lack of musical training required to play bluegrass, I played in the late 60's with a Singer/Guitarist in Columbus, Ohio who performed 2 or 3 nights a week and did not know the names of his chords. If I said make a C chord he did not know what that was even though he was an accomplished singer who knew hundreds of songs.
Because of the lack of trained bluegrass teachers, it is clear to me that learning to play in time and improving your speed will require some effort on your part. Once you accept this, your journey will become much clearer and you will probably experience greater success because I am sure you are very resourceful. You may have to go through a few teachers, you may even have to travel an hour or 2 to find that special someone. In this case, I recommend at least an hour lesson maybe every 2 weeks and I recommend you videotape not the entire lesson but the specific exercises and songs. If you're working with a metronome you will know at what speeds you are comfortable. Take your metronome along and have your instructor play on the video at those speeds. In addition have each song and example played at at least 2 speeds.
Make sure you can hear the metronome click when you play it back. Also make sure the instructor counts off each piece.
Another common belief regarding timing by people who play bluegrass instruments successfully is that the beginning player will eventually pick up timing. This leads the aspiring musician to believe that if they just hang around jam sessions this knowledge will somehow filter to them through the air. Well interestingly enough the idea of the music coming to you passively through the air might actually have merit. This has occurred historically in families in the mountains where even in the womb the young child has heard his parents and kin folk play music, later to see it from the crib and then later as an observer on the porch and at Sunday dinner. In Italy, which has a much stronger tradition in the Arts than here, it is not uncommon for the parents to put a metronome in the crib starting the young infant on the road to internalizing timing.
If you have not been fortunate enough to have listened to bluegrass music in the womb or had a metronome in your crib, there are other ways to acquire good timing. Since you are getting this information by reading we are unfortunately not present to give you a live demonstration. I will explain it as best I can.
If you want to experience better timing, let me suggest that you start by reviewing the January Article about "How To Use A Metronome," get out the old metronome, play it without your instrument, relax and tap your foot to it until you start feeling the beat.
Once this happens then play your best song with the metronome and see if you can transfer your natural rhythm to the banjo. If a whole song is too much try this with a couple measures of a song. Try this back and forth several times and see if you start sensing power. This may take a while and may require the assistance of a teacher or other musician.
Basically the route to achieving this is based on clearing your mind playing slowly and accurately but not thinking about your playing. Relax and try to eliminate all thoughts from your head. Now lets go on to feedback another important factor in the learning quest. Well low and behold in reflecting on my musical journey, there has always been an interest in seeing what I sounded like. I also had an interest in what I looked like until I gained about 40 pounds and lost some of my hair. I now avoid mirrors. But I do get constant feedback from my wife and doctor about getting into better shape. On the musical side of the coin and unlike my current physical state, I actually listen to feedback and make changes to my playing.
This journey started in the early 60's by me recording myself on a Sony reel to reel tape recorder. I would have my buddies come over and record stuff. I remember I did not want to fork out the $5 for a microphone stand so we just taped the microphone to a lamp in my bedroom. The microphone incidentally was one that came with another tape recorder. These recordings were inconsistent and I continually strived to sound like the professionals and occasionally got a glimmer of great sound. I could also see if I was playing in time, which was a big help. Later I wanted to be able to play a rhythm track and record the banjo against it and then listen back to it. I would use 2 tape recorders.
The rhythm track would be recorded onto one recorder and then played into another recorder while playing the banjo into a microphone. (Rube Goldberg would be proud). I've also done multitrack recording by recording the rhythm track onto a tape and then playing the tape through a boom box and then recording this and my banjo on a second tape recorder as the tape was playing. I would stand different distances from the microphone with the banjo to adjust the volume of the banjo on the tape. This was rather cumbersome but accomplished the feedback goal.
The point here was I went to a lot of effort to listen to my playing. I could then make adjustments, re-record the piece and hopefully improve. The other thing I used to do when my band played out was to record the performance on a cassette tape and listen to it on the way home. This would enable me to hear which banjo breaks and licks worked out and which did not work. Many times the hot lick that I thought was attracting attention and admiration just did not work out whereas the more straight simple playing sounded better with a particular song. What we're talking about here is that receiving feedback is a necessary part of learning to play for any musician. This also includes reactions and suggestions from musicians who have been at it longer than you. However, beware... feedback from your mother, spouse, employees and people that owe you money is many times inaccurate and may actually lead you to believe that you are better than you are.
