Re: learning how to write a good bass line

Can I ask a question about this more generally? I have been curious for some time if the practice of playing ahead or behind the beat is applied at all in classical music, of any era or for any size of orchestra. I can imagine it might happen more readily in some eras than in others, if it does at all.

When you're playing in an ensemble, you've got to stay perfectly in sync with everyone else, if players were all "interpreting" the rhythm, it'd be a mess. On the other hand, in small groups where there's one player per part, or when soloing, there's a lot of flexibility built into the rhythm -- the composer will indicate "rubato", meaning take liberties with note lengths -- and "molto rubato" means stretch notes, rush notes, do whatever you want with the rhythm.

But, I think when most people refer to playing ahead or behind the beat, they're referring to a "groove," which just doesn't happen in classical music.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Rate My Video/Guitar Solo Blues
    ... can't do that, play in time, can you now. ... Romeo seems completely rhythm deaf. ... I doubt he can hear rhythm anomalies in the playing of others, ... But you play one fine guitar in whatever genre you choose ...
    (alt.guitar)
  • Re: Lead or rhythm first?
    ... Would it be more productive to devote more time to strumming chords or ... The reason I ask is because I'm downright poor at both strumming and playing monophonic melody lines, so my style is chord-based and combines rhythm and lead. ... People that don't understand what that is and that you can "play silence" the same way you'd play a note tend to think of my timing as "quirky"...but to me ...
    (alt.guitar.beginner)
  • Re: Are There Any Good/Great Players Who Cant Groove...
    ... Lots of solo jazz players play pieces in a rubato time feel. ... I think you might need to listen to more jazz music and pay attention to how the time is handled. ... When a musician with skill does it it's called "playing with the time". ... Changing the harmonic rhythm and superimposing that on top of the rest of the ensemble playing the original harmonic rhythm? ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz)
  • Re: Dynamic guitar playing
    ... you're either going to play rhythm or lead. ... guitarist you may be playing a bit of both. ... The rhythm guitar should be ...
    (alt.guitar)
  • Re: How B.S. Gets Started
    ... RichL wrote: ... focusing more on rhythm and bass playing. ... Can you imagine the server load and bandwidth requirements YouTube must have? ...
    (alt.guitar)