Speeding up

[dc]

How do you guys deal with the problem of songs speeding up? Our band is totally organic so we can't use click tracks. Wot's the answer?

[Ibanezdude]

ha! I would say get a good drummer, however unfortunately "good drummer" is an oxymoron as theres no such thing. See, this is the question of life in the word of music, "How to stop songs speeding up", no one really knows the right answer, as getting a drummer who can keep the same time throughout a whole song is near impossible.

[Some Bozo]

How do you guys deal with the problem of songs speeding up? Our band is totally organic so we can't use click tracks. Wot's the answer?

Just go with it and play this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeriTXdLfZk

[Timi]

Are you talking about recording or practicing/playing live?

[dc]

Are you talking about recording or practicing/playing live?

Both, but mainly live.

[Rog]

Serious answer here: The bassist controls time!

I know people tend to blame drummers, 'cos they're an easy target, but a decent bass player can truly control the band's timing, providing he has a forceful personality and can let the drummer know what's happening. Of course, if the drummer won't be told or won't listen to the basslines, you're screwed and its time to get a replacement drummer. If the bassist allows the band to speed up all the time, he's probably really a guitarist who doesn't have a real bass player's feel for timing

IME, the best place for the bassist is right next to the drummer, on the side of the drummer's snare, so that he's already slightly turned to face the bass. The drummer and the bassist MUST work together or timing lives on another planet. Of course, if the bassist is a frustrated lead player and isn't dealing to the bottom line - all hell can break loose!!

It is a real problem and unless sorted out, leads to songs sounding 'off' and consequential loss of live gigs.

I've had to bring a few drummers into line before and I've found one good way is to turn my bass cab towards the drummer and accentuate the 2 and 4 for a few bars until he gets back into groove. Even very dense drummers can't resist it when the bass thump is forceful.

[bluesbass]

When it comes to playing live in my (limited) experience, songs generally take on a life of their own (especially when the band really nails the groove) and due to nervous energy or adrenalin, they will have a tendency to "speed" up all by themselves.
Sometimes a songs tempo will fluctuate, maybe not a lot and maybe not noticeably as far as the audience is concerned.
This isn't necessarily all bad, as long as the whole band are in time.
A good rhythm section certainly helps, but its not just the job of the drummer or the bass player to keep time.
In good ensemble, the job of keeping steady time can rest firmly on the shoulders of everyone.
All members of the band should all strive to have good time-keeping skills, because they all play an integral part in maintaining the time.
Your time doesn’t have to be that great it makes a Swiss watch look sloppy, but it should be decent.
If everyone in the band has decent to good time, the groove won’t suffer.

Having said that a good timekeeper is only as good as his ability to groove.
There are as many quirks to playing a good Texas shuffle or a really smoking straight-ahead feel.
These intricacies, like playing on top of the beat or laying back can make a huge difference, and it can mean life or death to the groove and take a life time to master.



The hardest thing to do, and make it sound good on stage (IMHO), is play 'slow'.

[Hot_Grits]

One thing that helped one of my bands was pumping a click through the PA at practice. It's annoying as all hell but it makes everyone play in steady time across the whole band.

But overall, I've not had much luck steadying up drummers who speed up or slow down. In the end it's up to how much they are willing to apply themselves to mastering their art. Basically the drummer has to care about the song tempos to really involve him/herself in working to keep them steady. When I look for a drummer, I look for someone who really wants to be involved in the music on a greater level than turning up and hitting things, as that's a sign that they'll look at the song as a whole and be better able to see where something is going wrong.

One more piece of advice: don't hire a meth head.

[Capt. Black]

Our drummer is perfect.

Bless his little heart beat. Ever since way back when, he would practice for hours to a cassette of a click track through headphones until he found could hear when the cassette deck's timing was off.

Nowadays he still plays every rehearsal or gig with a click through an earpiece (or big closed headphones if I have the marshalls cranked up) and the rest of us can tell how far off we are by how much he rolls his eyes.

Quite a few bands I've heard rehearsing lately have got these shit hot drummers who all seem to be teachers down at drum city. Might be a good place to go hunting your next drummer.

Just keep yer eyes off my guy. Grrrr.

[Terexgeek]

Just keep yer eyes off my guy. Grrrr.

Mee-ow!

[TMG 03]

Playing to a CD version can sometimes show where the extra beats are coming from. But IMHO I like to stand right next to the drummer and the Bass player. Three people in a band tend to balance out the timeing issues. Singers and lead guitarists are like the extra buttons on a DVD player that nobody uses.

[rocklander]

Singers and lead guitarists are like the extra buttons on a DVD player that nobody uses.

totally, but nobody would pay for one that doesn't have those buttons

[naphazoline]

One more piece of advice: don't hire a meth head.

nice one 'grits. i would imagine that could account for some speedy tempo's,not to mention, beating the shit out of the kit.

[Orbazm]

I've run into a few drummers that when they get excited or passionate about what they're doing they tend to speed up. Tho, all bands tend to speed up a little live...even tho u don't wanna use a click track, or metronome, really in my experience the best way, is to get the drummer to practice on his own, in his time to a metronome or click track, thru head phones or the like... after a few weeks they tend to get the timing feeling a lot better, and u'll al notice in practice too... but remember bad habits are hard to break...oh and something about old dogs and new tricks!
good luck

[rocklander]

from what I've seen, speeding up and slowing down almost always happens at the start or end of a fill... the drummer can get their mind in the 'fill' zone and then have to get themselves back into the standard rhythm again, and the crossover between those two places is where they can go awry.