Sleeping with a Click

Pass.of.E.r.a.

Gold Member
So recently I read in an interview that it was supposedly beneficial to sleep with a metronome on all night. Has anyone on this forum tried it, and if so is their any "side effects" I should be wary of?

-Jonathan
 
I think that that would be considered a form of torture if prisoners were forced to sleep with a click.
I don't think that there is any advantage to sleeping with a click.
It will cause you to wake up and lose sleep.
 
I'm guessing you need to play with a click to get your body in harmony with the click. You may sleep walk in rhythm, but I'm not sure how this translates to playing. Do this enough and you will never sleep without a click.
 
When we are playing a musical instrument we are working the brain and the muscles together.
In order to learn a skill one has to be alert and awake.
 
*Tick Toc Tick Toc* SHUT THAT THING UP HONEY! But I'm practicing!
 
Sounds like a waste of time to me. You can listen to a metronome 24/7 but unless you actively practice hitting your drums/percussion in time with it then it's not gonna do no good imo.
 
"Hey baby, is that you tickin' or are you just happy to see me?"
 
At what tempo would you listen? Getting one tempo locked into your subconscious could harm your ability to lock into other tempos.

Bermuda
 
I'm gonna go against the flow here and say that, if you have the mental fortitude to listen to it...it will at the very minimum, ingrain in your head what a steady pulse sounds like. If you mentally practice, it's almost as good as actually practicing. OK listening to a click isn't mentally practicing, but you could subdivide in your head to the click. That's a form of practice. They say someone who mentally practices anything, take basketball for instance, as opposed to physically practicing basketball, can get many, but not all of the same benefits as real practice. I really don't think it could hurt any, and actually might ingrain what steady meter sounds like. Nothing wrong there.
I did it. For one night lol. It gets old quick. And if you sleep w/ anybody....that will be a good test of their tolerance.
 
Mmmm...

I'm pretty sure it would do a lot more harm than good. But of course it depends on the volume. Some years ago I had in my bedroom one of those old alarm clocks (the ones with the little bells on top) that was very loud. I didn't mind it at all, but whenever a friend stayed over they asked me how the hell I could sleep with that thing on, and I had to take it out of the room..

Anyway, I wouldn't do it. Cheers.
 
Man.....did I misread the title of this thread or what. :)

Interesting idea......but really, there's only one way to find out. Why not try it and tell us your findings in a months or so?

Personally, I wouldn't bother. Bermuda raises a good point. At what tempo? Sure it may help internalise a pulse as Larry has suggested, but by sleeping through it and not playing along with that pulse, there is no reference point for your body to adhere to.

I'm not sold, but if you think it might help, what have you got to loose by giving it a shot?
 
Pocket-full-of-gold said:
Man.....did I misread the title of this thread or what. :)

If the c in click was lower case, I'd understand, but it seems that you either need glasses or to ponder the fate of your wretched soul :)

You could increase by 1 or 2 bpm nightly. I find it hard to imagine resting well at 300bpm ... maybe best not to go past 120bpm (standard clock tick)? I'd also want a bland, mellow sound for sanity's sake. Or great music played with good time ...

I have to say that once you've had a snoning partner who produced death metal growls at stadium volume all [expletive] night, then a little metronome ticking is no biggie ...
 
At what tempo would you listen? Getting one tempo locked into your subconscious could harm your ability to lock into other tempos.

Bermuda
Yeah this was my main concern, and the reason I wanted to ask around first. I never really intended to do this (especially long term), I just thought it might be an interesting idea to help improve my internal metronome.

Man.....did I misread the title of this thread or what. :)

I'm not sold, but if you think it might help, what have you got to loose by giving it a shot?

Haha, I thought of the same thing the moment I hit "Submit Thread".

Like I said I'm not gonna try it, and I don't have much to lose. :)

Thanks for all the replies!

-Jonathan
 
I heard that Steve Vai trained himself to have perfect pitch by going to sleep listening to one note of a chromatic scale every night for twelve nights. Not sure if that's true, but it sounds about right. Maybe the same thing is possible with drums. Perhaps a loud clock is a better option though, I used to have one of those when I was small and couldn't sleep without it!
60bpm is as good a tempo as any. Maybe a slower one would be better, after all, good timing is about putting accurate spaces between the notes. The faster you get, the less important microtiming becomes.
 
Supposedly benefitial...

This just sounds awfully similar to the “subliminal learning” programs, where if you go to sleep listening to say, a foreign language, or general knowledge questions, your subconscious will still be able to assimilate the information and you can be learning while your brain sleeps. But subjects that have been tested on this showed no noticable improvement.

What interview did that OP come from? I'm betting it wasn't something that has any scientific data to back it up. This sounds like the correlation/causation fallacy, usually defended by “well, it worked for me!” when you try and point out the specious reasoning behing it.

Like in the Simpsons episode about the bear patrol (Much Apu About Nothing).

Lisa: “By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.”
Homer (confused): “Hmm; how does it work?”
Lisa: “It doesn’t work; it’s just a stupid rock!”
Homer: “Uh-huh.”
Lisa: “… but I don’t see any tigers around, do you?”
(pause) Homer: “Lisa, I want to buy your rock…”

Even if you did go to sleep with a metronome but were practising during the day as well, there is no evidence to suggest that listening to it at night has any improvement. Unfortunately, many people in interviews are false authorities. Just look at celebs who give opinions on political matters they obviously haven't read-up on, but people give their views more credence because of who they are.
 
When I wanted to learn a new song I used to sleep with my headphones in with the song on repeat. It worked for me.
 
When I wanted to learn a new song I used to sleep with my headphones in with the song on repeat. It worked for me.

I also did this when learning songs years ago (though I think what made me memorise them off was consciously listening to them).

Here are a few questions you should ask:

1. How many times did you hear the song before you finally nodded off?

2. Were you just listening to it exclusively at night in this fashion or did you have a few listens at other times too?

3. How complex were the songs?

There are just so many other variables here that you’re not accounting for. Repetition while awake is one thing; but while you’re asleep is quite another.

There’s a rather loud motivational industry out there that will convince you subliminal learning works but is that because it appeals to our instant gratification (a shortcut to learning) or because it is backed up with empirical evidence that demonstrates its effectiveness? Despite numerous studies demonstrating that subliminal tapes are worthless, people continue buying them in large numbers.

In saying all this, listening to songs at night isn't worthless. With your eyes closed and the music getting your (near full) undivided attention, it will count as a normal listen but once you fall asleep, it’s lights out!

But the OP was questioning how listening to a click at night would improve his skillset. I don’t even think listening to a click by itself when you’re awake is much good.

The best way to gain skill with a click, is to practise drums to a click.
 
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