Theory for sounding great what do you think...?

fender22087 · #1 07-09-2008, 07:06 AM

I'm new to the form so first I'll introduce myself. My name is Paul and I'm a music student from Kansas. I'm studying to be a producer/songwriter/engineer/studio musician and think I've just found out the secret to sounding musically great so let me know what you guys think of it.

Well in school they have me studying guitar, bass, piano, drums, and other misc. instruments so it can be tricky to balance all of those instruments and still be able to improve on all of these. So I've been thinking a lot lately how I can sound great at all times on these instruments and not have to spend 15+ hours a day practicing to keep up my progress and I think I found it: timing. Think about it, if you listen to all of the great sounding recordings in music history, about 85% of the time they're very simple to play but they've mastered the art of staying in time and playing to a metronome. Take for example the album Band On The Run by Wings. Personally I think the whole album sounds great even when they're just going back on I IV chords. The reason is because the players know how to stay in time. Same with all of Zeppelin's albums, Pink Floyd's, Beatles, Hendrix, Who, etc...

This is particularly true with bass, which is the instrument that blends the drums with harmony and lays down the low end for the song. A great bassist doesn't necessarily have to be able to slap like Larry Graham or melt your face off like Geddy Lee, he just needs to be consistently solid at keeping tempo. My last piece of evidence for the theory is the metronome. Have you every fooled around on GarageBand and made really cheesy beats just for the fun of it? If so you've probably noticed that all the instrument demos are all electronically processed and not played by real instruments. Still when you put them together (lay down the drums, bass on top, guitar, and maybe piano), as goofy as the beat sounds, there's still an inherent togetherness that comes from it making it sound somewhat musical. Since these are all programmed to match up perfectly with the metronome, this is the reason it sounds like that. Therefore if you can get rock solid at keeping time and playing any instrument with a metronome, you've conquered over 85% of the battle for sounding good. Anyways that's just my theory. Let me know you're opinions on this...

deathbyjune · #2 07-09-2008, 07:19 AM

agreed 100%

BassChuck · #3 07-09-2008, 07:34 AM

Pretty hard to disagree. I think most people here have been doing the same thing since they got serious about music.

Music is an art of time. Music is most profundly affected when you deal with the elements that deal with time; tempo, rhythm, duration.

Welcome to the brotherhood.

crazyguy832 · #4 07-09-2008, 08:01 AM

Actually, a lot of the bands you mentioned have somewhat flexible time...

Who had fairly loose time live from what I know, and the Beatles, IIRC, have plenty of records where the time fluctuates during it.

What the bands are, however, is TIGHT. Their time fluctuates together.

It's not perfect time that makes a band sound good (although it never hurts), it's having everyone playing in time with each other.

Another way of looking at, much closer to your POV, is that a metronome is nothing more than another bandmember. Great tool for practicing, but music needs to breath and ebb.