General Music Chat

I recorded some click tracks in mp3 form.
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Each one is over 6 minutes long, and I recorded them at various bpm (beats per minute.)
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If anyone wants one, email me; my email is on my page.
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Be sure to mark the email "click track," so I don't delete it as spam . . .
Alan

I've NEVER used a click track. They are nothing but annoying, a complete waste of time for me. Might be useful for others though.

I've used click tracks particularly on the acoustic things I've recorded. They are essential if you wish to use MIDI or sequencing of any type. The Farleys have never used a click track. So it depends on the application.

Yeah, Bob, I was more thinking of beginning guitar students.
i agree they're annoying, but I've used them myself for practicing stuff with complicated rhythms . . .
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Jimmy - yeah, you're absolutely right about recording.

I hear a lot of beginners who break tempo when they go into a bridge or a chorus . . .
It just makes me wonder why you can't even GIVE a click track away.
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Just for the record - I'm not selling anything, I'm not collecting emails or anything, I'm not in any kinda business . . .
I'm just a regular guy, and I actually AM offering they mp3s for free, outa the goodness of my heart.
Maybe there's not many beginners on this site?
Or maybe there's some site that already offers drum tracks or something?
. . . whatever . .
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Timing and tuning are two things a musician
should be proficient at.

I use a click track every chance I can, it takes
out all the talk about timing, when it can be
counted down to an e an a ah, its always right
no questioning.

What gets me are all the guys who've been playing for years, who speed up every song. They start at 110 bpm, and end at 130.
There's such a thing as 'the excitement of the moment,' yeah.
But I've played my own song, and frequently have had someone try to join in. And then they continually speed up.
I think what they're doing is coming in 1/32 of a beat early (maybe 1/16 triplet early) on every measure . . .
Triplets?
Heh - some of my songs have unusual rhythms. Listen to a drummer really closely, sometime; listen to when he hits that ONE beat early, just before a crash . . .
I think many guitarists mistake THAT beat for the main beat - that's how they speed up.
As that continues, and they keep playing the next part of the song before it actually arrives, eventually they speed the song up to the point where I have to start dropping stuff out to continue playing the song.
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It's not me, I can play the same song perfectly to a click track or drums.
I did one song, once, where it ended up sounding like a 33 record playing at 78. I could keep up and play it, but I had to drop out so much material that it didn't sound even like remotely like the same song.
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Their poor understanding of tempo - umm - or I guess rhythm - ruined the song.
Roughly speaking -
Tempo is how fast the song is.
Rhythm is how you play that tempo.

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The worst experience I've had is playing with just me and a bass player, when he speeds up or (gasp!) plays the wrong niote.
When a guitar and a bass are playing, you don't realize just how much authorit a bass has in a song, - until he accidently plays something wrong. it often seems like the bas is right, and the guitar is wrong, cause the bass note overpowers the root of whatever chord the guitar is playing . . .

We always rehearse songs a little slower than we play them live. There's something about people screaming and dancing that gets everyone going a little faster.

Speeding up or sowing down a LITTLE, I could care less. Playing one or two wrong notes in a song LIVE, I could care less. We're humans, not machines. I don't nit-pick people because they're human. I heard that James Brown used to fine a band member for playing a wrong note. He would have had to conjure up all of his boxing skills to keep me from breaking his nose if he ever fined me for playing OnE wrong note if I played in his band. Sometimes while playing live a song feels like it is dragging. IMO good musicians will automatically speed it up on the fly. Nothing wrong with that.

Yep, Bob, I agree with you. I was referring more about the folks who ruin a song, not the ones who make it come alive.
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Jimmy; yeah, I know exactly what you mean about rehearsing slow, and performing fast.
When you get the excitement of a room around you, it's liike there are two time zones - yours - and the rest of the worlds.
I always seem to think faster and faster when I'm 'live,' and I tend to play faster.
Sometimes I have to really force myself to play what SEEMS slow to me; . . . but other folks think it's just the right speed.
I've never had it the other way around, where I played too slow . . . the tendency is to think faster . . .

Maybe you think your bringing the song
or piece of music to live because you can't
play it the way the master wrote it.

Once you understand music then you can become
really creative.


Overheard at a music store:

"I don't play covers they're too hard,
I only play my own original music"

I believe him

Learn to play in time, all the time, my right
hand is always in time.

Bob I’m confused by your post on one hand you’re above reproach for mistakes, but on the other we are all human and prone to make them. Really, so if you screwed up James Brown’s performance and he dared notice, you would break his nose? Good to know. Note to self: Don’t criticize Bob if he plays lousy.

If while picking it up the guitarist goes for 120BPM the bassists 100 and the drummer 90. I can see a big problem with that. I’m all against making up the beat as you go. Maybe it’s different band to band, but in my opinion the drummer has the rhythm. Anyone speeding up or slowing down contrary to that, is just sucking. It’s not a rhythmic democracy. On the flip side, I have never ever heard at a performance about how bad it was, because everyone was dead on the beat. “Yeah they sucked, they played just way too tight.” That will never happen.

If someone is noticeably off the beat I’ll bitch at them in a second and fully expect them to do the same. I appreciate it when someone tells me to tighten, or clean it up. It means to me, that they are just as serious about what they are doing as I am. Although I’m fortunate enough that the people I work with do it sincerely and not as a matter of some pissing contest.

I know what you meant Bob, just kidding. One note off is a few shades past fanatical and yeah it would piss me off too. I’m just wondering if you’ll read down this far before firing back.

I hear a lot of beginners who break tempo when they go into a bridge or a chorus . . .
It just makes me wonder why you can't even GIVE a click track away.
.
Just for the record - I'm not selling anything, I'm not collecting emails or anything, I'm not in any kinda business . . .
I'm just a regular guy, and I actually AM offering they mp3s for free, outa the goodness of my heart.
Maybe there's not many beginners on this site?
Or maybe there's some site that already offers drum tracks or something?
. . . whatever . .
.

Its true... In a manner of speaking, I'm new to this world of recording and if it were not for the metronome , I'd be all over the musical map. Now, mind you, I'm not talking about standard 4/4 timing (That I can do with my eyes behind my back... ) but I've got a song in particular that breaks into a different tempo in various sections... I found it to be incredibly tricky to smoothly transition into those sections without breaking stride... The click track we set up was absolutely necessary to pull it off...

I like chick tracks


you know

the cute girl says

ah one and ah two and ah here we go...

Ive used click tracks for years...I think it helps!