TAKA & FRIENDS JAM SESSION:

My son Taka & his 3 friends were recording some material for Taka's next project due for release on an unknown date.The album he released last year 2020 was started in 2014,so God knows when this one will be released.So after the session I asked the guys for a jam session & this was the result.

But my topic today is on the use of a metronome,also known as click track,or fixed tempo.It is now a worldwide standard for music producers to demand the use of a fixed tempo when recording music, even when using a live drummer,even during live shows.Thats why you see drummers play whilst putting on headphones on most live shows.On this jam session we did the same.Playing to a fixed tempo has a multitude of advantages when mixing & editing the music.I experienced using it with a live drummer during Mtukudzi's recordings in 2003,I didnt understand why at first,but I discovered the multitude of advantages when I began studio engineering when I bought my own studio.

It is mainly the drummer's job to maintain the band's tempo,that's why most times it's only the drummer who wears headphones during such live recordings.BUT-its a hell of a problem if the drummer is not used to playing along to it.Most drummers of my generation & before struggled with this because they tried it later in life,so as usual with us musicians,such drummers will give you all sorts of philosophical reasons to defend playing without a fixed tempo.

But most drummers of this generation start learning this early, so they become comfortable with it.The drummer here,Madhiwali is so comfortable with it,he can play all the chops & licks like its not there,but he never runs away from the tempo.He can intentionally play either behind the beat, or ahead of the beat to add some preferred character & feel,which debunks the myth that playing to a metronone makes the music mechanical & feel-less.

The first use of fixed tempo during recordings is attributed to two people: Max Steiner (1888-1971), & Carl W. Stalling (1891-1972),they were both into film music.It's because the music had to sync with the picture.It remained mainly in the film music category until bands discovered it's advantages in the 1980s when drum machines were created.Naturally drum machines have a fixed tempo,so music producers discovered the post production advantages of using a fixed tempo,now its a standard even on genres such as Sungura & Mbira music.Former Macheso drummer Obert Gomba is one drummer who is effortlessly comfortable with playing along to a click track.

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