The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: An observation about students and rhythm

Author: seabreeze
Date: 2015-08-29 20:18

The reference to Don Ellis' New Rhythm Book in the article on the Takadimi method reminds me of the experience my friend, the late alto sax and reed player Lonnie Shetter, related after he joined the Don Ellis big band. He said Ellis had been trying out musicians from the studios in Los Angeles to play the odd meter charts, and even those experienced sight readers had to learn to count time all over as if they were absolute beginners. Playing all those shifting meters was like having the rug pulled from under your feet every few bars--way harder than Stravinsky or Bartok. Musicians with experience performing or natural affinity for Indian ragas had a better time of it--especially if they grew up playing the tabla drums. But even after individual players got their parts counted right, they had the additional challenge of counting and phrasing them together as a (sax or woodwind) section. It is one thing to improvise over constantly shifting meters and still another to play written passages rapidly in unison without lapsing into heterophony.

Any proposed system for counting rhythm has to be able to accomodate "irregular" asymmetrical, shifting meters as well as regular ones.

Post Edited (2017-09-06 22:29)

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics