Tempo question

Earthmover

Junior Member
Have you ever had a song fall in between tempos????
For example; John Mayer's "Gravity" falls somewhere in between 41 and 42
beats per minute with a triplet feel on the hat. What do you do in this case?? Is there a difference in speed of CD players?? Is there a time correction where you can adjust your metronome to fit the song?? Or is it possible the song was recorded without a click?? Or is it possible that I'm just an idiot??
 
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It's possible that someone counted the song off at 41.5 and that's where it stayed.
 
Have you ever had a song fall in between tempos????
For example; John Mayer's "Gravity" falls somewhere in between 41 and 42
beats per minute with a triplet feel on the hat. What do you do in this case?? Is there a difference in speed of CD players?? Is there a time correction where you can adjust your metronome to fit the song?? Or is it possible the song was recorded without a click?? Or is it possible that I'm just an idiot??

Sometimes, when a song appears to fall "in between tempos," it means that it was recorded with a click on the eighth note instead of the quarter note. For example, a song that appears to be recorded at quarter note = 41.5 was probably recorded at eighth note = 83.

In the case of the song you mentioned, it's slightly trickier because you have a triplet feel going on. However, the solution might still revolve around setting the click to 83. If you have something like a Tama Rhythm Watch, try setting it to 83. Once you do that, set it to accent every other beat. In other words, set it to play "in 2." Now turn off the volume of the quarter notes, and you will be left with a metronome playing at 41.5. See if that works.
 
Sometimes songs are deliberately recorded at those tempos - the click/sequence is set at 129.6 or whatever. My boss does it all the time, which really plays havoc in concert with my older sampler that only plays at whole bpm!

It's possible that a song recorded without a click could start at an in-between tempo, but impossible that it would stay there. I mean, we're talking 1/10 of a bpm here, and not Vinnie's or Al Jackson's or Gadd's or anyone's time is perfect enough to stay on a fractional tempo for 3 or 4 minutes.

Bermuda
 
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