Veggie Dave
Sax Worker
- Messages
- 3,649
- Location
- Citizen of Nowhere
As it looks like my rhythm and blues band may be back on track (we're auditing two singers on Tuesday who may just be perfect - fingers crossed), I've been exploring the Detroit scene to find more songs the band can do. I'm absolutely adamant that we avoid the cliché cheesy songs as much as possible, and if we have to have a few in there because the audience wants them then the rest of the set is made up of incredible tracks that are instantly danceable even if only the most rabid Stax/R&B fan would actually know the song.
One of the songs I really like, that I think we can make sound great, is a track by Jean & The Darlings. As with all the songs I give to the band, I create an MP3 for them that has the exact arrangement (inc. a proper ending) we're going to play (at least initially) as well as a count-in so that everyone can practise to the song as though they were in the rehearsal studio. And when I've done that I then write horn arrangements. As I've been doing this for a while now it's starting to get easier ... until now. For the life of me I couldn't work out where the first beat of the first bar was.
It took me a while to realise that this song starts on the off-beat of the fourth beat of the count-in and that the hi-hats are also playing the off-beat, which is why it sounded odd when the main melody came in, not to mention making counting the bars impossible because I had no idea where they actually started.
Even now, I find counting the beats to be a challenge because of the off-beat hi-hats.
(If you dig out your tenor and find the above is wrong, it's because the above is in concert)
Check out the original song. It sounds simple until you try to count the bars in the intro and then...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwoRpuLwz2M
One of the songs I really like, that I think we can make sound great, is a track by Jean & The Darlings. As with all the songs I give to the band, I create an MP3 for them that has the exact arrangement (inc. a proper ending) we're going to play (at least initially) as well as a count-in so that everyone can practise to the song as though they were in the rehearsal studio. And when I've done that I then write horn arrangements. As I've been doing this for a while now it's starting to get easier ... until now. For the life of me I couldn't work out where the first beat of the first bar was.
It took me a while to realise that this song starts on the off-beat of the fourth beat of the count-in and that the hi-hats are also playing the off-beat, which is why it sounded odd when the main melody came in, not to mention making counting the bars impossible because I had no idea where they actually started.
Even now, I find counting the beats to be a challenge because of the off-beat hi-hats.
(If you dig out your tenor and find the above is wrong, it's because the above is in concert)
Check out the original song. It sounds simple until you try to count the bars in the intro and then...