When it comes to playing music I've always said that dynamics is what separates the men from the boys. Dynamics simply means getting softer or louder. To me it's a secret weapon.
I get why lots of bands don't use dynamics, especially live, where it's most effective. When you play live you get all the adrenaline and stuff going and it jacks you up. You just naturally want to put the gas to the floor and keep it there. You have to make a conscious decision to bring it down sometimes, and it's easier said than done.
When would you use dynamics? Going from the chorus into a verse is the best time. If you're wailing away on the chorus and then drop the volume level way down when the verse comes in, it sucks the air out of the room and draws it into the song, along with the audience, at least those paying attention. I'm telling you it's a weapon, and it can make a song ten times more effective.
Dynamics can also be dangerous, but only to drunk people in the crowd, in my experience anyway. My favorite local band back in the day was the Cast. There were four heavy hitters in that band and holy cow they could play.
I have to give myself some props and say that I was one of only two drummers they'd let sit-in. I don't remember who the other guy was, maybe Steve Sample, but whomever it was was one of the mofo drummers in town, which I definitely was not, but I was good enough to play with the Cast.
One night O' and I went to see them at a club called 22nd Street Jazz Cafe. It was an intimate room and it was fairly small, so it was always packed. The acoustics were such that you could hear everything going on in the room.
We met up with our friend Cay. It's a good thing she was there because she ended up driving us home. O' and I were hammered. We'd egg each other on, and we were having a big time.
We were sitting at a table right by the side of the stage. They had a singer and flute player named Libba. She was really good. She looked really good too. She ran and worked out and was in excellent shape.
Speaking of shape, she had a nice one. She had a gorgeous rear end. I've always been more of a breast man and I don't care for gigantic butts but a nice curve is fine by me, and Libba had one.
The Cast definitely understood the power of dynamics and they employed it fiercely. Maybe that's why I loved them so much. I had a perfect view of Libba's profile and I happened to notice her rear. When she'd play flute she'd raise one foot, which would make her bottom look even more curvaceous.
As if O' hadn't already noticed, I thought I'd bring it to his attention. The band was wailing on the chorus of some tune and I had to shout to be heard. I leaned over to O' and said "MAAAANNN..." "WHUUUUUUT?" said O'. Before I could finish the sentence, the band came back into a verse and brought the volume level down to a whisper.
The problem was that I was drunk and my reaction time was slow, so I didn't adjust my dynamics accordingly. The whole place got quiet, except for me. I yelled: "You could set a martini on Libba's aaasss." Everybody in the place cracked up including the band. I realized that it had gotten as quiet as church, and I tried to catch myself but it was too late. I trailed off a little on "AASSsss" but everyone got the message.
Libba made a "Hmm" face and turned her head to look at her rear. Luckily she was a good sport, and there was certainly some validity to what I said. The rest of the guys in the band lost it laughing. What made it extra funny was not just what I said but also the fact that I'd yelled it loudly enough for people out in the street to hear. They were laughing too hard to sing the verse so they had to vamp for 16 bars or so until they could quit laughing enough to sing. That was classic.
The moral of this story is that if you're in a band, consider using dynamics, and take your music to the next level. If you're in the audience, and drunk, pay attention to the volume level and be careful what you say about the singer's anatomy.
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