I recommend that you do not sell all of your possessions, quit your job and buy a bus based on their feedback alone. Seriously though, if you will find a way to record and listen to your playing, it will help you tremendously. Playing with a metronome is very helpful but you can turbocharge the experience by recording your playing with the metronome and listening back to it. Well that's it for this month. If you to listen to your playing, use a metronome and relax you will see dramatic changes in your playing. You may even become more popular. Some of you are using transcriber programs, programs that slow the music down and jam along tracks. If these are working for you continue their use and make sure to record yourself playing with these. When you have timing, speed or clarity problems with a particular piece of music bring out the metronome.
Keep on Pickin'
Angie's Banjo.com
You may have heard or read of the great players saying that timing is everything.. "The power of the banjo break or the lick has more to do with timing than the lick itself." "Any lick played in perfect time is a hot lick." "You can stop your quest for the next hot lick and just look inside yourself and you will find power... you just have to harness it with good timing"
Case in point.. Most of the licks that J D Crowe and Earl Scruggs play can be played by any intermediate banjo player. If that is so then how come so many banjo players strive to copy them? The answer is because of the power they convey when they play based on their precise timing.
After conducting over a dozen banjo clinics in 2007 and working with high school students for 3 months in Dahlonega Georgia, I have been struck by the lack of basic knowledge banjo players have of playing in time and what it means to play in time. This seems to be prevalent among all age groups as the youngest student in these groups was 9 and the oldest 84.
My specific lack of precise timing was exposed when I recorded a CD with guitarist/mandolinist Curtis Jones last year. Curtis has recorded and played extensively with Dan Timinsky, Patti Loveless, Allison Brown, Bluegrass Etc, Blue Highway and has been a session player in Nashville's top studios. To make a long story short the CD Project quickly became an education for me in what playing in time really is.
Having a local reputation for having great timing, I was surprised by how hard I had to work to be in sync with Curtis. I spent hours working with a click track, recording myself, listening to it, making corrections, and then doing it again. As this process was going on my head would gradually clear of all non-musical thoughts and I would relax. Once relaxation set in I was able to play in perfect timing. As a result of the attention to timing, the CD turned out great. Listening to it carefully has actually helped several of my students understand the power of playing in time and the clarity that happens when the instruments do not overplay and crowd each other.
In order to use this information to help these students, Curtis and I have been conducting monthly Clinics/ Group Lessons to aid beginning and intermediate players to improve their playing, understand timing, learn to relax and develop confidence. As we develop techniques and insights I will share them with you.
Another thing we have noticed in these clinics is in almost all cases the students feel that they should be progressing much faster than they are. This causes them to not relax completely when playing. This small amount of tension actually slows the students down. In addition the students do not understand how to count or how to use a metronome. In some cases they understand the theory but aren't concentrating on the beat consistently.
The lack of formal bluegrass timing training comes from a long tradition of playing by ear and applies to all of the folk instruments. Because bluegrass instruments are not taught in schools, there has not been the urgency to get together and come up with standardized, agreed upon, ways of explaining and teaching music.
To further illustrate the lack of musical training required to play bluegrass, I played in the late 60's with a Singer/Guitarist in Columbus, Ohio who performed 2 or 3 nights a week and did not know the names of his chords. If I said make a C chord he did not know what that was even though he was an accomplished singer who knew hundreds of songs.
Because of the lack of trained bluegrass teachers, it is clear to me that learning to play in time and improving your speed will require some effort on your part. Once you accept this, your journey will become much clearer and you will probably experience greater success because I am sure you are very resourceful. You may have to go through a few teachers, you may even have to travel an hour or 2 to find that special someone. In this case, I recommend at least an hour lesson maybe every 2 weeks and I recommend you videotape not the entire lesson but the specific exercises and songs. If you're working with a metronome you will know at what speeds you are comfortable. Take your metronome along and have your instructor play on the video at those speeds. In addition have each song and example played at at least 2 speeds.
Make sure you can hear the metronome click when you play it back. Also make sure the instructor counts off each piece.
