When I go to record or create a piece, like most of us, I usually lay down a drum and bass track with a metronome and go from there. Lately I've have been working on an old Irish lament in 3/4 time that I was taught years ago. I'm playing the melody and chords on my Weissenborn lap steel and might bring in other instruments to fill it out more. But I ran into a phrasing and timing issue with the song. It's definitely not a waltz, it's more like 6/8 in the vein of "Norwegian Wood" and I was having a problem with the timing. I got to meet and talk with an Irish uilleann pipe player and asked him about it. Over more then a few beers he told me some great stories and brief history of Irish music. He also recommended I go to YouTube and spend some time with Sean Nós singing. The point being in Gaelic Ireland, where those old songs come from, they were sung and played in the Sean Nós way. No attention was paid to timing, it was all about communicating the feeling of the piece. If a song was for telling a story or listening to timing did not matter. If a tune was for dancing then that was different. It wasn't until the 1600's when the British took over and brought down Gaelic Ireland that the stricter interpretation of music was imposed. I thought about that and how the early Delta blues players and singers also did not strictly follow time or chord changes. John Lee Hooker was famous for driving his backing players crazy cause he would change timing and chords when he felt like it. Now days we all strictly adhere to tempo and whatever beats per measure like clock work. I spent most of my musical backgound as a drummer so it's very different for me to play music without the foundation of tempo and measured time. What do you guys think?

 

In classical music they hadn't a precise tempo, too (this is one reasons why they needed a conductor).

So, if you want to make a track like this, turn of the metronome, switch from bar to time display and give it a try. Could be a very interesting experience.

And btw, I recently read that the prog metal band Dream Theater has up to 100 tempo changes per track. No idea how they are doing this live, but it seems to work.

 

"there are seven ways in which a piece is indicated to be in free time:

1. There is simply no time signature displayed. This is common in old vocal music such as Gaelic psalms.[clarification needed]" --https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_time_(music)

 

Tough call in that back then if you wanted multi-instrumentation you had a group of musicians playing together and feeding off each other. Every man in the group knew the song/story/tale and when it was to turn pensive/gleeful/despondent et al. Sounds like a story so maybe try playing it through a few times w/o any backing on each instrument before approaching the recorder? Any words or particularly lyrical instrumentation? Might help as a 'feeling' guide.

Cool project though, great idea let us know how it's going

 

Can you actually perform the song the whole way through, or is it an execution problem using a static metronome? Maybe record a performance at the approximate tempo in the DAW, turn off metronome as suggested above, and then generate a tempo map from the performance which the DAW will lock onto. Now, your tempo changes, the human feel of slowing and speeding up, etc.. are all grid aligned. Keep the original performance for reference and for something to record other tracks to. From there, all midi will "snap" to the humanized grid. This is by no means a way to compose genuine old folk, celtic, classical etc..., but could at least be an exercise in how to accomplish this DAW composition technique and use it as a device in the future.

Again, if you just can't execute timing and phrasing, then you just need to practice the piece until you're there.

 

Edit:electriclash beat me to it as I was writing.

Welcome to the forum, BooBam.

Playing with yourself again?

It seems as you might need to shake up your process. If the song you are creating has lots of sliding tides of feeling and a liquid clocking flow, playing it through all the way with your instrument of choice and creating a "click" from which to create a tempo map from which to sync your drum and percussion tracks could be a way to procede. That is if your DAW allows.

 

I rarely use a metronome click i find my workflow quicker and more natural without it, same as the other players i work with.

But i fully understand its not what a lot of people do.

 

Thank you all very much for your comments and suggestions, they are all very much appreciated.
I hadn't thought of creating a tempo map for the inclusion of other parts. I am using Mixcraft as my DAW and I don't know if it can do that. I'll have to see. The song itself is really pretty short, 6 lines of 4 measures in 3/4 time, with 2 lines being repeated. And also very simple with only 2 chords. I'm thinking two instruments trading off on the melody to extend the tune. My Weissenborn guitar and either a violin or piano, I'm leaning toward the violin. Back in the day it was likely played with flute or harp. Following with the second instrument shouldn't be too difficult being the song is pretty simple and not very long. I'll try recording Friday and see how it goes. Thanks again! Cheers!