I know this may sound like a weird question, but how many of you guys actually count while you are playing? I've actually never took the habit to do that. I play with a band in bars and I've never had any problems playing without counting. I just always know where I'm at, I just feel it sorta. Actually, when I try to count while I'm playing, I get all messed up it's like counting is another limb. If I have to explain a rythm to someone, I can count it to them but not while I'm playing. Do you guys think I should practice that more?
I feel that counting time (like saying "1, 2, 3, 4" or "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6", or whatever while playing) has its place, such as learning a new song or drum part, but otherwise I feel that it's not needed unless it is helping you for a particular section or for a particular song or drum part or drum fill or something. Once you've internalized something, counting time becomes unnecessary and it can easily distract you from playing
music. Counting time while playing something that you have already internalized can make your playing sound mechanical, lifeless, meaningless - as though you're just going through the motions without any real purpose behind it.
Of course, beginners should learn how to count time while they are playing. It was a
tremendous help to me to be able to count time out loud while playing everything that I wanted to know how to play. Today, I don't count time while I'm playing or while anyone else is playing unless I absolutely need to - or unless it's a habit for a certain part. However, sometimes I'll count time for certain things because it's an emotional decision. Other times, I might count time if I feel that I'm losing my focus, or I might count time if I've lost the beat somehow. Even then though, I subconsciously quickly get back on track thanks to learning how to count time out loud while playing when I was younger, and it doesn't even require that I count time because I have internalized it.
So, to answer this in a very general sense, I rarely count time while I'm playing because I've already mastered that part. I have internalized it. When I took lessons, it was the first thing that I was taught, and it was all on the snare drum. My job was to count time while playing the simple snare drum exercises. Then I was taught how to count time while playing simple popular grooves. It ranged from counting quarter notes all the way up to 16th notes, all out loud while playing. It was difficult at first too because I had already taught myself how to play basic rock-type drumming on my own. I had to learn how to coordinate it because before I began learning, I had no knowledge of time signatures, subdivisions, syncopation, etc. All I knew was
sound, and all I was doing was imitating what I was hearing, not having a clue of what I was really doing. Experienced drummers would have known what I was doing and they probably would have been able to hear that I didn't have a clue. It's like listening to someone speak a language fluently vs. someone who is merely copying what they're hearing. They know the sound, but they don't know the meaning behind it. Have you ever spoken phrases or words from another language without having a clue of what you just said? Yes, drumming is a universal language, but that's beside the point.
The point is, being able to play time fluently vs. simply copying what you hear without really knowing what you're doing are two vastly different things. If you don't know the language of time, then you might start unintentionally saying things that don't make sense to other musicians and they might ask you what those odd time signatures were that you were throwing into your groove so that they can follow you next time. Or, they might say that they couldn't feel what you were playing. I played with lead/rhythm guitarist once who didn't know how to count time. He had been playing for over 60 years, but he couldn't count time to save his life. He knew "1, 2, 3, 4", but he didn't know where those beats really sat in his playing. I couldn't feel his beat, I couldn't feel his 1. Why? Because he didn't have one. Everything he played was executed beautifully and cleanly, but I could never feel a true pulse and there was never a clear indication of where his '1' was because again, he didn't have one. Counting off songs for him was interesting, to say the least. I had to spell it out for him every time he was supposed to come in on some other beat that was NOT the first beat of the measure. It was like working with a beginner at times.
So, for beginners reading this and wondering, "what's the point if I can already play?", that's simple: other than what I just said above, for me personally, it demystified
everything that I wanted to learn how to play. When I heard something that I didn't understand at first, I would figure out where 1 is, and then I would just count it out. Within seconds, I went from all the way being confused to simply saying, "Oh, pff. That's easy", and it's all thanks to learning how to count time. An extremely
simple example is Led Zeppelin's For Your Life (on Presence). The very first time I heard [the beginning of] that song, I began counting 6/8. If you've never heard it before, then listen to it on YouTube. The very first couple of seconds can sound like a bar of 6/8. Of course, I realized that it was in 4/4 after a few more seconds, so then I had to work backwards in order to figure out where the first beat was in time. Once I figured that out, counting the song off and playing it with my band was a piece of cake. If I didn't know how to count time, then I never would have been able to count it off for my band, and I never would have been able to play it with the proper feel (and it would have taken me a
LOT longer to learn how to get into that intro - I think). All I would have been able to do is copy what I'm hearing; I never would have truly understood it, and I believe that understanding it is about the only thing that I feel can enable you to play something correctly so that the listener can enjoy it, so that the listener can really feel your groove. Looking back, I can see how I would have learned this song if I didn't know how to count time, but it wouldn't have been nearly as good. I wouldn't have truly owned my part.
So yeah, I only count time now when I need to (such as when I'm still learning something), or when I can't help it due to some emotional thing (which I don't know how to explain).
For an interesting example of when you need to count time, watch Mike Mangini's Dream Theater audition in the video entitled The Spirit Carries On. You'll hear and see him count a few different times.
