Reframing how we think about the Metronome

[NickSchles]

First off, happy new year to everyone, and hope that 2023 has started with a bang for you, your playing, your business, family, etc...

Anyhow, I'm sure stuff like this gets talked about in the forum quite a bit, yet I thought I'd post my thoughts about it.

I've recently been helping lots of students get over their dread of using the metronome... One of the best ways I know to help people have fun with it is to actually reframe the click as a our personal Cowbell Pal. That way, particularly if your metronome has the option to change the sound to a cowbell, it means we can think about playing to the metronome as jamming with our Cowbell Pal.

With that in mind, I wrote a little blog post with some other ideas to help make the metronome more fun or, at least, more interesting to those who can't connect with it.

https://nickschlesinger.com/how-to-use-the-metronome

Do you have any app recommendations aside from the ones I've mentioned which are cool metronomes with fun features, etc? I'd love to know your thoughts.

 

[benobriensmith]

My go-to metronome app is called SYNKD: https://www.synkdapp.com/

It has the ability to sequence multi-measure rhythms with a full array of tuplets, odd time signatures, and fun features like the "ghost bar" capability, which allows you to mute measures at a time. You can save and organize custom sequences, send them to other SYNKD users, and purchase packs of pre-made sequences. Anika Nilles, Jojo Mayer, Scott Pellegrom and a variety of other great drummers and educators have endorsed the app.

Lots of demos on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/synkd_app/

Full disclosure: I create a lot of their content and consult for them too.

 

[gbow]

I have taught a lot of drummers how to use a click. My first advice is to turn it off and count out loud. What I find is that playing to a click is sort of like doing two things at once and since drummers are already doing 4 things at once, adding in another thing makes it difficult.

Playing and counting out loud, and I mean out loud not internally to yourself, makes you learn how to play while focusing on the counting and it builds the relationship between what your hands/feet are doing to the counting. And of course you can practice this anywhere without the need for a metronome or anything.

Once you can proficiently count out loud and play, the click just becomes a way to stabilize your counting and it becomes easy. By the way for this same reason, I find singing drummers rarely have trouble playing to a click, they've already learned how to do that other thing while playing.

I also am fond of saying, for any instrument not just drums, that if you can't play and simultaneously hold a conversation with someone then you still need a lot of work. You need to be able to put your playing in the background and do something else, it's very important to achieving the proficiency you need to be a professional musician.

Once you can play successfully to a click, then you need to move on to learning how to parse the clicks up and play in front/behind or other places in the click. There is a video on YT where Benny Greb plays in between the clicks and recommends developing that skill.

Another trick, if you're trying to get someone to play a bit "laid back" in the studio, is to make the click be a shaker sound that starts exactly on the grid. The shaker is a longer sound, start it right on the grid, but the main power of the sound is a bit behind the grid lines as it ramps up. That puts the drummer a bit behind more than a sound that is very short/hard that is right on the grid.

Lots of tricks to get what you want.

gabo

 

[Seb77]

I like the idea of a longer sound for a wider feel. Cabasa might also work, that "shhh" sound. Or claps that are already spread timewise.

I haven't used a click for a long time now. Just yesterday I noticed one of my kid students has developed very solid time, and I haven't even mentioned metonome or click to him. I might introduce it later, for him to be able to play with one, or with a sequencer, but for now, I want him and my other students to develop their internal time without it, by playing/hearing/feeling the time. We play together, it necessary I mention any dragging or rushing I notice. Seems to work fine.

 

[Squirrel Man]

There's a rather loud dripping wash tub in the basement that keeps great tempo.

 

[Steech]

There's a rather loud dripping wash tub in the basement that keeps great tempo.

I had a cab driver whip out his 2Bs and practice his double paradiddles on his steering wheel each time we were at a red light. No metronome needed.

 

[Whitten]

Having a single tik sound, or a single shaker is making things harder for people.
It's a great exercise to instil better time and discipline, but if a quarter or eighth note click freaks young drummers out, have them play to a programmed beat or percussion loop. When I was making a lot of records I typically set up a groove with shakers and cowbell. Why make things harder?

 

[Buffalo_drummer]

I try to work with Benny's Gap Click app when I'm working on metronome stuff. It's really a truth serum about your tempo.

 

[Fat Drummer]

Having a single tik sound, or a single shaker is making things harder for people.
It's a great exercise to instil better time and discipline, but if a quarter or eighth note click freaks young drummers out, have them play to a programmed beat or percussion loop. When I was making a lot of records I typically set up a groove with shakers and cowbell. Why make things harder?

Was just going to post the same thing then I got to your post! I play live to percussion loops about half my gigs, I'm not playing to a click, I'm jist grooving with my percussionist . The loops are even in the FOH so everyone enjoys the fuller sound.

 

[Steech]

I try to work with Benny's Gap Click app when I'm working on metronome stuff. It's really a truth serum about your tempo.

