Korg Forums

[awake21]

i went to a clinic of steve mcnally and he played this song, my question is how can he be in time with the percussion or the backing track, while there is no click. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJu0o9xZJ0

[runningman67]

Same as playing live with a group, you follow the drums and use your natural rhythm, timing. Plus he will have played that demo lots of times, he could do it in his sleep.

Is that what you are asking
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https://m.youtube.com/user/1967runningman

[Niarf]

I know that tune, you can find it here : http://youtu.be/Y4kf0c8edAw

Cool huh ?

[jorgemncardoso]

[jeremykeys]

[geoelectro]

[jorgemncardoso]

Hi Geo, totally understand where you are coming from mate.
That's where i begun back in late 80's, played in church for 20 years, apart from the several outside bands too during that period.
But the click track live (for a keyboard player at least) is still a little hard for me to see the benefit, unless you want to sync a delay to it or something else as you stated. If i have our drummer in time with the click track, i don't necessarily need to listen to the click track myself, i just follow the drums. In fact i would probably mess up if i was listening to the click track and drums at the same time. However i always had the luck to have very good and tight drummers in that time (tempo wise), so i don't think that we would drift all that much without a click.

However, in a very large stage environment where you get all this reverb and delays all over the place, you will need the click to make sure you are playing in time with the rest of the band, but for smaller rooms or stages following the drums is enough for me. It always depends on the different scenarios of course.

Playing in a church band however, the concept of using a click myself (at least on a regular service situation) is a bit strange to me, because it's not "regular" music (songs) as you know, you need to play faster, play slower, stop, etc. You don't have a regular pattern most times as a regular song (gig) would have, where you have a set list and follow it to the letter.
At least in my time we had a generic set list for the service, but things changed all the time and it was hard to have much pre-programed, i had to improvise all the time. Using any sequences or backing tracks was really difficult too, unless you are playing songs from beginning to end without changes and where you can have pre-programed stuff.

I understand that for musicians that where never in bands where you have to improvise and adjust all the time, make key changes on the fly, have several lead singers in one gig, is hard to understand the principle. On most regular music (at a gig), you can pre-program almost everything ant there are not that many surprises or on the fly changes.

Having begun in church however gave me a whole flexibilities and improvisation skills, and technical baggage that some guys who start playing instrument's now don't get.
I've seen guys complain for example about this or that keyboard not having transpose buttons on the front panel, when i had to play in another key, i just played in another key and that was it there where no transpose buttons back then, even less on an acoustic grand

I just have the opinion that one must not let himself fall on the trap of relying (meaning being dependent on...) on the technology to play. I like to use technology to make my life easier if needed, or to enhance a performance, but never to replace any skill (or lack there off...)
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Keyboard Gear:
Korg: Trinity, 01/Wfd (2X), T3 ex, Wavestation SR
Yamaha: Motif XS8
Roland: expanded JV-1010 modules (3X)
...And a bucket load of Softsynths, plug-ins, and DAW's

[Comrad_Durandal]

[jorgemncardoso]

Totally get what you are saying. However no kind of negative criticism or patronizing of any kind was intended to the OP on my first post, or to any of the younger folks for that matter. Sorry if it came out like that, not intended to

I just find it odd him asking for the click track when the guy demoing the keyboard was playing to a drum track, i mean... That is the click (rhythm)
A click track when you are playing with a drum track on the keyboard or you have a drummer playing a few feet away from you is totally redundant.

I guess what i was trying to say is, with the amount of technology available on keyboards these days, we can fall into the trap (especially younger guys starting to play) of relying and depending on the technology too much to the point of starting to take shortcuts when it comes to basic skills, because the keyboard almost does it all.
It's great to use it to help and enhance your performance but never let it replace skill.
IMHO it's better to start leaning on basic piano or organ to get the basics and the feel of music and music theory, and then move on to the synth world

Yes there is still a lot of teachers out there that still doesn't consider keyboards as instruments. A lot of them because they where classically trained pianists. But i'm sure there are lot of synth guys out there that are teaching keyboard/synth theory and operation. And there is also a huge load on info on the net and on youtube too.

Man i wish i had the resources that exist now when i started to learn to play. In my time we had to do it all the hard way because there was no other way to do it
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Keyboard Gear:
Korg: Trinity, 01/Wfd (2X), T3 ex, Wavestation SR
Yamaha: Motif XS8
Roland: expanded JV-1010 modules (3X)
...And a bucket load of Softsynths, plug-ins, and DAW's

[SanderXpander]

Did you actually watch the video?

He plays for like 16 bars with no drums or percussion at all, after an initial single hit. I'm a pro and consider my time good, yet there is no way I could pull that off without being even a sixteenth off when the backing track comes back in.

I think he's simply watching the metronome light. That's what I'd do.

[jorgemncardoso]

Yes i watched the video. But i guess i didn't understand the question like that, so i was thinking he was referring to the whole song with the percussion part and not the beginning when the percussion comes in. Didn't thought of it like that. Ok, the question makes more sense to me now
Maybe i was just too hasty in replying the first time Thanks for pointing that out.

Yep watching the metronome light makes sense of course. If he had a drummer playing there, the drummer would have fallowed his initial tempo of course
_________________
________________________________________
Keyboard Gear:
Korg: Trinity, 01/Wfd (2X), T3 ex, Wavestation SR
Yamaha: Motif XS8
Roland: expanded JV-1010 modules (3X)
...And a bucket load of Softsynths, plug-ins, and DAW's