fast stuff-slow stuff.

[Baard]

Yesterday at the rehersal we played a new instrumental that I wrote for our next CD. We were playing it, and after a run through, the lead singer looked a bit confused. We were playing at 128 bpm and there was too much stuff going on. Everybody were piling it up....not really playing for the tune, more like trying stuff out, instead of comping. So it sounded quite bad/messy compared to my my homebrew demo with a drum machine track. Anyway at his suggestion, we tried to slow it down, and it sounded much better for us....at that point. Now I´m figuring out wheather to do it as a slow tune, or to do it as a bluegrass style tune...as I was planning to do from the start. I guess we will try to play it live this saturday in the slow version....and see how it works in front of an audience, but a part of me want to say do it my way or no way. The whole tune was ment to be a fast piece. Oh well. I can always write another one. Maybe I´ve just listened too much to fast stuff lately....slow can also be good, but fast seem to be the standard these days in instrumental country.


Baard

[genelovesjez]

I guess my standard advice would be: serve the song.

[Matt Plescher]

I'd agree - serve the song. But it really depends on your emotional attachment to the song. Since you say you could just write another it sounds like you're not that attached to it. If that's the case just play it however works best for the band/gig.

However, if it's a song you really care about, then stick to your guns and play it they way you evisioned it or don't play it at all.

Cheers
Matt

[telemann51]

Part of why I keep joining/starting bands is that there is an interplay and exchange of ideas between the musicians that makes the music better. I do lots of solo stuff but I really like what happens when you get several musicians together. Sometimes a mediocre song turns into magic. Listen to it both ways and also try different ideas.

[eryque]

I used to go through this same thing with writing all the time. Something I'd write with a specific intention would fall short of my goal and work better in a different way. So there's two options: let the piece change (like slowing down your song), or figure out why it's falling short of your intentions and fix it accordingly.

[davetcan]

do the Shania thing and do it both ways :)
Having said that though I would go with whatever feels best for the band. We cover "I just wanna make love to you" and we've done it fast (Foghat) and slow (Paul Rodgers with Jeff Beck). We all like it both ways but the Jeff Beck version just works a lot better for us as a group.

Dave

[spyder]

Ho..hey Baard...heck, play the thing fast...you'll get done recording it faster than with a slower meter....same with playing it live...I ain't much on writing tunes..but I wonder if it takes longer to write a slow tune...half as long to pen a faster one?.... depending on how fast it is of course...I've only tried to write one instrumental...it was kinda half-fast if you know what I mean...later man, spyder

[PapaBeef]

Either way has it's plusses.
I'm inclined to do it both ways, depending on the mood.

When asked why the Ramones songs were all so short, they replied," The songs aren't really short. We just play them really fast".

When asked by Beavis, "Why is Metallica playing this wuss music?", Butthead answered, "Well Beavis, sometimes even really cool bands have to play wuss music so they can get chicks".

So there you have it.
Good luck. And I sure do hope this helps.