The click

Hey guys
I have been practicing a lot with a click track lately and it is frustrating me a lot
Anyway, I have found some methods which works great for me and I hope you guys will benefit as well, maybe you already know it, but here it goes.
When I am practicing I tend to "search" a lot for the click. It ticks away and suddenly I cant hear it (because Im on it) and then I drift a bit off again. Anyway, the first thing I did was to change the sounds so instead of having just a click I had kick and snare. The second, and probably most important thing was this: Play off the click. This is tricky at first, though. Imagine that the Click is playing off beats, "the and's". In that way you can hear the click all the time and you can groove with it. And when you have a perfect Disco-ish groove going between you and the click, you know that you are right on.
Hope that this will help you.

Best regards
- Kasper

Precisely! Try putting the click on different 16th notes, or on different dotted 8th notes. Or, on different 32nd notes if you want to get really crazy.

great advice Kasper

keep working ....it sounds like you are on the right track for sure

I always tell my students to not focus on the click/beep itself but the spaces between

the sound is simply a check point

if you go chasing the sound of the met you will sound like just that

but if you listen to the space and absorb how to divide it properly you will learn that time is elastic and gain a full understanding of how to expand and contract it when needed

the space between the clicks is where we live and breathe

You are actually using the exact opposite method I was taught. I try to keep the space between clicks as short as possible. The longer the space between clicks the better chance of getting off.

If I am practicing I will keep the clicks low to make sure I can still keep the timing. But for recording or live situations. More clicks=better.

eclipseownzu said:

You are actually using the exact opposite method I was taught. I try to keep the space between clicks as short as possible. The longer the space between clicks the better chance of getting off.

If I am practicing I will keep the clicks low to make sure I can still keep the timing. But for recording or live situations. More clicks=better.

Click to expand...

as a beginner more clicks = better

as a player advances there should be as much space between the clicks as possible when practicing

this is how you solidify your time and learn to trust your inner clock

if you are relying on a click every 16th or 8th note they become a crutch and you will never truly develop internalized time

we as players should eventually work ourselves to the point where we can go up to 4 measures without a click and land right on the 1 when it hits

more clicks = crutch

less clicks = internal clock development

in the recording studio ... depending on the tune the click should be either quarters or 8ths.....no more ....that is studio standard

if someone needs a click very close together to stay on time they obviously need more practice

of course different players have different preferences as far as recording to a click ....but I have always felt while recording to quarters or 8ths you still have space to let the rhythm breathe naturally and sound human and you will be less focussed on nailing clicks and more focussed on making the music feel good

You've just got to be practical about it, the click is there to keep you in time and in a playing situation you should have whatever you need to keep in time. For practice, experiment with less and less of course. I don't think I'd even want the click in 16ths, the beat would cease to become audible anyway.

In the studio, the click track is quality control.

When you're practicing, it's Meter Development. So, use it creatively. The more you do this, the easier it will be to play to a click track and still make music.