Saturday, September 26, 2009

Natural Tempo & Beat Count

I don't know if it's just me...it probably is, but I have what I call a natural tempo and natural beat count. As a drummer a maker of electronic music I always have a song or a beat going through my head. Sometimes it's someone else's song, sometimes it's something original. About 95% of the time if it is something original it's in a tempo between 180-200bpm. That's my 'natural' tempo range. I have no idea why, but when I get on my drums and play or when I'm at work doing random sciencey tasks I have a beat in that range in my head. I also have a natural beat count. On rare occasions I have a beat that's in 4:4 in my head. Most of the time, however, it's a beat with a count of 3 or 6...at a tempo between 180-200bpm. Seriously. I love songs and beats in 3:4 or mathematical variations thereof. Just check out my music page. Three of the songs on there are have a count of 3 or 6. (check out 'Prime' with a count of 23...oh yeah) Hard Jazz is the one that has beats closest to what's in my head. The first song that I heard that I can remember that was in 3:4, and that I realized had this count was the song 'Atlanta' by Stone Temple Pilots. The next one was Herbalisers remix of B Line by Lamb. These two songs were just the beginning of my natural swing towards 3/6 count music. So, I'm going give some links to my favorite tracks with this count or that includes it somewhere in the song (at least according to my ears). I say last part b/c I might post a Mastodon song and there are usually like 3 different beat counts in their songs...which is part of why they are awesome and have influenced not only my music production but also my drum playing immensely. ok, here we go:

edit: this turned out just to be a list of some of my favorite songs...the first five are in 3 or 6, but the rest are just awesome.

Stone Temple Pilots - Atlanta (an awesome live performance)
Lamb - B-Line(Herbaliser remix) (this is one the greatest songs ever)
Benea Reach - Sentiment (careful, this is Norwegian metal)
Flobots - Mayday!!! (has cuss words)
Mastodon - Mother Puncher (live)

Soundgarden - Never The Machine Forever (I'm adding this b/c it's Soundgarden and it's in 9:8)
Zao - Lies of Serpents A River of Tears
Zao - Kingdom of Thieves (this riff will eat you alive)
Switchfoot - Dirty Second Hands
Foo Fighters - Come Alive
Sevendust - Redefine
Sevendust - Rumble Fish
Midnight Juggeranuts - Into the Galaxy (love the bassline)
Incubus - Pendulous Threads (gargantuan groove in this song)
Run the Red Light - Side (another good bass line)

That's all I got right now. Enjoi