First things first - grab your free show notes.
Today’s video was simmering on the back burner for quite a while.
It concerns my attempt to answer possibly the most frequent question I get from students about playing with a band: “what happens if I’m in a tug-or-war over the tempo?”
BTW, hopefully the video thumbnail captures this adequately. Thanks, Midjourney, and goodbye, 3 hours this morning.
But we’ve all probably been there.
You practice your time and tempo in the shed with a metronome, and you’re pretty confident you’re solid. Then you get in a rehearsal or gig situation with a…maybe slightly novice…musician or two in your band, and it feels like the tempo is going to come apart at the seams.
Maybe you’ve got one member who is pulling on the tempo in a certain direction. Or maybe you’ve got multiple factions, all threatening the “global order”.
These situations can be frustrating precisely because there’s no easy answer: on the surface, it seems like you’re caught between two bad options - go with the offending member, and let the tempo get out of control, or resist militantly, often causing the band to pull apart, and incurring the bad vibes that enesue.
That’s why I call this the “hardest thing about playing with a band”.
But what if I told you there’s a “third way”.
Just like jiujitsu, and annoyingly, it’s all in the subtleties. In this video, I’ll attempt to frame some of the more “201” strategies for keeping a song on the rails even when factions are trying to pull it off - all without pissing anybody off. Hopefully.
Hope you enjoy.