PeteM wrote
X-rated Bob wrote
Anything else you noticed about that track? (shut up Stratisfear!)
I'm not fishing for compliments, but there is something else about that track that most seem not to be noticing (and that I didn't notice myself whilst recording it).
I suppose it's some kind of compliment that not only did I not know that I was doing it at the time but that it doesn't jar.
Bob, I don't if this what you are referring to - but here goes:
I noticed at at bars 12 and 16 that you threw in an extra beat making these two bars 5/4 time in a 4/4 piece. Some might derogatorily refer to this as 'scaling' - usually drummers and other musos who might be thrown by this in a jamming situation. It is often attributed to musos who most often play on their own.
That's it. I didn't count the bars. I just know it happens round about mid-way through the track. I didn't think about it all when I recorded. When I played it back before uploading I thought "hmmm... that little bit sounds quite cool". Stratisfear spotted that there was something going on at that point. So I played it back counting out loud "ONE two three four ONE two..." etc and promptly found that there was indeed something going on.
The interesting thing, for me, is that I didn't even know I'd done it.
However, in my experience, this phenomenon occurs quite naturally in folk music. I first detected this when working out Pentangle numbers in the early '70s. As a young muso, it fascinated me to discover the so-called random use of 2/4, 3/4, 5/4 and 6/4 bars in the middle of 4/4 pieces. I soon realised that these were not random and had their own form, which was peculiar to this genre of music.
I often hear bars of 2 placed in a 4/4 piece - in cajun and celtic styles (which probably have common roots). I have series 4 of
Transatlantic Sessions on DVD and that has Julie Fowlis (fab gaelic singer) doing some piece that is changing signatures all the time. It's unusual for the time signature to be changing that much.
As you say this happens quite a lot in folk forms. It happens even more with Pentangle with their rhythm section of Terry Cox and Danny Thompson really coming from the world of jazz rather than folk - and with all involved being really top players. (For me that band is folk-jazz more than folk-rock.)
I actually haven't listened to a massive amount of folk - mostly the last couple of years. Seeing Martin Carthy live in London a couple of years ago was a big push for me into the world of traditional British music.
I also discovered that the Beatles were also using this. E.g. Good Day Sunshine, which used a 3/4 time signature in the intro and bridge and then broke into a 4/4 time for the verses - not usually used by rock and pop musos of the day. I think Chicago also did this kind of thing, if my memory serves me correctly.
John and Paul also combined 4/4 and 3/4 in "We Can Work It Out".
In your case you used the 5/4 bars at the 12th and 16th, which have a natural tendency to complete a phrase. This in my opinion is why it is not perceivable at first. It obviously came naturally to you due to your vast exposure to folk music. An interesting observation is that because you used the 5/4 bars you broke away from a pattern that might have become tedious to listen to. (clever)
Thanks. After I realised what had been done I tried to rework it using 4/4 all the way. It certainly lost something.
These days, I don't normally like analysing a number in this way and would rather just listen to it and take in the mood. But since you asked ?
Yeah. My wife gets downhearted when she hears me talking about sharps and flats and time signatures and syncopation. I tell her to just listen to the music and if it sweeps you away then it's good. If the only way to get something out of it is to analyse it then it probably ain't that good anyway.
I loved your piece Bob, it rolled along in a very smooth controlled way whilst maintaining an underlying sense of energy. Great that you've entered the challenges. This is your first time hey? I reckon you're an A category entrant or the rest of us should all join you in the B category. ?
Well look at the name: "Noodle" backwards (begins with E....) I was sitting watching the Chinese F1 race and was noodling around on the Smoothtalker thinking of things that Keira and I had discussed in my last lesson with her. I was playing in E major because it's a chord I usually steer clear of. Then I strung a couple of noodlings together and thought it was worth having a bash.
So I hope this has opened some kind of door to me. I stuck to the thing that I can do the best - which is the alternating thumb thing. The nature of Alan's challenge (and I think it was an inspired choice) allowed me to do that. If the next topic is "shred" or "blues" or "funky" then I'm dead in the water - or will stretch myself and enter in category "C".