Same here. Like driving into a tunnel with the radio on and realizing how off you are when you come out of the tunnel.

 

[Steech]

Was just going to post the same thing then I got to your post! I play live to percussion loops about half my gigs, I'm not playing to a click, I'm jist grooving with my percussionist . The loops are even in the FOH so everyone enjoys the fuller sound.

I played a few gigs with a band back in the late 80s that used tons of programmed percussion and did pretty well and then had drummers come up to me asking how I was able to play all of those parts with just my little 5 piece kit.

 

[green glass drum]

Great thread. I like Carole Kaye's approach. Cut the tempo in half...(example..slow it down from 120 to 60) then "hear the clicks on beat 2 and 4".....the back beats....ingenious. Hey Carole....The Beat Goes On.

 

[EyeByTwoMuchGeer]

For a much more musical approach, I’ve been using LoopLoft stuff or the massive amount of drum-free loops from Tim Baltes/TimboFromKeno. The tempos are typically all very solid and instead of just hearing a click, you play along to actual music. Really, any loop would do.

Other than that, I also like the off-beat click

More so than just nailing the click, I’ve found that having even subdivisions is actually more vital most of the time. It’s way better to speed up or slow down evenly, as opposed to rushing through a fill. For regular click practice, I really just try to weave in and out of my subdivisions. Like, 8ths-triplets-16ths-triplets-8ths-etc

 

[EyeByTwoMuchGeer]

And I will add that with Tim Baltes loops, they are super long, like 10-20min each, but they're all just like 4 bars repeating over and over. Now, some might get really annoyed with that. 20 minutes of just the same little melody over and over. But, the click isn't really any different.

But, once you really start using them, you see their incredible value as both a musicality development tool and as a feel/ tempo tool. You really can start to zone in and REALLY focus on nailing a crash on the 1, or dropping a snare right into the pocket. Even at the same tempo, some tracks sound better with the snare way back, and others sound better with the snare on top. Or you spend 10 minutes really locking in with a bass pattern. You also get the added benefit of trying out grooves and fills in a musical context, and then trying to develop musical parts that grow on one another in real time. You can just stop, reevaluate, and move on, and the loop still has like 13 minutes left haha.

 

[tnsquint]

Having a single tik sound, or a single shaker is making things harder for people.
It's a great exercise to instil better time and discipline, but if a quarter or eighth note click freaks young drummers out, have them play to a programmed beat or percussion loop. When I was making a lot of records I typically set up a groove with shakers and cowbell. Why make things harder?

I like this approach a lot.

 

[tnsquint]

I like this approach a lot.

Having a single tik sound, or a single shaker is making things harder for people.
It's a great exercise to instil better time and discipline, but if a quarter or eighth note click freaks young drummers out, have them play to a programmed beat or percussion loop. When I was making a lot of records I typically set up a groove with shakers and cowbell. Why make things harder?

I will add one caveat: one has to be careful to not let the percussion on the click influence “what” you play. It may dictate “how” you play in a positive way by perhaps influencing you to swing a bit more or any number of other approaches, but it should not become a part of what you are playing unless that click is part of the backing tracks.

I mention this because I was working with an artist in the late ‘90s as a technician and they just fired a certain well known and respected drummer. I listened to the discussion with the musical director on multiple occasions and the comment was made that apparently he became so engrossed in his cool click tracks that the other musicians felt he was playing with a percussionist that they couldn’t hear. In other words, he was leaving things out of his playing because those figures/timbres were already being played, but only in his head.

I know, weird but just a cautionary tale.

 

[bigbonzo]

Having a single tik sound, or a single shaker is making things harder for people.
It's a great exercise to instil better time and discipline, but if a quarter or eighth note click freaks young drummers out, have them play to a programmed beat or percussion loop. When I was making a lot of records I typically set up a groove with shakers and cowbell. Why make things harder?

How does playing to a click freak young drummers out? Seriously.
I played to an actual metronome back in the day, and now to a programmable click track., and never did feel the least bit freaked out. It's just a tool to use.

 

[gbow]

How does playing to a click freak young drummers out? Seriously.
I played to an actual metronome back in the day, and now to a programmable click track., and never did feel the least bit freaked out. It's just a tool to use.

That's a good question, but it does happen especially to guys who have little studio experience. So maybe it's just the whole environment that makes them nervous not just the click.

Then there are some who don't freak out, they just can't play to a click. I recently worked with a young drummer, who actually played pretty good. But he just played and completely ignored the click. We kept asking did he need it louder or did he need more of this or that in his headphones or what we could do to get him there. We programmed up drum beats instead of the click, that was better but still challenging. We got through it all, but it took a long time with many takes and punch ins.

It's an interesting mental dynamic, I don't claim to understand it all, but some people really struggle with it while others have no problem. Fortunately I've never had a problem with it but I also practice almost every day using a click.

gabo