Who plays to a click?!

[tomhollywood]

Recently I have been playing absolutely everything to a click when we have band practice.

I feel like i don't even have to think about being tight. I just instantly am which then makes playing a lot more comfortable which in turn allows me to do more behind the kit!!

Just wondering how many others out there do and what are thoughts on it?!
Love them or hate them i think. It's like marmite.
I happen to love them, although i hate marmite!

If you can be bothered reading I have left a little anecdote about my first experience with one!!
If not, cheers for reading this far.


My first experience with a click was an unpleasant one. About 4 years ago we went to record an EP at a studio in Wales.
We got set up etc, ran through a few warm up's then had a go at tracking the first song. Played through it, i thought to myself "great, put down a decent track there"
Only to here to my shock and amazement down my earphones "that was f**kin terrible, your drummer is all over the show!"
Gutted i was. The producer, now legend in our eyes, Joe Gibb suggested using the click.
I thought, ok, i'm game to try new ideas.
So had a whirl with it and could not get used to it at all. I HATED it. It just sounded like someone hammering a snare drum down my ear!
In the end we didn't use but he threatened that when we record the album we would be doing!

Off i go and return a year later, like some jedi master of the click!!
I show up track 16 drum tracks in 2 days and Joe says he is amazed.
That was it for me. SOLD!!


Cheers, Tom.
Forever Stronger Than All.

 

[Dystisis]

I agree, clicks are nice when you need to record and sometimes for practicing staying tight. I usually practice without it, though.

 

[intooder]

I like practicing to a click or a loop but not when making music with my bandmates. I find that in a musical context a click takes away the human element.

 

[slingerland755]

I played with a click (live) for over ten years. I found that once I really got comfortable with it, the click was a huge plus for the band. I could play on top, behind, right one the beat. and no matter how tired or hyper anyone it the band was, it didn't matter. The tempo was the same everynight. Now, I can sense a minor tempo fluctuation in my sleep. One of the greatest tools a drummer can use in my opinion.

 

[oops]

I dig the click, but not at the point where I can lock in completely. I play with it, and don't ever completely lose it, but you can still feel my time pulls back and forth a bit in relation to it.

I'm interested in ways to work my time. While working with a metronome is good, is there any way to make sure I don't become reliant on it, and internalize the time to where i can feel if it's good?

 

[mrchattr]

I record with a click and play live without one.

I found that by practicing with a click on my own, obsessively, I can maintain really steady tempos. One thing I found helps is recording shows, and then listening to them with a metronome. I will click in to the tempo at the start of the song, then check it in the middle, and again at the end. If it goes from 112 to 114, no biggie. More than that, and I realize it's back to practicing...most of the time, though, I can start and end a song at exactly the same tempo. It's taken years of practicing like that to get to that point, though.

 

[tomhollywood]

I like practicing to a click or a loop but not when making music with my bandmates. I find that in a musical context a click takes away the human element.

We don't write with the click.
Just use it when getting ready for shows to get tightened up.


As for live, we have to use it on some songs as we have samples etc.
I am strongly thinking about using it for all songs though, keeps me tight and i quite enjoy it in a weird way!!

 

[BullCrunky]

I really never use clicks when I'm drumming. I find it a huge hassle to try and change the tempo when I'm playing with a group, especially when we only have a few hours and just want to keep flying through songs. Also, songs with timing changes restrict the use of a click. On top of that, I would be wearing headphones so; a) I would be the only part to hear it, so in a solo guitar part, the wole song might get thrown off, and b) if I wanted everyone to hear the click, it would ruin any live videos we made in our studio.

For practising, if I want to work on skills, it's usually easy wenough that I can deal with it without a click, timing is easy. And if I want to get a song down, I praactise to a cd or Ipod. It also hurts my ears to crank up the click track to a level where I can hear it clearly over everything else, and then I can't hear my singing and I sing poorly.

Overall, no click for me thanks.

 

[kjsm]

for most of us getting a decent click going on some module or machine with good insulating appropriate headfones etc is an ardusous or espensive tasks - for some of us i assume even making your own is still looking at setting you back...its worth it though or at least getting close to that as possible. i dont get a lot of band practise at the moment due to respective money issues but i practise on a pad do some rudiments but mainly play along to challenging fun music of a decent stylistic range and do so to the track itself and a metronome (assuming what you're listening to is quantized/recorded itself to a click). an effortless way to get subconsciouly more locked in good timiing. the habits you make mentally where your head-metronome speeds up or slows something down,just slightly, where you yourself dont really notice and its just how your brain hears the song...that's what metronome will fix. if you have absolutely no timekeeping in a novice stage, the metronome - sooner implemented into whatever practise you do, the better. only good comes of it. fortunatley my techno friend was able to give me some reasonable headfones that i plug into my td6 module as a quick though cumbersome way to have a metronome in practise. one other benefit of using them in the practise itself - metronomes i mean - is that when you're in that context and its good not to overplay i find playing straighter groovier beats more satisfying when im really lockingin with the metronome. so much more satisfying and i get bored less easily (reflection on my atttention span, not the music i'm playing). not to mention recordings suddenly a fewer-takes proceeding

 

[samthebeat]

I dig the click, but not at the point where I can lock in completely. I play with it, and don't ever completely lose it, but you can still feel my time pulls back and forth a bit in relation to it.

I'm interested in ways to work my time. While working with a metronome is good, is there any way to make sure I don't become reliant on it, and internalize the time to where i can feel if it's good?

The best excersise i came across was this :

Record some click on a cd, make it so that it has gaps of 1 bar, two bars, Four Bars etc. Obvoiusly the bigger the gaps the harder it is to still be on the beat when the click comes in. A good thing to start with is one bar gaps.......bar of click bar without alrtenating, just keep playing over it, corecting yourself as you go, feel the time blah blah blah.