Elizabeth wrote:
By the way, I mentioned Al Jackson, the Stax drummer, in the previous
post. Stax music was typically behind-the-beat music, but if everyone
played behind the beat all the time, the music would've slowed down
noticeably in the 2:30 of a record. Jackson solved this problem by
playing the ONE of every eighth bar dead on on top of the beat. This
kept the beat kosher all the way through. Clever, no?
Okay, here is my point of confusion: If everyone played behind the beat
all the time, wouldn't the "behind-beats" (if you will) *become* the
beat, such that the piece would have ended one behind-the-beat's-worth of
time later, but not an accumulated piece's worth of behind-the-beats
later?
How is playing ahead of the beat or behind the beat to be distinguished
from sloppy rhythm playing? I mean, it's obvious from the discussion that
it's something way better and cooler than sloppy playing (I/he/she/they
MEANT to do that!), but how does that work?
The different sections on these recordings, horns, rhythm are doing all
kinds of different 'behinds' and in fact there are always some very spicy
hits coming before the beat, just when you don't expect them. (Those are
often referred to as 'anticipations.') Listen to Soul Man by Sam And
Dave. The rhythm section is ever so slightly behind the beat, while the
horns are playing these staccato hits in front. You can hear it in the
second verse, starting after the phrase "the hard way". Those subtle hits
coming ahead of the beat while the rhythm section is playing behind really
keep things moving. (Frankly, the horn section was often a second rhythm
section. Amazing.)
And because these players all had sensationally good time, they are all **
implying ** the metronome beat, they're playing in reference to it.
The 'behind-the-beat' feel of Stax records, and many, many funky records
beyond Stax, feels behind the beat because **you** feel the metronome, and
you feel it because these sections are referencing it. Like much of
music, you feel it even when you don't know you do.
When musicians are merely playing sloppily you don't feel what they're
playing in reference to a beat, you hear the musician or group trying to
keep up with each other or not even trying. Listen to any Stax record and
you'll see that it doesn't sound sloppy in the least. (I must admit that
the first really funky music I ever heard, Howlin' Wolf's recordings,
sounded sloppy to me at first. Within a few weeks I had become acclimated
to the sound and all it sounded like was pure pleasure. I'll never be 15
again.)
Now, this notion of playing in front of the beat or behind or on top of it
is the whole reason you feel like dancing when you hear it. Your body is
keeping a secret pulse, but the music is not going where you are expecting
it to go. You are experiencing the pleasure of micro-syncopations.
Swinging is another form of micro-syncopation. I have always envisioned
the idea of the metronome beat in swing music being these stationary poles
that the musicians are swinging around. Swing and funk are very close
cousins. In both 'feels' you are dragged along with the music, just about
helplessly, as the musicians keep fooling your body and your ears very
subtly. Your body keeps wanting to 'beat' here but the music hits just
before or after where you expect, and just when you expect things to hit
behind or ahead of the beat a good musician hits the beat dead on.
Keeping it all very surprising to body and ears.
Listen for this phenomenon - it's everywhere in popular music. And as you
grow your inner metronome by practicing with your outer one, and you focus
more and more on how the great musicians are playing with your
expectations of time, the better you'll get at doing it too.
Various musics have various before or after-the-beat characters. Bossa
Nova drummers rush the beat, meaning they play ahead of it much of the
time, giving it an incredibly bracing feeling, while the guitar is often
dead-on.
Ringo Starr played ahead of the beat on many of the most exciting Beatles
records, often being the secret key to all that excitement. (Ringo is
criminally underrated, though other people also drummed on those records.)
Ringo helped the Beatles records 'breathe' by playing ahead or behind the
beat where appropriate.
For that matter, listen to any era of the Stones. Charlie Watts plays
with unbelieveably hip swing, sometimes behind the beat, sometimes ahead
of it, sometimes within the same figure. He's driving the rest of the
boys because he's messing with ALL of their expectations and yours, too,
as the audience.
So this is a good project for anyone who is interested. While working on
your metronome, daily, choose a couple of your favorite records and tap
out the time while listening for who is playing behind or ahead and where.
After a while you'll hear this stuff naturally, and begin to think in
terms of doing it yourself.
Ken
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