Re: Timing issues
This is an interesting discussion. I'm enjoying the thoughtful comments. Sorry for going on at length, but this is an important topic.
To put timing issues into perspective, music and singing have a head start on music notation by tens of thousands of years, just as speech and storytelling are ancient when compared with reading, writing, and dictionaries. Furthermore, our western system of musical notation was first developed for European liturgical music sung by groups. There were two aims to the notation system: first, to direct people to reasonably accurately imitate sounds; second to coordinate group singing of a particular style of music, so that singers came in at particular times and not randomly. Therefore, creating a prescribed system of timing goes back to the roots of written music. With the development of formal systems of church and courtly music, the rules became further refined.
However, a great many folk (oral, traditional, passed-on) music traditions were kept alive by self-taught or informally-trained musicians. This was how most people made music, unrestricted by formal rules about timing, pitch, etc., though they may well have had to adhere to different folk rules, e.g., "You young people play that too darn fast. Slow down!" If the particular tradition didn't demand that musicians stick to strict tempos, they didn't. A great many contemporary musicians coming out of folk traditions play "crooked" tunes, dropping a beat or throwing in an extra one, seemingly at random. If the people who are their usual audiences, perhaps relatives and friends, and who understand the musical tradition, accept their playing, these musicians are playing properly within the tradition. But trained musicians often found many blues musicians difficult to play with. Some of the old timers were used to playing alone, not having to coordinate their music with others, while some could play well with peers who were immersed in the music, and didn't have formal notions of timing. A great deal of traditional music was dance music. Again, if the local dancers could do their traditional dances, the musicians were playing properly.
Formal training in western music involves many rules and assumptions that come out of a particular system. Problems arise when a trained musician moves outside that system. A great many people with formal training never question their own assumptions about how folk music should sound, let alone attempt to understand the aesthetic of the people who play the music they admire. Instead, they change the music in order to fit to their expectations. They seem to think, "If she (the tradition bearer) had my musical education, she'd know that there should be an even number of beats throughout this tune." To further complicate matters, as has been said by others, in order to play with people trained in the more formal system, the music has to meet their expectations by having a certain number of "bars" and a certain number of "beats per measure". These concepts are abstract ideas, meant for writing music on paper and may be foreign to the folk musicians who created the tunes. I find that the more formal training I get, the harder it becomes to just imitate what I hear. Instead, I think, "Wait a minute, where's the fourth beat?" At times, I learn uneven tunes by ear so I don't lose that skill.
In summary, folk traditions aren't usually governed by the rules of formal western music. "Crooked" timing isn't a mistake; it's part of a style. Learners, from outside a tradition, can deal with the change in styles by imitating the original music, or by making the music conform to the structures of the more formal style, among other approaches. Making the music conform means moving away from the tradition, and may sometimes be disrespectful to both musicians and their traditions. It also may keep a person from learning the subtleties of a particular tradition, as they try to fit the music into their own expectations.
(And, to further complicate matters, there are both traditional and trained musicians with poor senses of rhythm.)
Last edited by Ranald; Aug-25-2020 at 4:01pm.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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