Timing? BPM?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tom18222
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tom18222

yes
I know what both of these are, i have no problem playing along with a metronome. my question is, is it normal for like the chorus to be a diffrent amount of BPMs than the verse? or just in general does the whole song supposed to be the same or does it not matter.

i find myself wrting songs and the BPMs dont match.
 
most of the time people try to keep in one tempo, but occasionally you'll slow down. my grandpa used to play drums in a jazz/dixieland band and they would gradually slow down in parts on purpose.

I think the trick is making it sound deliberate.
 
+1 for making it sound deliberate. I would also like to expound upon that with my opinion... I honestly think that done properly (and deliberately) changing tempos and even completely changing the time signature in songs (i.e. verse 4/4, 160bpm; chorus 3/4, 130;etc...) can really add a lot of expression to the feel of a song. But only when done properly.
 
yeah. in my opinion, people take the speed and time signature of songs for granted. experiment a bit, and you'll find a whole load of new stuff to have fun with - i've just finished a song where the piano is playing in 6/4 while the guitar is playing in 4/4 - the piano is playing a repetitive one bar phrase, while the guitars phrase takes up two bars. which means that they meet up after 24 beats - 4 bars of 6/4 or 6 bars (or three phrases) of 4/4. sounds quite quirky :).

gradual speed changes are always fun - i play in a jazz band thing, and we wanted the ending of a song to be much more exciting than it was, so we slowly speed up 16 bars towards the end, and hit the speed we want to be at about 8 bars before the end.

if you pull it off, it shows you off a lot :) :P

Andy
 
Done with grace and intention, tempo changes make for exciting music. Check out jazz and classical for good examples. The tasteful use of time signature changes is also nice. Fun to PLAY!! JUst don't overdo it unsless you want that effect upon the listener. Note that erratic or CRAZY variation in tempo or time signature can tire the audience. I played in a John Zorn ensemble in school, it was wild. Look up his stuff. Peace. :)
 
More change = more interest. That's all you need to know.
 
andycerrone said:
More change = more interest. That's all you need to know.
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As long as it's deliberate and sounds that way, but few things make me crazy like playing with a drummer who cannot distinguish intensity from tempo.
 
I change tempos all the time. Usually I will have very fast punk verses then slow down for the chorus. I really like using this technique because I can have energetic verses then a sing-a-long sort of chorus if you see where I am comming from.
 
I also use a lot of tempo changes. However, there is something I have been wondering..

I read somewhere that sometimes the tempo will be increased by a couple bpm in certain parts of a tune, to give it that extra kick. Hard to describe I guess. Just to up the intensity of a certain part. Anyone heard of this or use it at all?
 
Actually, one of the songs on Dark Side of the Moon (can't recall the exact one) is written in 7 beats per measure and goes to 8 for the guitar solo and back to 7 again, keeping the same tempo. It gives that jazzy sound, to hard rock and back to jazzy. You may want to experiment with that also.
 
ggunn said:
As long as it's deliberate and sounds that way, but few things make me crazy like playing with a drummer who cannot distinguish intensity from tempo.
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I'm glad someone else has noticed the difference in intensity and tempo changes, I just more drummers would realize that "more intense" does not mean faster, or louder, but with more attack.
 
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