Just a silly question inspired by that sillier song 'Groove is in the heart' but seriously, how groovy do you think you are as players and moreover, how groovy would you like to be?

I discovered this dude:



I think he eats groove each day since he was born he was fed with 'Groove milk'

In my opinion music needs groove like a lock needs a key and a flower pot needs dirt so I am striving to achieve groove in everything I do, both in music and in life in general.

For instance, I have learned how to move my body when playing so that I developed an internal clock, helping me to be on time.

So....What do you do to become groovier?

Cosmin

I also think that moving our body, our head, our foot, everything makes us feel and incorporate much more the groove of what we are hearing or playing. I do that, I concentrate on the groove, I feel it and trasmit it to my whole body. I think that the groove is one of the most important aspects of playing guitar.

That guy in the video is really good!

One of the things I've been trying to improve on is standing more and moving around when I play. It definitely helps to feel the vibe throughout your entire body!

That's one thing I say to my bass player, he seems to play very stiffly rather than finding a groove, MOVE WITH THE MUSIC!!!!

Internal clock - that's just it

I swear that I can't really make progress in a technique unless I can feel the groove with it.



Yeah it's a hard concept to try to orate to someone.. they gots ta feel it !!

The interesting thing is that groove also stems from the concept of harmony. When we groove on our own we're in harmony with ourselves. Playing with others requires us to harmonise our natural rhythm with theirs. That's why jamming with people is great, especially early on in your guitar journey.. you need it.

When you play with others, you have to harmonise your groove with them, even if they play too fast or too slow. Good musicians know how to adapt to others and compliment them instead of rigidly maintaining their own rhythm (even if it is perfect) and allowing the others to stray out of the groove. However, if the other players are unable or unwilling to harmonise their groove with you then you might not get past it. It's quite an interesting concept, the idea that every time we play with a new person we have to harmonise our groove in a different way.

I'll give you a personal example. For years, I used to be very stubborn about timing. If a drummer played a fill that slightly slowed down I would ignore it and make a point out of maintaining the timing on my guitar so that it would be glaringly obvious to the drummer when they went out of time.. I'd also give them 'the look'. Thankfully I've grown up a lot since then.

Later there was a period where I used to go and jam with this drummer, just me and him and for the first time ever I really, really listened to what he was doing. When he was doing a fill I'd follow him and be determined to be on time with him when he ended the fill so we could go into the next riff together. That was my moment of 'enlightenment.' It doesn't mean the drummer was right and I was wrong because drummers do sometimes alter their pace when doing a fill and sometimes they do mess up their timing but it meant that there was no disharmony and that was the important thing.

Great example and the harmonizing idea is very true indeed now, I got an example related to this topic too I recently discovered that I like to keep a tight pace during rehearsals, when the drummer from Voodoo strays a bit by implementing various elements in the groove or delaying the beat somehow. He is a very expressive drummer and this approach helped incredibly when it came to 'harmonizing' with the band mates

Great way of putting this Ben

That works in social interaction too Ben. Correcting people and proving yourself right and them wrong ruins the harmony and atmosphere.

My drummer and I often change what we are doing in terms of accenting and groove to fit together better.

This is what happened to me the last couple of weeks. Since the band broke up, I've been jamming along with the drummer (me and him are still in good terms) just for fun, no pressure or anything. I don't now if it was THE moment, but surely was an important moment for me, a breakthrough or something because now I realize that I what I play is starting to make sense. I am not paying attention so much to the notes or chords I play, but focus on going along with the drummer or with the drums inside my head if I am alone and it sounds much better. It is starting to groove.

Another interesting fact is that I can dance a bit better. Or maybe I am just under this impression .

The groove is everything!! It's the rhythm, the soul, the heart of the music!! I'm a firm believer that everyone needs to find the groove. It's a shame when you see an amazingly "technical" guitarist, but with no real concept of the groove. It's usually an indicator of other issues....no GROOVE? You probably aren't listening to the music around you. Also, as previously mentioned, finding your own way to "groove" can really help you keep time!! Pretty soon I'll have/will share some great new EMULATOR footage, which demonstrates this.... we play a Zelda groove (also do this on Contra: Base) as a band in time, while the drummer kills an epic solo counting other time over top of our groove/timing. I MUST stay moving to my groove, or I'll lose it and go with the drummer....which would train-wreck that part of the song! Always challenging, but FUN!!


I love the groove. It's my "strong-suit" and has always come naturally, even and just a dancing child. Here's a clip of my old/first band, "Voltronic" laying down one of my original tunes "Yo' Momma's Ready" which demonstrates my love for the groove. It's also the song that taught me "perfect pitch" so I can always tune exactly to E without a tuner. (I know it's not "perfect" pitch....this is referencing another thread discussion)




So...it was my "first-band", but I waited for the right one.

Wow Gabe! This is really goof funky music! What happened to Voltronic? Dude, you can definitely groove

Thanks Coz!!

Voltronic played the Portland area (sometimes beyond) for a few years, thus getting me started on the local/regional connections I have today.

The reason(s) we finally disbanded, were a combination of things (resulting in an EXCELLENT learning experience for future projects!)...

-Our keyboardist, my good friend Vance Walstra, was leaving the band. It was really bad timing, in my view, to find a replacement.

-At that point, I decided to lay the project down. We didn't seem to have a clear vision of our "goals" (make $$? Gain fans? Record? Tour? Have fun? You really have to keep a clear idea of WHY your project exists) nor did we really seem to align on what steps we were taking to get there. The result, was frustration.

So, I felt that it was the perfect time to say "great times, but time to move on". It was great for all of us.

The bass player (Jp Downer) currently plays in 8-9 gigging projects, including EMULATOR. The drummer (Tony Lintz) is in several bands, and they both were in the Ed Forman Show house band for nearly 2 years with Dave Dernovsek (keys from EMULATOR). I got to sit in for the show where Kyle Gass from Tenacious D was a guest!!




Also, the whole Voltronic EP is streaming on myspace still... I guess I could post it to soundcloud for DL if someone really wanted it. http://www.myspace.com/voltronicgrooves

The experiences in Voltronic, and the vast progress I made as a player during, were absolutely worth it. Luckily enough, all members of the band are still in touch and great friends. There's no reason music should ever bring you anything but good to your life....but it's your responsibility to keep it in balance, and accept the responsibility for the decisions you make regarding the music in your life. We all make mistakes, but it helps to sit back and learn from them in a positive manner.

I strongly believe that every phase which we are passing through, is a lesson to learn. The only thing which sometimes bugs me is that 'What if?' question which appears, when I am thinking that if we would have done this and that at the right time, things would've taken a different direction.

Well, no time for regrets life moves on!

Coz, I agree with you 100%!!

I was just having this conversation with my girl today, talking about how you really can't "regret" anything because it's all a part of who you are. You only have the present, and hopefully the future, so we need to be happy with ourselves and present situations because it's all we have and all we need to get where we want to go!

Arghhh...I sound like a philosopher right now, but you get it!