song

"Man, we played that song really fast!" And they're surprised to hear me say, "That's the tempo you asked for." Here are the steps to being successful in counting in your band at the tempo you want.

1) Hum a couple of bars in your head - Pick a part of the song that really gives you a sense of the rhythm (this may not be the opening of the song).

2) Tap your foot (or bob your head... something of your body should move)

3) Count 1 (then skip one beat) 2 (then skip one beat) - this is the "pre-count" and is there to get the band ready to play continue reading...

The most basic way of playing with a vocalist is to play when they're not singing, called playing "fills." This naming comes from the idea that you're "filling" the holes left by the vocals.

The first challenge is to know when to start playing (this tends to be fairly intuitive) and when to stop playing (which is a little less intuitive... it's easy to play too long and step on the next line of the vocals).

There's a simple answer... sing the vocals. continue reading...