All things in good time

One of the best chapters in Livingston Taylor's book Stage Performance cleverly entitled "All things in good time" and of course it's all about the importance of rhythm in a musical performance situation.

As a guy who sings a lot of a cappella music and hangs around with that crowd, I will say that I wish we gave rhythm even half as much attention as tuning and vowels.  I mean, an out of tune chord is not a nice thing to inflict upon the audience, but if we short-change our attention to rhythmical matters, I think we're missing out on a lot of opportunities.

"Liv" is of course an instrumental musician, and the folks who play instruments have got rhythm deeply embedded in their culture.  Singers have tuning jokes (e.g. "he couldn't find 'do' in a bakery") but musicians have drummer jokes: "How can you tell if a drummer is knocking in your door?  It speeds up."  And you can always tell what people care about by their jokes.

Rhythm has a special place in human psychology and neurology.  Beating on drums is perhaps the most ancient form of music, and maybe we got wired up to appreciate it because of all the rhythm in our daily lives: the rhythm of working, walking, heartbeats.  I could theorize all day but the fact is that rhythm has a hypnotic quality to us.  Three beats of even rhythm, and the brain tends to extrapolate it to infinity - the constancy is so comforting and pleasing to us.

On the other hand, to screw up rhythm is to put a whole audience on edge.  Remember, they are in your world, and giving themselves over to the created reality of your performance.  When you drop a beat, I bet some percentage of the listeners get arrhythmia.  It's very disconcerting.

Rushing is in some ways even worse.  When a group is rushing the beat, it feels like anxiety.  "I can't wait to finish this thing and get out of here!"  This problem comes up a lot with a cappella groups, who after all have no drummer to keep them honest.

And even though brains are wired up to detect the slightest deviation in external rhythm, it seems that brains are very poor at producing it.  If you are a singer, try singing a familiar rhythm song along with a metronome - you'll be amazed how that darned thing speeds up and slows down all the time!  Your brain's sense of rhythm seems very fluid.

The way to get around that is to allow physical involvement.  Your body has mass, so as it moves it tends to keep time.  Same principle as a pendulum.  I am a huge fan of Take Six, and I used to think they were just wired up differently from the rest of us because their "groove" is so amazing.  Then I saw them live and realized why - they move!  Then snap, they clap, they jive, they tap their thighs - whatever "moves them" and fits with the music.  No wonder they have such great rhythm!  Fortunately, it's something we can all copy if we care enough.  And I'm saying we should.

Another trick to keeping great time is to move your internal rhythm around a bit.  If your toe tapping fatigues your foot, move it to your hand.  If your hand tires out, start to step to the beat.  Credit Liv Taylor for this suggestion.

Another tip, also paraphrasing Liv Taylor, is to put your attention on the space between the beats, rather than the beats themselves.  There's a precise moment in time when the next beat should occur, and until then you can just rest!  The audience will rest with you, and it drives them wild.

Yet another in this smorgasbord of rhythm tips.  Understand the subdivision of the beat.  Is it divided in two, like a rock tune or a march, or is it divided into triplets like a swing tune?  Be aware of that subdivision, feel it in your body, and it will give the music a strong, solid feel, and it will also keep you honest on the beat.

Finally, pay special attention to counting on those dangerous long notes.  Most people stop counting 1-2-3-4 when they have a half note or a whole note.  Consequently I almost never hear a long note held for its full duration.

A cappella singers - I challenge you to spend just a quarter of your rehearsal time on rhythm for a while.  It will serve you well!