by Rob Brown
Our primary job as drummers is to keep relatively consistent time. Above the chops, even above playing a great groove…keeping the pulse is probably the most important aspect of playing the drums. It’s also one of the most overlooked parts of our practice routine. Now we’ve been told over and over again that the only way to improve our time playing is to always play to a click while in the shed. True…to a point. I’ll explain.
There are two reasons we use a metronome when we practice; to develop a particular physical skill, like a rudiment or a hand/foot exercise, and to develop our time playing. Let’s focus on the latter. Im going to play devil’s advocate, step out to the left a bit and say that playing with a click in the traditional sense of ‘turn it on > pick a tempo > set to 4/4 > start playing’ doesn’t really help us improve our meter. This really just develops our ability to play to a click. Let me also squash the stupid and ridiculous myth that sleeping with a click under our pillow helps us develop awesome timing. Seriously? Umm. No. Before I show y’all some cool and extremely effective ways to use your click in the shed, lets get in there and examine just why drummers speed up and slow down.
My’Space’
Have you ever noticed that it’s much more challenging to keep slower tempos consistent than fast ones? Check this out. I’m ’bout to get all scientific on y’all. Here’s my theory. Between every two notes – there’s space. When we play, it’s natural to focus on the notes. But what’s even more important than the notes – is the space between the notes. Now let this marinate for a minute. When the ‘time’ is perfect, it means that the spaces between the quarter notes (pulse) are all the same size. As the tempo increases, the spaces get shorter. And as the tempo slows down, the spaces between the notes get bigger. The reason why slower tempos are more challenging to keep consistent is because it’s simply a little harder to keep the larger spaces the same size. There’s a lot of air in there, which is why we subdivide the bar when playing really slow tempos. It chops the bar up in to smaller spaces, helping to keep our meter more consistent. So as we play any tempo, slow or fast, keeping great meter means focusing on keeping the spaces between the notes relatively the same size. Approaching playing time this way should change the way you play, and improve your meter dramatically. It certainly has for me.
Clicking in the Shed
So what’s the most effective way to use a click to develop your time keeping skills? Try this. You’ll need a click with two lights on it. Pick a tempo as you normally would. Turn the volume right off. Then start it. This, my friends, will separate the pros from the hacks! The idea is to have your metronome close enough where you can glance over at the lights every couple bars, just to see how far you stray from the click. Start playing and adjust accordingly, grooving, playing fills and phrases as you normally would. But now you’re forced to make sure you’re fully conscious of your own timing. Playing with a click in our ears all the time eventually makes us dependant on it, which ain’t all bad. I mean that’s what it was made for. But in this case we want to use it to improve our own time keeping ability. And much like training wheels on a bike, eventually we have to let go of that dependancy and keep upright ourselves. This is a very challenging but really effective way to build our internal clock. There’s no real need to memorize tempos here. But when you or your MD counts off a tempo then hands you the reigns, you’ll be able to keep that time with much more confidence without having to depend on a click to lead you through the song. And oddly enough, this will also drastically improve your ability to play WITH a click!
Check that out next time you hit the shed!