Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
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Re: Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
#2This presentation would much better as a youtube video with audible samples of the beats.
Re: Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
#3Duke Ellington routinely gave his audiences a lesson in his inimitable style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPcZ5ex2t-g
Harry Connick Jr. didn't bother educating his European audience with any explanation. He simply skips a beat, and then they're clapping on 2 and 4. It happens after the first sung chorus. You can see the drummer raise his hands in joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw
And, of course, the great Slim Gaillard was so saturated in swing, his predominantly white 1950s television audience SPONTANEOUSLY clapped on the 2 and 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKdrnTTDTqo
Re: Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
#4slide 28 (tabla player gets in the groove..) is fascinating.
Re: Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
#5Duke Ellington routinely gave his audiences a lesson in his inimitable style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPcZ5ex2t-g Harry Connick Jr. didn't bother educating his European audience with any explanation. He simply skips a beat, and then they're clapping on 2 and 4. It happens after the first sung chorus. You can see the drummer raise his hands in joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw And, of course, th…
Harry Connick Jr's beat switcheroo is masterful.
Re: Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
#6A YouTube link to the Taj Mahal concert mentioned:
Re: Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
#7Duke Ellington routinely gave his audiences a lesson in his inimitable style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPcZ5ex2t-g Harry Connick Jr. didn't bother educating his European audience with any explanation. He simply skips a beat, and then they're clapping on 2 and 4. It happens after the first sung chorus. You can see the drummer raise his hands in joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw And, of course, th…
How can you tell he skips a beat? Or for that matter the difference between beats 1 and 3 vs 2 and 4? Music is such a mystery to me. :/
Re: Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
#8Duke Ellington routinely gave his audiences a lesson in his inimitable style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPcZ5ex2t-g Harry Connick Jr. didn't bother educating his European audience with any explanation. He simply skips a beat, and then they're clapping on 2 and 4. It happens after the first sung chorus. You can see the drummer raise his hands in joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw And, of course, th…
How can you tell he skips a beat? Or for that matter the difference between beats 1 and 3 vs 2 and 4? Music is such a mystery to me. :/
You know how in every electronic song the beat is going: Boom CLAP Boom CLAP Boom CLAP? The idea is that you clap on the CLAP sound (snare drum), not the boom (bass drum). 1 (bass) 2 (snare) 3 (bass) 4 (snare). To skip a beat you'd probably play the rhythm for a bit normally, then leave out all the bass drum kicks so that the audience only hears the snares. Then that would be the only thing they could clap to. Then you put the Bass back in. Dunno if that helps!
Re: Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
#9The following blog post provides examples of swung beats and clapping, as it pertains to dancing:
http://vixswingjazz.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/can-you-hear-th...
A few songs are missing from the page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFtNC8BwKI0 (Dinah; NSFW)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YqDbd6pUC0 (Everything is Jumping)
To get a feel for clapping on the even beats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_WZenJnT8M (Shout, Sister, Shout!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg_pi0r75mA (Lavender Coffin)
Harry Connick Jr. beat-shifts the audience from clapping on 1 & 3 to 2 & 4 (at 40 second mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw
Usually the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdowns have live music, which induces the audience to clap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfWA4ClPnxk
A tradition called a jam circle involves encircling dancers who steal the spotlight, with the audience clapping (on even beats) for encouragement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTRNQAcXhJo
This tradition goes back a long way; see Hellzapoppin' (1941) and Keep Punching (1939):
Re: Friends Don't Let Friends Clap on One and Three: A Backbeat Clapping Study
#10Duke Ellington routinely gave his audiences a lesson in his inimitable style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPcZ5ex2t-g Harry Connick Jr. didn't bother educating his European audience with any explanation. He simply skips a beat, and then they're clapping on 2 and 4. It happens after the first sung chorus. You can see the drummer raise his hands in joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw And, of course, th…
How can you tell he skips a beat? Or for that matter the difference between beats 1 and 3 vs 2 and 4? Music is such a mystery to me. :/
The vast majority of music has what's known as a meter, which is a cyclical pattern. Just like we can think of time in terms of a neverending stream of occurrences, or choose to think in terms of a 7-day week, we simplify the understanding of musical events by counting in a regularly repeating meter.
This song's meter is in 4/4, which means you count 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4, etc. along with the very pulse you feel. Tap your foot. Count "1" when he says the word "Come [with me]". You'll find that they clap every time you say 1 and 3.
What he does is the equivalent of cutting out, say, Sunday from one week of the calendar, and so their regularly repeating clap now falls on a different day than it was falling on before. Does that help?