Meet Mister Metronome...

[Dom Franco]

I have just completed recording my 5th annual Beaverton High School Compilation CD. and one thing I have found that is common to most Newbies is their inabillity or refusal to record to a click track.

The metronome is your friend! Learn to play along with a consistent tempo, rather than speeding up like a train, or rushing into the chorus.

I had to do some very complicated edits to make some of the songs flow better. On one 6/8 song occasionally the guitarist dropped a beat and played a 5/8 measure, and of course the vocalist followed him. I had to cut and paste all tracks and move it forward in time to over lap the original measure, but it worked out perfectly. The edit is seamless.

I have also noticed that this syndrome is most common among those musicians who have never played with others. Alone it's easy to skip beats, change tempos and strum patterns, but when you have to play in a group you must learn to count and, be consistent with the arrangement and meter.

Of course there are notable exceptions, like classical compositions that have different movements and time signature changes. But the vast majority of music is greatly improved by finding the correct tempo and locking into a groove.

Buy an inexpensive drum machine or metronome and practice practice practice. You will greatly improve at recording and overdubing parts, and will be able to play with other musicians and match their tempos and rythyms.

Just my oppinion, use a click track!

Dom

 

[Tifstorey]

Ill back you up on that Dom

I was recording a band the other day and they decided to put the guitarist down first. (no drummer)

So i gave him some headphones so he could hear the click track. He suddenly asked me that some equipment was broken because he could hear some horrible 'clicky' sound through the headphones. In 5 years of playing the guitar, this guy had no idea what a click track was and had never played to one. Pretty impressive id say considering this guy is a pretty good guitarist and has played in a band for a good couple of years.

But anyway, back to the original post! All buy metronomes, drum machines, anything really that will play in time at a steady beat!

Have fun

 

[MichaelM]

A guitarist in my previous band was like that. You could just tell that he had only practiced by himself and with the other guitarist. In a rehearsal he could not play in time with me drumming without the other guitarist to follow. It's like there was no feel for the song, he was just following the other guitar. Thats with drums, I don't think I could let him near a click track by himself!

WOOHOO! 200 Posts! And it only took 4 years! I think I'll go to bed now..

 

[Farview]

Once apon a time, back when the earth was still cooling, if a band could not play very well and were recorded, there was no one and no way to fix such things. This caused great embarrassment among the players of the band. They would realise that they weren't all that great and strive to learn how to become better. (or, if they were lazy, they would give up) If engineers keep saving the musicians from their own lack of musicianship, pretty soon no one will be able to play worth a damn. I've seen musicianship decline slowly over the last decade and I blame alot of it on the decline of expectations of engineers and producers.
If you can't play to a click, you can't play without one either. If you can't play your part slowly, you aren't playing it fast either. If you can't count your part, you have no idea what you are doing and couldn't possibly be playing it the same way all the time...Oh, and you suck. If you are not going to practice and learn your instrument, perhaps you would be more comfortable practicing and leaning the phrase, 'Would you like fries with that'. That way, you could at least be useful to those of us who did the work and learned how to do it.

 

[drstawl]

Of course there are notable exceptions, like classical compositions that have different movements and time signature changes. But the vast majority of music is greatly improved by finding the correct tempo and locking into a groove:

Odd time signatures are no exception.

You have to keep time consistently in 7/4 or 15/4 just the same as in 4/4.

The tempo can still remain rock solid while the time signature changes.

But even a tempo change (in a group playing ituation) must be done with finesse or it sounds like garbage.

 

[thane1200]

Try beat-matching some dance records .......then you'll learn how to count.....1..2..3..4......LOL!

 

[mx_mx]

A guitarist in my previous band was like that. You could just tell that he had only practiced by himself and with the other guitarist. In a rehearsal he could not play in time with me drumming without the other guitarist to follow. It's like there was no feel for the song, he was just following the other guitar. Thats with drums, I don't think I could let him near a click track by himself!

