Árni Karlsson

jazz from the cold north

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Time And Time Again

The importance of time in music can never be underestimated. As time goes by (no pun intended) I find myself more and more enamored with the practice and concept of time in music. Playing music - when pull comes to shove - is all about when you put the notes and soundscapes down in time and when you pause. After composing a piece of music I make a point of playing it over and over and listening to the time of it from many perspectives. There is time within a phrase, time between notes, bigger time as in the time between different parts in the song. For example in the song Time I wrote it first in 3/4 only as a simple jazz-waltz. When I played it over and over I had an inkling to wait a bit longer on some chords to give them more time, more space. Thus I elongated some bars to 5/4 and gave some notes and chords a few extra measures for emphasis and release of tension. It is remarkable how after a few tryouts the song just came alive and playing solos over it became much more natural than before. Check out the end result here.