Tempo

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I think about tempo a lot. It's amazing how relative tempos are. What seems fast to one person in the band seems slow to another seems REALLY fast to someone in the audience.

I've been getting more and more into "mature" (i.e. SLOW) tempos. Playing songs at quickly can seem like an easy way to create energy and make it seem like things are happening, but really putting everything in the right place at a slower tempo is the shit.

What about deciding what's the right tempo for a song? Studio vs. live tempo? Does your band argue about tempos?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

I don't need to argue with my band, I've got a sequencer and a click track. Most of my songs hover around the 130 to 140 mark, though lately I've been writing more dancey/groovy numbers about 120.

It's always just about what *feels* right.

― Control your ponies, children! (kate), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

Pop and dance should really have the same tempo as fast walking, so that's what I aim for.

― Control your ponies, children! (kate), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

Since our drummer is still relatively new to the world of drumming, our songs' tempos fluctuate pretty widely from performance to performance, and sometimes within the performance. Usually I'm asking him to speed it up a little, unless it's a mid-tempo song, then I usually want it a little slower. I'm a bastard.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

I doubt it.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

You doubt that Nick's a bastard?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

All the stuff I've worked on lately has been coming out in completely unworkable tempos and time signatures. E.g., I have this partial song in 3 with half-measures all over the place, at 120 bpm -- and I can't go anywhere with it, because I can't decide whether different lines should go uptempo (at 6/8) or downtempo (at 3/8, I guess). It's either a slow song or a fast tense ticking-along thing like "49 Percent," and every new line I write seems to suggest the opposite of whatever I'd just decided.

― nabiscothingy, Wednesday, 30 November 2005 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I doubt that Nick's a bastard. But maybe just in comparison. I'd say more, but it kind of goes back to the reason why I originally said I was going to post on this board.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

...I *wasn't* going to post on this board.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

That's what I love about triple meters, you can have SO many feels going on at once.

xpost, because you don't want to talk trash about your bandmates? :>

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, Jordan, except right now I think I need fewer options and possibilities, not more! I guess the way I write things just involves playing with a few elements until one particular use for them starts to seem like the "right" one, and then I count on some kind of momentum to get me to the end before I start second-guessing it all. So an idea that has lots of possibilities tends to lead to me screwing around with it for a week, never quite deciding what direction it should go in, and then abandoning it for something else.

― nabiscothingy, Wednesday, 30 November 2005 20:41 (nineteen years ago)

everything should be ramones tempo live

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 1 December 2005 00:04 (nineteen years ago)

Seconded.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 1 December 2005 20:52 (nineteen years ago)

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