Thank you for the lesson. Do you teach music? Obviously your avocation too. I will print this out and study.
Bree.... who can be off-beat >It's an interesting question this one! Joni refers to the rhythm on TI >and other similar songs (Cherokee Louise, Crazy Cries of Love) as her >shuffle. Melanie was right - there seems to be a "3 feel" going on as >well as a "4 feel". > >With these songs you can count a slow, steady count of 4 throughout the >song *or* you can count in faster groups of three: > >*1* 2 3 *2* 2 3 *3* 2 3 *4* 2 3 (where the asterisks mark the slower >count of four). > >On Crazy Cries of Love, listen to the rhythm of the words on the chorus >where Joni sings "paper thin" (no paper thin walls). If you repeat this >phrase over and over, you have the same groups of three as above: > >*pa*-per thin *pa*-per thin *pa*-per thin *pa*-per thin > >This is the basic groove for TI, Crazy Cries, Cherokee Louise and >several others. Because you've got four groups of three beats, it's >usually written down as a 12/8 time signature - meaning four beats, each >made of of 3 eighth notes. It's the same 12/8 throughout, though >Joni accents different beats to make it more varied. > > >The two that still stump *me* are "Stay in Touch" and "Love Puts On a New > >Face" on TtT. Anyone have those figured out? > > > >These have some strong off-beat rhythms on the guitar, and because >there's no drum track, it seems as if the beat is being pushed and >pulled all over the place! > >Stay In Touch is actually in 4/4 throughout, but it sounds more >complicated than this just because of the strong off-beat strums >on the guitar. > >Love Puts On A New face is also in 4/4 except for one bar of 2/4 >in the introduction, but again, Joni's very rhythmic guitar playing >makes it feel like the beats are coming in unusual places. > >Joni's always had a very strong sense of rhythm on the guitar, and I >think this comes through more strongly on these tracks because they >are quite sparse - no drums or percussion, just guitar, vocals, a >bit of keyboard and not much else. > >I remember Joni quoted Wayne Shorter after he heard these tracks, and he >said that people would never know "where one was" - i.e where the start >of each bar was, and it's true that the simple 4/4 time that's used on >many tracks is kind of "disguised". Even the person who transcribed the >music for "Face Lift" for the TTT songbook was thrown off the scent, and >wrote bars of 4/4, 5/4 and 3/4 - it's actually 4/4 all the way, it just >doesn't sound like it! > >Howard _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
