topic: time
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2023 10:07 am
Time is thought to be more difficult - in regards to developing a sense of it - even than tuning.
With tuning (even though more complicated that time - as musicians actually tune differently - depending on the instruments and the context), there are mechanisms - such as pitch-matching, harmonics (interference waves) and an instrument (if instrumental music) itself that help with this, but time (by some) is thought to actually be a construct (ie. something which actually does not exist) invented by men - in order to bookmark events...
Time - as with tuning - can be achieved by time-matching, but that's about it, unless individuals spend a great deal of effort on developing a sense of it.
I personally have much more experience playing with small combos than - likely - most tuba players, and have spent much more time playing with small combos than with symphony orchestras and bands. I have probably actually even spent more time (no...I don't have the experience of someone such as a Daellenbach or Rojak) playing with brass quintets - compared to large ensembles, and (OK...overt name-dropping) have worked in quintets with betters-than-me such as Ryan Anthony, Jim Thompson, and others with similar abilities - yet less name recognition. In my experience (working with top-level musicians (those who do probably do things better/faster/nicer than I can probably do them) the small ensemble - which can tend to waver in time the most - is the brass quintet. LOL...Turning on a loud metronome (in a quintet rehearsal, playing extremely challenging music which hasn't quite yet been mastered) can sometimes be quite revealing (if not comical). ...so what's the difference between a brass quintet and a jazz combo or a polka band...?? (answer: The brass quintet has on-board NEITHER a drummer NOR a bass player...as the poor tuba player is jumping back-and-forth - as parts tend to be written - between tuba(bass), second trombone, second horn, or third trumpet.) In my old age, (good) drummers seem to "like" me, because (they report to me that) they never have to "fight" with me. I tend to suspect that the only difference between me and some of the bass players they work with is probably experience, whereby experience itself teaches time (as certainly do combo leaders with good senses of time - and good swear-word vocabularies
...ie. "DAMMIT bloke, MUST WE F***ING SLOW DOWN on EVERY G**D*** TUNE !?!?!" 
).
As tuba players, we learn to anticipate our execution of low pitches, as (depending on us, our mouthpieces, and our instruments) there tends to be a delay. This doesn't mean to play ahead, but - rather - it defines doing things ahead of time, so that our sound occurs (not ahead, but) "on time". I'm not really a subscriber to the "It takes longer for the tuba sound to make it out into the hall" thing. Rather, I'm a subscriber to "Many tuba players tend to begin to produce their sounds after most all of the other musicians begin to produce their sounds".
As I've confessed - many times - with tuning, I view time as a personal weakness. I work on time nearly as much as tuning (as my practice time is limited) with the third thing (probably) being phrasing, so that - when I get to a (sheet-music reading) job, my playing isn't "cold-fish" (predictable/no-music/mechanical) tuba playing...and phrasing (both the noun and the verb, "phrasing") is a whole lot more than "what's written" (which are mostly "corporate" phrasing indications, whereby experienced bass/tuba players/sections, know to do more than what is indicated on a page, and either via experience, via Tabuteau's system, or both. trick/test: IF doing something "with" the phrasing, it sounds really good, contributes without distracting, and (particularly) if others smile (and certainly if the music director smiles) one likely is phrasing organically.
BUT I DIGRESS...
When hired to play in church groups - or to sub in community groups (and time wavers - due to technical challenges or the "feel"/phrasing lures players into allowing the time to sag) - it's difficult to know whether to "play along" (and not point out/cause issues) or to maintain time, and encourage others to do so as well. My own rule of thumb (in these cases) is to look up at the conductor/director/organist and watch their face and arms. If jesters become militant and ahead, it's pretty obvious that they're aware of the loss of time, and I pitch in. If they seem perfectly contented, I'm going to play "with" (rather than assuming the role of escorting) the ensemble. Probably, the most difficult thing to match is incorrectly executed individual rhythms. A typical one is when a long group of quick pitches are executed, there's an open downbeat and then more quick pitches. So often (when playing with such groups - whereby most have not spend a decade in private instruction or metronome usage) with the tutor, metronome, or both smacking their wrists with a ruler), the entrance (after such a downbeat rest) will out of time (late). Another standout example is the dotted eighth-sixteenth-eighth rhythm in triple meter - whereby (again) less-schooled players will tend to put the last eighth (rather than the sixteenth) in the middle of the beat. I recall (being hired to substitute with a community ensemble) playing a transcription of "Ride of the Valkuries" - in C or B-flat or some such a key - whereby the entire rehearsal and performance featured the execution of that rhythm in just that way. I didn't view it as my job (particularly not a dress rehearsal and performance) to attempt to "teach" anyone anything. I was hired to substitute (not as a leader/teacher), so I substituted - and played along.
A final type of time disruption is the intention one, whereby a rhythm (but not necessarily the pulse) is intentionally distorted...and no, I'm not referring to anything such as "swinging" 8th notes, but to actually distorting/compacting/stretching written (so-called "classical" music) rhythms. Often these are tradition, and are a "play it like the record" type of thing...These are only learned through experience (of playing or listening to specific pieces. When a music director refers to "placing" a note, they are asking for an intentional unwritten (but possibly traditional) mis-execution of a rhythm.
What's interesting to me is that - when listening to others perform (whether the listener is a non-musician, less-experienced music, or consummate musician) it's really easy to hear time references slow, speed, or waver, YET its much more difficult (oddly) to sense these things as the person (performer) who themselves are defining/executing the time (as "time" is only one aspect of performance multitasking).
