Riding with music: Any attempt to sync cadence with beat or vice versa?

[DaveMatthews]

120 you say? Here's some from my bands setlist...

Save Tonight Eagle Eye Cherry - 120 bpm - 3:06 Orange Crush R.E.M. - 120 bpm Sick Of You Cake - 120 bpm - 3:18 Come As You Are Nirvana - 120 bpm I Hear You Knocking Dave Edmunds - 120 bpm - 2:55 Jet Airliner Steve Miller - 120 bpm - 4:30 And some around 90... Feeling Alright Joe Cocker - 90 bpm Heaven Los Lonely Boys - 92 bpm Into the Mystic Colin James - 86 bpm - 4:25 Jumper Third Eye Blind - 91 bpm There's more if you want...

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Will check those out in the bike! If it has a strong groove that makes you want to move to the music, I'm interested. Otherwise, not for this project.

Meanwhile, any thoughts as a musician on this business of syncing 3 pedal strokes to 2 beats when you pedal 90 rpm to 120 bpm music? Kind of a 3:2 polyrhythm.

Does this ever come up in your music?

 

[PedalUma]

I am thinking Earth Wind & Fire's, Fantasy. How about Superstition and the theme from Rocky, Flying High Now?

 

[DaveMatthews]

Will check those out in the bike! If it has a strong groove that makes you want to move to the music, I'm interested. Otherwise, not for this project.

Meanwhile, any thoughts as a musician on this business of syncing 3 pedal strokes to 2 beats when you pedal 90 rpm to 120 bpm music? Kind of a 3:2 polyrhythm.

Does this ever come up in your music?

As a rhythm guitarist I often use "off" and dynamic timing to accent certain parts of songs. A lead guitarist would do similar and likely more often.
That said I wouldn't see it as a constant in songs.
As a singer I often use lyrics in a poetic way with varying cadence. Alert Status Red by Matthew Good as an example. Again, it's not a constant, but getting away from the robotic strict timing is always a bonus and it keeps the "boring" away.

 

[Roamers]

Sometimes to find the beat or get back on it but not generally. In fact, it smoothes out my pedaling at times.

Probably would help if I had rhythm! Although I no longer do the "up on the pegs" thing going up a hill, that's what I imagine happening to me with music when I ride.

 

[PedalUma]

I worked back stage at large concerts every year for a decade. We have a festival that pays for musical instruments for kids and music lessons in schools. Being Nor. Cal. there is a hippy scene and Dead music jams live. Some bands are really good at using tempo as much as melody and harmony. It does pull you in like a good standup can set a pattern and then break it for the punch line. The Dead were based for years between our town and the next one.

Unearthed Grateful Dead pool party photos debut at North Bay museum exhibition

Unseen Grateful Dead pool party photos by Herbie Greene make their debut at Marin rock art show

datebook.sfchronicle.com

 

[PedalUma]

I saw this one in that article. Sammy owned a bike shop in Sausalito. Olompali, is short bike ride south from my town, was not only place of the Summer of Love a year before the Summer of Love, it was sacred to the First Nations people and the site of the only battle for California Vs. Mexico. What is funny is I am working on a bike just like Sammy's today. I would be done but it is due for a new rear wheel.

 

[PedalUma]

Sinatra was a master at using phrasing, timing, to make lyricical lines pop and hit evocative home. He could then hold back, hold back, and attack, attack the beat for dramatic emotional impact. All without any whispering or over dubs.

Side bar: I want Swift to do Baracuda, live. A country singer can pull it off. Not a studio whisperer.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

120 you say? Here's some from my bands setlist...

Save Tonight Eagle Eye Cherry - 120 bpm - 3:06 Orange Crush R.E.M. - 120 bpm Sick Of You Cake - 120 bpm - 3:18 Come As You Are Nirvana - 120 bpm I Hear You Knocking Dave Edmunds - 120 bpm - 2:55 Jet Airliner Steve Miller - 120 bpm - 4:30 And some around 90... Feeling Alright Joe Cocker - 90 bpm Heaven Los Lonely Boys - 92 bpm Into the Mystic Colin James - 86 bpm - 4:25 Jumper Third Eye Blind - 91 bpm There's more if you want...

