People Get Ready – Curtis Mayfield (Analysis)

Music Lesson: Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions - "People, Get Ready"

Introduction
This is a lovely soul tune with a very gentle eighth-note feel. It's a slow tempo, so be very careful with the intro.

• Count In:
  Give yourself a good count in. It's something I do every time I play any tracks, regardless of how many times I've played them or whether I'm on a live gig or in the studio. Always try to get that pre-count. Get the feel in your head before coming in on that first bar.

• Tempo:
  We've got this kind of slow tempo:
  2, 3, 4.
  I would be thinking: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and boom do ba boom ba.
  This way, you're nice and gentle in there, so you're not starting cold trying to work out where the time is.

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Repetitive Feel
This is a very gentle eighth-note feel with a repetitive sequence through the A and B sections.

• Backbeat:
  There's a very gentle backbeat on beat four.

• Playing Example:
  I'm going to play through this now. Check out a very slight dynamic on the hi-hat with those eighth notes so it doesn't sound too robotic. I'll just play a center snare feel on beat four, and quite a low-key bass drum. This is not a big heavy track.

Balance of Sounds:
This is how I play this tune: a really nice repetitive balance of sounds and a repetitive feel of that essential bar outside of that.

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C Section Caution
Just be very careful as we get towards the C section.

• Penultimate Bar:
  There's that penultimate bar before the C section where there's no snare drum. So, it's just a slight deviation, be careful not to put the snare drum in there.

• C Section Feel:
  In the C section, it goes into this 2 and 4 feel, which is very common in pop, soul, funk, and R&B music.

• Feel of the Section:
  I'll run through the feel of that section again: nice and gentle, nice and balanced, with a slight dynamic on the hi-hat.

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Ending Notes
Just watch out for the very end there. We've got a snare and hi-hat unison.

• Unison Execution:
  Get those unisons nice and crisp. It's not a heavy tune and doesn't require a heavy dynamic, so just feel those two notes.

• Final Bars:
  Playing these last two bars here: 1, 2, 3, 4. Get that unison nice and tight.

Conclusion
Great! Have fun with this tune. See you soon!