Yeah but you have to admit i was way better by the time we did the second recording. After the first one i realised there was a problem. Most songs i did at your house were in one take. Still wouldnt be able to go up against a click track though. Playing with just drums is fine now. With a click track, is the click where the snare would be, or the kick?

 

[pandamonk]

Yeah but you have to admit i was way better by the time we did the second recording. After the first one i realised there was a problem. Most songs i did at your house were in one take. Still wouldnt be able to go up against a click track though. Playing with just drums is fine now. With a click track, is the click where the snare would be, or the kick?

depends, usually both.

 

[mx_mx]

Thats probably where i was going wrong then. At least chords are semi-easy to play to a click track, id be screwed if i had to do lead

 

[Farview]

Don't you tap your foot when you play?
If you don't know when to play something, knowing what to play is kind of useless.

 

[jonnyc]

I had a drummer in a few months ago who requested a click track. The first one I've had that actually did. I got everything set up and started getting the guitarist ready so he could play along with the drums. The drummer promptly stopped me and said "I have all 8 songs memorized, all I need is a metronome." He proceeded to nail every single song first take and he's only 18. His dad started him on a metronome when he was 6. If only every drummer I had in was like that.

 

[mx_mx]

I admit it. I come from a family cursed with having no rythm whatsoever. I probably should give up the guitar but i love it too much. And im too much of a rock pig to just stand there and tap my foot.

 

[Farview]

And im too much of a rock pig to just stand there and tap my foot.

Tap your foot, bang your head, what ever. If you don't know how your part fits with everyone elses part, how could you become competent?

 

[mx_mx]

Im not competent. Thats my point. But its fun and i dont mind if people tell me im crap. And when i record i follow all the drums, not just tick tick tick. As long as its in time does it really matter? I thought it was best to record drums first anyway.

 

[fraserhutch]

I don't know of a single decent musician, be it a drummer, guitarists, horn player, whatever, that didn't practive by playing with a metronome.

In fact, when I was in university, one test we were regularily subjected to was to be counted a tempo and then silence. We were expected to be able to count back the tempo at a given bar. It required being able to keep the time by yourself during the silence. It was a bitch to learn, but most of us learnt time really well from that.

 

[mx_mx]

Key words: university. Im entirely self taught. As too is every other guitarist i know. Not making excuses, but nobody has ever even taught me HOW to use a metronome. I never even played along to drums (not even CDs) until the aforementioned recording. Well, besides the two weeks before the recording (the amount of time between forming the band and recording)

 

[Farview]

If you are going to be doing something with music, you should really find out how it all works. I never when to school to learn any of this, I had to read books. (this was WAY before the internet)

Music is two things coming together: Pitch and Time. If you don't know time, the other half doesn't matter.

 

[mshilarious]

mxmx, if you are truly as clueless as you say, take a couple of drum lessons. Seriously. You need to start by having some understanding of what the other instruments are doing, and right now, you don't even know when each drum is hit in a standard rock beat.

 

[fraserhutch]

Absolutely - rythym is so fundamental to music that to overlook it in an quasi-serious approach is is sort of fruitless, IMHO.

Even if the extent of your application is just to play to the beat of a metronome, you'll find out very quickly how much work you'll need to do to play in time. And you'll also progress really quicky.

Want to learn a lick REALLY well? Learn it to a metronome. Play it at different speeds.

And to think that any drummer would have never practiced with a metronome is sort of mind-boggling to me. the same for bass guitar.

 

[mx_mx]

mxmx, if you are truly as clueless as you say, take a couple of drum lessons. Seriously. You need to start by having some understanding of what the other instruments are doing, and right now, you don't even know when each drum is hit in a standard rock beat.

Id love to get drum lessons but i never have the time. Night shift at work so sleep all day . I never said i dont know anything about drums. I know a standard rock beat is the snare on beats one and three and kick on two and four and hi hat on every beat (dont know if im describing that right). I know any pro will think this is lame, but i have no problems putting drums together in PC Drummer. My problem is more with a metronome. Like i said earlier, click click is way harder for me to follow than having all drums, cymbals, etc as a guide.