Oh yeah, that Feelin' Alright groove should work! Also put I Hear You Knocking and Jet Airliner on the test list for promising grooves.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Probably would help if I had rhythm! Although I no longer do the "up on the pegs" thing going up a hill, that's what I imagine happening to me with music when I ride.

Only one way to find out.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I am thinking Earth Wind & Fire's, Fantasy. How about Superstition and the theme from Rocky, Flying High Now?

Thanks! Put Fantasy and Superstition on the test list. At 88 bpm, should be able to sync pedaling directly to Fantasy. The groove's certainly there.

Superstition also has a strong groove, but it'll be a tougher sync at 100 bpm. I can pedal at 100 rpm, but probably not for the entire song.

Essential criteria for this playlist:
1 Music I personally enjoy.
2. STRONG groove that makes me want to move to the music.
3. Syncable tempo for 90±10 rpm cadence. That usually means near 90, 180, or120 bpm.

A song MUST have all three AND pass the saddle test. Don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing on the roll!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Also making the cut for the 90 rpm synchronous cycling playlist at 180 bpm:

Perfect for all those times when you glance down at your watch and realize that you should've been home 10 minutes ago.
~~~~~~~~~~~

And here's an unexpected winner from Armenian-American jazz composer and virtuoso pianist Tigran Hamasyan, whose early aspirations to play thrash metal guitar still shine through...

If you're looking to do some furious synchronous pedaling at 90 rpm, Tigran's your man. Just be aware that wanton and furious cycling is illegal in the UK.
;^}

This 180 bpm piece is written in 256/16 time! An interesting dissection of the rhythm:

For all that metric chaos, it's still pretty easy to sync to, thanks to the drummer's parallel 4/4 on the snare and hi-hat.

 

[DaveMatthews]

In the City Joe Walsh/Eagles
Kinda slower at 83 or so
Just started that in my band

 

[Chargeride]

I dont listen to music by itself anymore, a strange development in my later years, Im suspicious its fuelled by consuming it through video with emotional attachment of visuals and the ease with which it can be accessed

My van sound system hasnt been turned on for 5 years at least.
I have no house music system, no portable music player, nearly all my physical music collection has gone to charity shops.

Bit sad really I suppose

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

In the City Joe Walsh/Eagles
Kinda slower at 83 or so
Just started that in my band

Sorry, that one doesn't make me want to move much. A strong groove's really crucial for this playlist, so thanks but no go.

 

[Chargeride]

Kiss - back in the New York groove.
High gear out of saddle hill climber by the coast with the sea parallax descending to your right

 

[Roamers]

Only one way to find out.

I never ride or walk with music; my preference is quiet, nature and awareness. I don't run unless I mis-timed a road crossing; then its more like a 5 step jog.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Some very powerful recent additions to the 90 rpm playlist
Recall that the whole purpose of this project is to use carefully selected music to achieve a certain pleasurable mind-body state on the bike when safe to do so. Calling that state a "meld" now because it's the music, mind, body, and bike all melded into one in the saddle.

The tunes below give me particularly strong melds at acceptable cadences in the 80-100 rpm range, but mainly right around 90 rpm. Tempos are generally around 180, 90, or 120 bpm.

Starting with a particularly apt title...

o Synchronicity, Cory Wong
o Smokeshow, Cory Wong
o Feelin' Alright, Joe Cocker
o Jet Airliner, Steve Miller Band
o I Hear You Knocking, Dave Edmunds
o Superstition, Stevie Wonder
o Fantasy, Earth, Wind, and Fire
o Naquela Base, Gerardo Frisina
o Olympia, Part 2, Gerardo Frisina
o Straight Up, Paula Abdul
o The Power of Love, Huey Lewis
o Let's Dance, David Bowie
o When I Think of You, Janet Jackson
o The Beat is On, Glenn Frey
o Route 66, Glenn Frey and Natalie Cole versions
o Theme from Route 66 TV show, Nelson Riddle Orchestra
o Wanna Fly, Junior Sanchez
o Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Michael Jackson
o Thriller, Michael Jackson
o Beat It, Michael Jackson
o Wanna Be Startin' Something, Michael Jackson
o Bad, Michael Jackson
o 1999, Prince
o All Night Long, The Crusaders
o Ain't Nobody, Chaka Khan

Could've listed a lot more Michael Jackson. Pedaling to the ~120 bpm tunes in triplets may take some practice, but they're worth the effort.