question for real muscians in a band

[Dogbite]

I am very curious to anyone that has played in a band, in rockband there are obviously notes that stream down the screen that keep a certain timing, but in "real life' no such notes, which instrument in a band controls the timing of the song. it would seem to me the bass guitar if they sped up thier playing of the notes it would force everyone to speed up, of course this would happen with any instrument but I think it would be more pronounced with bass, am I correct or is it drums? maybe harmonica

[Insane3]

It's flute. Our flute player keeps confusing everyone by changing tempo. He's a mean person.

Well I vote for drums since they are the ones who hold the tempo. Bass player give the beat, not the tempo. I don't know if I'm clear, I don't know all the english musical vocabulary, I'm french lol.

[OldFogey]

I am very curious to anyone that has played in a band, in rockband there are obviously notes that stream down the screen that keep a certain timing, but in "real life' no such notes, which instrument in a band controls the timing of the song. it would seem to me the bass guitar if they sped up thier playing of the notes it would force everyone to speed up, of course this would happen with any instrument but I think it would be more pronounced with bass, am I correct or is it drums? maybe harmonica

Bass and drums together typically constitute the rhythm section in a rock band -- but the drummer is usually the one who sets and keeps the tempo and beat for the band. I've been in one band where we went through 4 drummers before we found one who kept a steady beat.

In modern recording studios it's fairly common to have a click track (a metronome) that counts out the beat and everyone has to play to that, but that's usually reserved for cases where the band itself has a hard time keeping the beat steady. Having a steady beat is imperative when you start using multi-tracking recording techniques.

[polishdog90]

Drummers keep the band in timing. The bassist usually helps the drummer keep in timing too though. They sort of help each other, but the drummer sets the tempo. There are some bands where the bass plays lead as well as the guitarist and then the drummer has to keep the rhythm by himself and vice versa.

[AxlVanHagar]

Bass and drums together typically constitute the rhythm section in a rock band -- but the drummer is usually the one who sets and keeps the tempo and beat for the band. I've been in one band where we went through 4 drummers before we found one who kept a steady beat.

In modern recording studios it's fairly common to have a click track (a metronome) that counts out the beat and everyone has to play to that, but that's usually reserved for cases where the band itself has a hard time keeping the beat steady. Having a steady beat is imperative when you start using multi-tracking recording techniques.


+1 Fogey pretty much nailed it.

[JukeBoxHero]

I am very curious to anyone that has played in a band, in rockband there are obviously notes that stream down the screen that keep a certain timing, but in "real life' no such notes, which instrument in a band controls the timing of the song. it would seem to me the bass guitar if they sped up thier playing of the notes it would force everyone to speed up, of course this would happen with any instrument but I think it would be more pronounced with bass, am I correct or is it drums? maybe harmonica


In a real band, the drummer is normally the one keeping the time. In a good number of bands the bassist usually support the drummer in keeping the tempo. In genres like progressive rock or funk rock, the bassist plays more aggressively like the lead guitar in most cases and doesn't keep the time.(Although at times, it just come down to keeping the tempo playing in the musician's head.)

[DrummeRy32]

Having been on big stages (mostly small ones) But some real big ones... If your in a band now adays none of the members "keep the time" . You see those things in the musicians ears those are in ear moniters... what those are doing are givin you a mix of the insturments for the singer his voice so on and so on...but more importantly they are givin you a click track(metronome). That is what the Drummers are playin to. thats who ill talk about cause thats what I am. I had a paying gig with a female vocalist a few months back..Jaded Era from the Akron,OH area(she did the origanal version of Ashlee Simpsons "invisible".) We opened up for Brett Michaels Band (from Poison). I was a decient size show. now for this show i had to wear headphones...in one ear id get all the midi sounds kinda weird stuff (clocks, sounds, duplicates of her voice stuff like that...and the other ear a click track. click click click... In this instance i was the only one with the headphones..(big national acts the whole band usually has them). So Id give the 4 clicks with the click track and then everyone would play to me playin to a click track...Not as easy as it sounds. You wanna put your drummer in check or drummers you wanna put your band in check start practicing with a click track

[TakeABow]

Ive heard of that, though we never have done anything that sophisticated, we just let me drum and keep tempo, and our bassist kind of holds me in check. Some of our songs very tempo during the song, and its on me to change it. That has worked out pretty well for us so far.

I am curious about trying a click track and seeing how much more consistent that keeps us.

[OldFogey]

Ive heard of that, though we never have done anything that sophisticated, we just let me drum and keep tempo, and our bassist kind of holds me in check. Some of our songs very tempo during the song, and its on me to change it. That has worked out pretty well for us so far.

I am curious about trying a click track and seeing how much more consistent that keeps us.

I echo Drummer -- playing with a click can be pretty tough. It's great discipline. We teach our boys to play everything with a metronome, and man do they hate it, but boy does it make a difference. Especially when they're learning to sight read.

[orange_black]

Metronomes are a good thing to practice with and perhaps record with if you're going to be laying different layers of tracks on top of each other.

But in my experience, if you have a good band.. nobody "keeps the beat" really... the "beat" of the song is in all the musicians heads and together, all the musicians play on this invisible beat and stay together. Of course this is something that only comes with bands that are :

a: really really good individually (say studio players)

b: have been together a long time and are "tight" as its called

if a band were composed of young, inexperienced players, then I would strongly suggest the drummer keep a very VERY (did i mention very?) simple drumbeat to set a tempo for the rest of the band to play on. When i say "very" simple I dont necessarily mean "boom chick boom chick"... but moreso a beat that the drummer is VERY VERY comfortable with so there is no complications in tempo.

my 2 cents :)

[ProgNegative]

I have to agree with the drummer and bassist helping to keep the beat, although I've never played anything bigger than a school gym so for bigger shows I know it gets too loud to hear everyone else clearly, hence the ear monitors as mentioned above. I'm a bass player, but my drummer relied heavily on me to keep the beat solid. Since there was usually limited room on stage he made a big deal of making sure my amp ended up close to him and slightly behind so that he could feel what I was playing since it wasn't always easy to hear what I was doing. I also tended to write my bass lines around the kick pattern he would use just to keep us on the same page, and if either of us felt the song moving too fast or lagging we could gradually change it and the other would follow almost instantly, and since everyone else just used us as reference it made it pretty easy to control the beat. That's my experience anyway.