Another common belief regarding timing by people who play bluegrass instruments successfully is that the beginning player will eventually pick up timing. This leads the aspiring musician to believe that if they just hang around jam sessions this knowledge will somehow filter to them through the air. Well interestingly enough the idea of the music coming to you passively through the air might actually have merit. This has occurred historically in families in the mountains where even in the womb the young child has heard his parents and kin folk play music, later to see it from the crib and then later as an observer on the porch and at Sunday dinner. In Italy, which has a much stronger tradition in the Arts than here, it is not uncommon for the parents to put a metronome in the crib starting the young infant on the road to internalizing timing.
If you have not been fortunate enough to have listened to bluegrass music in the womb or had a metronome in your crib, there are other ways to acquire good timing. Since you are getting this information by reading we are unfortunately not present to give you a live demonstration. I will explain it as best I can.
If you want to experience better timing, let me suggest that you start by reviewing the January Article about "How To Use A Metronome," get out the old metronome, play it without your instrument, relax and tap your foot to it until you start feeling the beat.
Once this happens then play your best song with the metronome and see if you can transfer your natural rhythm to the banjo. If a whole song is too much try this with a couple measures of a song. Try this back and forth several times and see if you start sensing power. This may take a while and may require the assistance of a teacher or other musician.
Basically the route to achieving this is based on clearing your mind playing slowly and accurately but not thinking about your playing. Relax and try to eliminate all thoughts from your head. Now lets go on to feedback another important factor in the learning quest. Well low and behold in reflecting on my musical journey, there has always been an interest in seeing what I sounded like. I also had an interest in what I looked like until I gained about 40 pounds and lost some of my hair. I now avoid mirrors. But I do get constant feedback from my wife and doctor about getting into better shape. On the musical side of the coin and unlike my current physical state, I actually listen to feedback and make changes to my playing.
This journey started in the early 60's by me recording myself on a Sony reel to reel tape recorder. I would have my buddies come over and record stuff. I remember I did not want to fork out the $5 for a microphone stand so we just taped the microphone to a lamp in my bedroom. The microphone incidentally was one that came with another tape recorder. These recordings were inconsistent and I continually strived to sound like the professionals and occasionally got a glimmer of great sound. I could also see if I was playing in time, which was a big help. Later I wanted to be able to play a rhythm track and record the banjo against it and then listen back to it. I would use 2 tape recorders.
The rhythm track would be recorded onto one recorder and then played into another recorder while playing the banjo into a microphone. (Rube Goldberg would be proud). I've also done multitrack recording by recording the rhythm track onto a tape and then playing the tape through a boom box and then recording this and my banjo on a second tape recorder as the tape was playing. I would stand different distances from the microphone with the banjo to adjust the volume of the banjo on the tape. This was rather cumbersome but accomplished the feedback goal.
The point here was I went to a lot of effort to listen to my playing. I could then make adjustments, re-record the piece and hopefully improve. The other thing I used to do when my band played out was to record the performance on a cassette tape and listen to it on the way home. This would enable me to hear which banjo breaks and licks worked out and which did not work. Many times the hot lick that I thought was attracting attention and admiration just did not work out whereas the more straight simple playing sounded better with a particular song. What we're talking about here is that receiving feedback is a necessary part of learning to play for any musician. This also includes reactions and suggestions from musicians who have been at it longer than you. However, beware... feedback from your mother, spouse, employees and people that owe you money is many times inaccurate and may actually lead you to believe that you are better than you are.
I recommend that you do not sell all of your possessions, quit your job and buy a bus based on their feedback alone. Seriously though, if you will find a way to record and listen to your playing, it will help you tremendously. Playing with a metronome is very helpful but you can turbocharge the experience by recording your playing with the metronome and listening back to it. Well that's it for this month. If you to listen to your playing, use a metronome and relax you will see dramatic changes in your playing. You may even become more popular. Some of you are using transcriber programs, programs that slow the music down and jam along tracks. If these are working for you continue their use and make sure to record yourself playing with these. When you have timing, speed or clarity problems with a particular piece of music bring out the metronome.
Keep on Pickin'
Angie's Banjo.com
posted by Angie @ 3:19 AM
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