> Is a drummer not a musician b/c he can't play tones?
I have recently started spinning beats with a band called Future Freedom
Ensamble here in NYC. We have a drummer on a snare and one splash cymbal, a
Tabla player, and a guy on upright playing along with the tables in the
rythm section, as well as a sax and trombone on top. While it is true that
within the setting of a band the decks are not as versatile as a drum kit,
this fact tends to put me in the drivers seat as far as the evolution of a
song or a jam goes. There is a very thin line between simply keeping time
and acting as a functional musician though. I try to use all the tricks I
know to creat fills and breakdowns by offsetting matched copies and using
unmatched beats, but it is true that improvisation is not as real-time on
1200s as it is on a sax. I usually stay away from the enharmonic pitches of
tone scratching except during my own solos or a really outside bit due to
dissonances with the horn section. Scratching vox clips can be interesting,
but is right out in front of the sound, rather than a part of it. Trading
fours with the other guys, for instance, can work. I tell you what though,
it's A LOT harder to play within a form than it is to simply match tracks
for three hours. These are some stream of consciousness thoughts as I come
up on an inactivity timeout...but my point is that a DJ can function as a
musician, at least in this setting.
Philip Aupperle
_______________________________
Meta-Lingo...
pca7429@is2.nyu.edu
http://pages.nyu.edu/~pca7429/
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Philip Aupperle <pca7429@is2.nyu.edu>
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