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Which is not true. Each requires a different set of learning and skills, but neither is inherently skilful or lazy, or better or worse musicianship - they're just different approaches with different opportunities and different limitations.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Two different things are being discussed here. I'm of the opinion that a musicians inner-clock should be trained very highly, not just left to be pseudo-random.
I used a drum Machine in a 4 pc band for about 5 years and loved it for its simplicity, lack of volume on stage and playing so many styles it was brilliant, but it depends on the music that I am playing, some of my vids on YT start off slower than they finish, is it a bad thing? Technically yes. did it feel good on the night and did audience enjoy it yes.
The point I am making is, speeding up a bit or slowing down a bit is not a huge sin in my book if whole performance is good. What I will not accept is drastic changes of tempo, like after a fill for instance, that is often down to poor technique by drummer. The speed/Tempo is not always the drummers fault, but can add to a performance from an audience point of view.
Nothing wrong in my book by using a click track as long as its for right reasons.
first track Burning love is my last gig, tempo fairly even throughout, showing drummer can keep time.
2nd song Call me the Breeze, starts off slow, but by listening to beginning and jumping forward to end of song tempo changes a lot? whose fault?
youtu.be/EM-7m6XZdcw
Good luck when you play that to the whole band! The question for me is what is the tempo you've agreed on. And do people practice their parts at that tempo?
From memory, JJ recorded it a bit faster than you're playing it, but I like the slower tempo, myself.
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Townshend ruled the timing. Entwistle noodled away in the low register. Moon did the flash, twiddly nonsense on top.
It is possible for a drummer to define the timing without actually playing it in the strict sense.
Vinnie Colaiuta has a floaty feel which sometimes leaves you wondering whether the music has a compound time signature or is swinging broadly in 4/4. Neil Peart also does this - especially after his involvement with the Buddy Rich Orchestra tribute project. There are some Rush compositions for which Alex and Geddy are riffing in a compound, shifting time signature. Neil did the counting and realised that he could sail through all that in 4/4 and still land on the one when the composition returned to 4/4.
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There is a thing called a "predominant local pulse" which is essentially a measure of the tatum of a piece of audio - the driving pulse you could think of it as, which is usually a 4th, 8th, 16th, or 32nd. This occurs in all rhythmic music and is what our ears tune into in order to clap along. It's a concept that comes from Music Information Retrieval, and is modelled on how the human brain perceives rhythm.
When you get musicians playing tightly together, they're all playing to the same PLP values, within a margin of error. When musicians are out of time with one another, it's because they're not doing that.
I'm not saying that the band has to rigidly follow the drummer. I'm saying that the drummer determines the PLP curve for a song, because that's where you most often hear the tatum. Just because Bonham is a bit loose doesn't mean he's not doing the same thing, and just because a guitarist plays some intro chords also doesn't mean that the drummer doesn't do the same thing once he comes in.
So when I say "Click is the only answer" to the problem of a drummer not being able to maintain a songs PLP curve, I literally mean it. Practicing to a click by yourself literally trains your brain to be better at tapping into these ideal PLP curves.
That's all a long winded way of say that practice makes perfect.
@fastonebaz - your drummer simply needs to practice more, to a click and without the band. Let him count the song in at the start, even if your guitarist starts the song, and your band will sound tighter.
If you listen to 'The Chain' by Fleetwood Mac, you'll hear at the end when the bass does that F1 theme tune thing (lol) the drummer is still keeping time on the hihat... in order to keep the bassist in time.
I don't think anything I'm saying is particularly revolutionary. Drummers keep time. It's their job. A guitarist, bassist, vocalist, keyboard player, etc... can choose to push against it, but the drums are the clock, the timing reference, and the pulse of the song.
Even a solo acoustic performer... the snappy plectrum artifacts of strummed chords act as a percussive element, and define the timing.
I think when its a basic groove the drummer ought to be setting the tempo but there are tons of scenarios where the drummer needs to listen to someone else.There should always be a dominant part that is dictating the tempo and that is often but not always the drums.
The reason a click is so good is because it doesn't allow any interpretation about who was right / wrong....except in our band where the drummer insists that the click speeds up and slows down *sigh*
I totally agree. That said, I don't think wavering tempo necessarily means bad drumming, if it's intentional and fits the energy of the song.
I've seen a lot of drumming videos that are technically spectacular with great timing yet totally horrible bland drumming.
It pretty much explains the counter examples I can think of, like when a guitar is playing 1/6ths over a half time feel beat, in that case the tempo should be dictated by the guitarist.
Again when the drums are playing an embellishment, or solo style piece then one or more elements in the rest of the band will be playing the dominant repeated rhythmic elements and hence setting tempo.
(And then, once they get good, they want to play Jazz.... )
I also totally agree that everyone should practice using a metronome to develop the skill of playing in tempo and not fluctuating. I'm just not so keen on the idea that a musical performance should always be to a click or that the drummer always provides the tempo for the band to follow.