With tuning (even though more complicated that time - as musicians actually tune differently - depending on the instruments and the context), there are mechanisms - such as pitch-matching, harmonics (interference waves) and an instrument (if instrumental music) itself that help with this, but time (by some) is thought to actually be a construct (ie. something which actually does not exist) invented by men - in order to bookmark events...
Time - as with tuning - can be achieved by time-matching, but that's about it, unless individuals spend a great deal of effort on developing a sense of it.
I personally have much more experience playing with small combos than - likely - most tuba players, and have spent much more time playing with small combos than with symphony orchestras and bands. I have probably actually even spent more time (no...I don't have the experience of someone such as a Daellenbach or Rojak) playing with brass quintets - compared to large ensembles, and (OK...overt name-dropping) have worked in quintets with betters-than-me such as Ryan Anthony, Jim Thompson, and others with similar abilities - yet less name recognition. In my experience (working with top-level musicians (those who do probably do things better/faster/nicer than I can probably do them) the small ensemble - which can tend to waver in time the most - is the brass quintet. LOL...Turning on a loud metronome (in a quintet rehearsal, playing extremely challenging music which hasn't quite yet been mastered) can sometimes be quite revealing (if not comical). ...so what's the difference between a brass quintet and a jazz combo or a polka band...?? (answer: The brass quintet has on-board NEITHER a drummer NOR a bass player...as the poor tuba player is jumping back-and-forth - as parts tend to be written - between tuba(bass), second trombone, second horn, or third trumpet.) In my old age, (good) drummers seem to "like" me, because (they report to me that) they never have to "fight" with me. I tend to suspect that the only difference between me and some of the bass players they work with is probably experience, whereby experience itself teaches time (as certainly do combo leaders with good senses of time - and good swear-word vocabularies
...ie. "DAMMIT bloke, MUST WE F***ING SLOW DOWN on EVERY G**D*** TUNE !?!?!" ).As tuba players, we learn to anticipate our execution of low pitches, as (depending on us, our mouthpieces, and our instruments) there tends to be a delay. This doesn't mean to play ahead, but - rather - it defines doing things ahead of time, so that our sound occurs (not ahead, but) "on time". I'm not really a subscriber to the "It takes longer for the tuba sound to make it out into the hall" thing. Rather, I'm a subscriber to "Many tuba players tend to begin to produce their sounds after most all of the other musicians begin to produce their sounds".
As I've confessed - many times - with tuning, I view time as a personal weakness. I work on time nearly as much as tuning (as my practice time is limited) with the third thing (probably) being phrasing, so that - when I get to a (sheet-music reading) job, my playing isn't "cold-fish" (predictable/no-music/mechanical) tuba playing...and phrasing (both the noun and the verb, "phrasing") is a whole lot more than "what's written" (which are mostly "corporate" phrasing indications, whereby experienced bass/tuba players/sections, know to do more than what is indicated on a page, and either via experience, via Tabuteau's system, or both. trick/test: IF doing something "with" the phrasing, it sounds really good, contributes without distracting, and (particularly) if others smile (and certainly if the music director smiles) one likely is phrasing organically.
BUT I DIGRESS...
When hired to play in church groups - or to sub in community groups (and time wavers - due to technical challenges or the "feel"/phrasing lures players into allowing the time to sag) - it's difficult to know whether to "play along" (and not point out/cause issues) or to maintain time, and encourage others to do so as well. My own rule of thumb (in these cases) is to look up at the conductor/director/organist and watch their face and arms. If jesters become militant and ahead, it's pretty obvious that they're aware of the loss of time, and I pitch in. If they seem perfectly contented, I'm going to play "with" (rather than assuming the role of escorting) the ensemble. Probably, the most difficult thing to match is incorrectly executed individual rhythms. A typical one is when a long group of quick pitches are executed, there's an open downbeat and then more quick pitches. So often (when playing with such groups - whereby most have not spend a decade in private instruction or metronome usage) with the tutor, metronome, or both smacking their wrists with a ruler), the entrance (after such a downbeat rest) will out of time (late). Another standout example is the dotted eighth-sixteenth-eighth rhythm in triple meter - whereby (again) less-schooled players will tend to put the last eighth (rather than the sixteenth) in the middle of the beat. I recall (being hired to substitute with a community ensemble) playing a transcription of "Ride of the Valkuries" - in C or B-flat or some such a key - whereby the entire rehearsal and performance featured the execution of that rhythm in just that way. I didn't view it as my job (particularly not a dress rehearsal and performance) to attempt to "teach" anyone anything. I was hired to substitute (not as a leader/teacher), so I substituted - and played along.
A final type of time disruption is the intention one, whereby a rhythm (but not necessarily the pulse) is intentionally distorted...and no, I'm not referring to anything such as "swinging" 8th notes, but to actually distorting/compacting/stretching written (so-called "classical" music) rhythms. Often these are tradition, and are a "play it like the record" type of thing...These are only learned through experience (of playing or listening to specific pieces. When a music director refers to "placing" a note, they are asking for an intentional unwritten (but possibly traditional) mis-execution of a rhythm.
What's interesting to me is that - when listening to others perform (whether the listener is a non-musician, less-experienced music, or consummate musician) it's really easy to hear time references slow, speed, or waver, YET its much more difficult (oddly) to sense these things as the person (performer) who themselves are defining/executing the time (as "time" is only one aspect of performance multitasking).
, waving frantically, and doing so ahead of their sound.