Help my drummer play to a click track!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter chaosscott
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I don't know how quickly it needs to be learned, but if you can't play with a click, you just can't play at all. All the best musicians practice with a metronome. Additionally, if you can't play your part slowed down to half tempo or less, you probably aren't playing it correctly at regular speed.

What this may indicate about your drummer is that he is not capable of going with someone else's groove (in this case the click). You will find yourself constantly following him and when he goes off rhythm or cuts off the and of 4, he is making it impossible for any of you to play your parts properly. This is not the path to tightness. Tightnes only happens when everyone in the band practices with a metronome, knows the proper tempo, and excecutes it from the first second of the song.
 
You know, they used to just fire the guy from the record if he couldn't play to a click and hire a session guy.

Harsh? Maybe. But I'm willing to bet it was just the right size foot in their ass to get on top of that skill.

Actually, it's one of the reasons Staind let Wysocki go (or so it appeared via the documentary I watched).
 
Staind should fire themselves from making any kind of sound.


BTW, I recorded drums for three songs today. All to a click track. Easy as pie. :)
 
Can the fairies keep him sober for the day ?

Farview said:
If he is willing to learn, the biggest thing he has to learn is that he is playing WITH the click and not TO the click.


However, this is not something that can be mastered overnight. Drummers are used to being the time keepers, everyone else follows them. This is why guitar players, bass players, etc... can all easily play to a click. They are used to following someone else's rhythm. Drummers who don't work on it can go their entire career never having to do that. It's a skill.
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Indeed it is. As far as I'm concerned any drummer should be able, eventually, to play with the click. And by the same token should also be able to play without one. It's rather logical, that if you can play with a click, you'll also be able to play without one, but you'll become a better listener and follower having gotten used to using one. Pete Townshend made the observation that Keith Moon had no problem playing with synths and drum machines when they first appeared because he had always followed the guitar and bass, Townshend and Entwistle set the tempo.
 
I apologize ahead of time if this has been mentioned, I didn't read through all the posts...
I've found that with drummers having difficulty with the typical "click, click, click" metronome do better to a beat-type metronome.
Make a very simple 1 measure beat on a drum machine (or in your DAW); kick, snare, HH. Loop it endlessly.

Many drummers are able to "groove" or at least survive to that setup far easier.

chaosscott said:
Hey everyone, so I'm trying to record my band and the drummer is having a heck of a time recording to a click track. The problem is it doesn't seem like he's actually letting the click be the master time keeper. It's like he's listening to the pre count in, matching his internal clock and then ignoring the click entirely from there. My favorite complaint from last night's session "I'm having trouble keeping time with this annoying click in my ear".

We've tried recording a guitar and bass guide track to the click. I've always practiced guitar to a metronome so it's second nature to me. We've tried a number of count combinations (4/4, 4/8, 4/16 etc) and even slowing the overall tempo down.

Any advice? or should I just give up and go with no click?
Click to expand...
 
Try 16ths instead 1/4 or 1/8 perhaps a drumloop? I find it easier playing to a click track..
 
Something that wasn't said....Isolation head phones. If you can hear the drums around the headphones and through them...it all clashes together. Any good drummer should be able to polyrhythmics around a metronome...in an out of beats.
 
I'll +1 iso headphones, but I personally have to have the feedback of hearing the drums (especially the kick drum). So pumping a click track to Iso headphones without any of the drum sounds doesn't work for me personally.
 
JeffroMixesYou said:
I've found that with drummers having difficulty with the typical "click, click, click" metronome do better to a beat-type metronome.

Many drummers are able to "groove" or at least survive to that setup far easier.
Click to expand...
Funny, I've found the opposite. By having a drum pattern playing the two main guys that drum for me find it really offputting. The typical "click, click, click" metronome is easier for them as it then does what it's meant to, which is act as a timing reference.
When I play guitar, bass, keyboards, samples or percussion, to be honest I have no preference although using a drum pattern gets my rhythmic juices flowing freer.
 
I only bust out the drum pattern click for the inexperienced guys who can't do a metronome. It has helped some deal with it. My default is definitely cowbell ;)

grimtraveller said:
Funny, I've found the opposite. By having a drum pattern playing the two main guys that drum for me find it really offputting. The typical "click, click, click" metronome is easier for them as it then does what it's meant to, which is act as a timing reference.
When I play guitar, bass, keyboards, samples or percussion, to be honest I have no preference although using a drum pattern gets my rhythmic juices flowing freer.
Click to expand...
 
Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new on here (will go to Newbies section in a minute!) but just to offer my tuppenceworth...

I found playing with a click track really tough at the beginning and to be fair I think a lot of newbie drummers do the first few times.
What I would suggest is :

- practise like mad before the recording session.
He needs to keep practising on his own, with a click

- change the sound of the click
sometimes helps...

- isolation headphones are go!
I have some Vic Firth ones - love them

- take off the accent click and just have the same click going all the time
- double it

i.e. if your song has a tempo of 90, put the click at 180. You have less time to "lose" it if you know what I mean?

If he seriously, seriously can't get used to it, unfortunately I agree with the others - you'll have to find a new drummer :(

It does take some getting used to but it's down to him to nail it at the end of the day as it is his role
 
Saying that you can't or won't play to a click is a romantic way of justifying the fact that you refuse to accept that you can't play in any time but your own.
 
Ive got the opposite going with the band im in right now. When I do my solo practice there are times I use the click. Even rudiments I'll practice at times to the metronome. But playing with the band, they have asked that I do not use the click, they want a "more organic sound", their words, not mine, LOL.
 
I have found that finding the exact tempo synchronized to what the drummer's right hand will be playing in the groove and then setting the click to give you eighth notes of that really helps with click track. So basiclly filling in the empty space that typiclly plauges people with click tracks, especially at slower tempos. Good headphones or in ears will never hurt as well.
 
Yup, I like double timed click tracks. 8th notes are a lot easier for me to lock into than quarter notes. I think they're 8th notes anyway. I don't know how to count beats, I just play.
 
At first I had to use the double time click like Greg, but not anymore. You just have to practice and you'll get use to the click. It was odd for me at first. I'm use to it now. I even use the standard metronome in my DAW a few times a week for guitar only practices just to stay use to it. Mostly so if I actually do record something it's nice and comfortable. I also find when you're use to playing and singing at the same time it's sometimes hard to just play the guitar by itself when you're recording. And then also I find it can be a bit challenging playing and singing along with the click and not getting off beat. I mix it up and do a little practicing with the metronome each week, but I don't spend too much time on it. Just enough to have my timing tight. It really doesn't take too much work, but you do have to put in a little work :thumbs up:
 
I find that it depends on the song. If the song has a 1/4 note groove, I use 1/4 notes. If it has an 1/8th note feel, I use 1/8 notes. If the time signatures change throughout, I end up using 1/8th notes because that will probably be the only consistent thing throughout all the time signatures.
 
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