How do you say a 3 man band has a rythm section?
The part of a music combo that carries the lead(s) is a rhythm section.
These instruments provide the backbone to the song - The groove.
In a rock and roll band, bass guitar and drums are typically called the Rhythm Section
Sometimes a good piano or Hammond player can fall in and put down the bottom.
"Rhythm" guitarists do it, too, but generally speaking, with bass and drums, the "rhythm" guitarist covers the middle of the beat. A good bluegrass guitarist, playing a rhythm assignment, will play a little further up the measure than even the bass, actually pulling the rest of the instruments through the composition.
A good band of soloists can fall into place and pick up the groove while the others jam. It's a nuance.
It's not tone, it's not volume, it's not speed, it's where the instrument(s) fall in around the beat.
Listen to the first cut off Brubeck's Time Out Album - Blue Rondo a'la Turk - It's got more rhythm in the first minute than all of Canada combined (Cockburn excepted).
And it's only piano and alto sax. But it honors the beat. A funky, unheard 9/8, but it's played
right there.
Rhythm.
Beat.
Drive.
Bottom.
Groove.
Roger was wrong about the singer making the music move along. It's the rhythm section.
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