Timing

Its all in the fingers, or is it?

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werdna
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Re: Timing

Post by werdna »

Since I've Been Loving You is one of those songs where once you get in the swing, and when you know the big notes where the drama happens, you can fudge a bit of the rest. You never get the impression that Page had mapped the solo out with great precision. I never mastered the whole song note for note, partly because it gets a bit sleepy at times, and partly because the timing is a bit foxy leading into the chorus.

Watching video footage of Page playing live in Led Zep tells you a lot about his studio solos. His approach to soloing rests on reasonable chops and an arsenal of good sounding blues and country licks. These licks get rotated around and pop up with reasonable regularity live or on albums. With forty years of rock since that work, with today's lens the solos seem a bit haphazard and perhaps naive. After all, it's the sort of stuff that Slash might throw into a solo briefly, before some dizzy four finger descending run that Page could only dream of knocking out. But there is power in the simplicity. For example, the solo in The Ocean, live in 1973, is not technically stunning and seems almost a bit lazy, but it brings great drama to the song and is perfect.

Although some people won't agree, for me Page can go off piste and sound a bit wonky = haphazard. For example, the solo on the recorded version Rock n Roll has a chromatic three note shape moved up from the A pentatonic minor first position to the third position. It just doesn't sound clever; not a great transition. And the beginning of the solo is a bunch of 16th notes to no apparent purpose. I worship his work, but you could never say that when he goes out on the edge he always pulls it off. The cool thing though is that his solos never sound over worked. You can't imagine Page practicing a solo 500 times. Compare Steve Vai who, as dexstrous and musical as Vai undeniably is, plays like he is Vanessa Mae.

Just while I am on the topic, is it just me or does Steve Vai have a slightly creepy role model thing about him? He dresses like a rock star, but in interviews he comes across as Steve from Accounts. Close your eyes and you could be listening to someone wearing a knitted cardigan and flared slacks describing how in an unlikely turn of events martians turned them into a famous rock guitarist. In one interview, he described a post concert party on the first David LR tour. A roadie walked down the hotel corridor naked holding an enema bag full of wine, the tube from which was inserted into the anus of a naked woman walking on all fours. Steve was quick to distance himself. He said that was only the first night of the tour, and things got even crazier, so he kept polite but distant company. But isn't that what going on tour with David LR should be all about? If you are being flown around the world like a modern version of a Roman emperor, shouldn't you throw yourself into the debauchery as if there is no tomorrow? Go one better than the roadie, and hook up two enema bags to two groupies? Go the trifecta. I don't think Steve Vai has any regrets about the line he took, which perhaps speaks more about his lack of interest in temporal pleasures than his strength of character in resisting. I would say he might be acetic in nature except that his music is as ornate and wrapped in gold brocade as a baroque period lady's bedroom.
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Molly
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Re: Timing

Post by Molly »

In light of historic allegations flying left, right and centre I suspect he did the right thing. Besides, I don't think you could achieve his level of skill without massive self-discipline so it's not surprising to discover he rose above the debauchery.

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Re: Timing

Post by foal30 »

I would hope that regardless of ones Musical level avoiding that type of depravity is the first option.

I dusted of a folder of Odd-Time tunes which was from a class Gwyn Reyonlds ran at CPIT. It's fair to say that it's tough going!
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Re: Timing

Post by Vince »

Bg wrote: Bass playing is a lot like programming. Programming consists of repeating a lot of rather dull tasks, lots of cutting and pasting and repeating patterns. And bass playing is the same, only with drugs and alcohol.
That's something I've always loved about it, that feeling of becoming a machine in a production line. Look! I've played this line perfectly! And look! I'm doing it again! Check it out! It's IDENTICAL to the last one! Let's do it again! And doing that over and over again. It gets quite hypnotic.
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"And isn't that the finest acoustic bass guitar feedback solo you've ever heard?" - Billy Moose.

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