Black Dog - nailing the timing

soma1975

At the recent Fretboard jam discussion turned to doing Black Dog and I mentioned that I have never been able to count in or come in properly after the weird time sig bits and that it would be a great challenge to get it down and do it perfectly ahead of the next jam. 

So Fretboarders, what is the simplest way of accurately being able to count or time how to play it?

Jonathangus

stratman3142

I believe the drums start on the off beat after the 3.

There are loads of Youtube videos on it.

soma1975

stratman3142 said:

I believe the drums start on the off beat after the 3.

There are loads of Youtube videos on it.

I watched one and it said to count in 9s and I thought I can't count that high while playing and gave up!

soma1975

Jonathangus said:

 Cheers will have a look. Not sure we can trust a drummer though. Shifty...

stratman3142

If you were to count it, it would be 1, 2, 3, then the drums come in on the off beat.

The guy in the link below likens it to a Chuck Berry lick.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/akuLAhMtCwA

If I were to vocalise the drums at the start, it would be "da da da" (lead in phrase), then count 1, 2, 3, 4...

axisus

I always found that a bugger to play. Never played it well. I like the guy in the drum video, that made sense to me. 

digitalkettle

We were messing around this a while back so I made some notes...

soma1975

I'm fine at the start. It's the second passage where the timing goes twisty that kills me. 

digitalkettle

soma1975 said:

I'm fine at the start. It's the second passage where the timing goes twisty that kills me. 

If you’re playing along to the recording, you might be getting distracted by the Pageyness. I’d recommend playing it nice and straight with a metronome and breaking it down beat by beat and building it back up.

I think what I called the ‘turnaround riff’ is the most confusing…there’s an eighth note in there that I always want to play as a sixteenth.

merlin

soma1975 said:

 Not sure we can trust a drummer though. Shifty...

Particularly a drummer who shouts like that. 

soma1975

digitalkettle said:

soma1975 said:

I'm fine at the start. It's the second passage where the timing goes twisty that kills me. 

If you’re playing along to the recording, you might be getting distracted by the Pageyness. I’d recommend playing it nice and straight with a metronome and breaking it down beat by beat and building it back up.

I think what I called the ‘turnaround riff’ is the most confusing…there’s an eighth note in there that I always want to play as a sixteenth.

Good point will try it against a metronome. Cheers.