A Drummer Cafe member writes:
Hey Bart, I have a tendency to speed up/slow down a bit sometimes, and
am trying to correct it. It is not a major problem in most areas of my
playing, but in certain places I definitely speed up or slow down
without meaning to. I seem to stray from the original tempo to a
"comfort" tempo that my playing wants to do. Is it possible to "learn"
perfect (or excellent) time? I mean, not being able to just keep a
straight beat together, but being able to play whole songs and play out
with fills and different rhythms without speeding up/slowing down? Is
it something that comes with practice and playing? Does playing to a
metronome really help a person develop a better sense of steady time
and prevent changes in tempo?
There are a number of factors that can affect your time keeping, so I'll try to address a few of them by giving you some practice suggestions.
You are well on your way to improving yourself
because you've figured out what is going on in your playing, which is
the biggest hurdle in the journey. The reason I've noticed that many
players tend to gravitate towards particular tempos is because that's
where they are most comfortable. So why do YOU do this? I would venture
to say that you tend to play and practice on your own at these tempos
... which has then developed your muscle memory, coordination, etc., to work best at these tempos.
The
way to work through this is to spend a lot of time working at other
tempos ... especially the slower tempos. Most drummers practice
everything way too fast and never give enough attention to grooving at
slower tempos.
-
Working with a metronome
is just one way to help you maintain good time keeping. Try picking
some of your favorite drum grooves ... and play them with the metronome
... set to 40 bpm. Perhaps this seems a bit drastic, but in my opinion,
if you can't groove and feel good at slow tempos, it's not going to really
groove at faster tempos. Sure, some things just may be physically
impossible to play at drastically slow tempos, so adjust for that. Once
you can play the groove at 40 bpm, speed up the metronome a bit ...
maybe 4 or 6 bpm. As you approach faster tempos, such as 80+ bpm, I
would suggest making smaller increment increases, like 2 bpm. It's
important to note that just playing with the metronome isn't going to
make you play better; you've got to play WITH it ... groove with the
established pulse and make what you are playing feel (and sound) good.
- Playing with recorded music
is another way to develop your playing. There's a lot of instructional
materials that focus on this area of study, so check into to some of
that. I have a short list of these materials listed in my article
entitled Suggested Drumset Study Materials.
You can also play with your favorite CD or radio station. Whatever you
use, make sure that the performance on the recording is good. No sense
practicing to a recording that has bad tempo problems ... right?
- Practice your time keeping and fills separately; then work on connecting the two.
Make sure your groove is good; play with the metronome, etc. Now go
back and work on just your fills, playing them over and over again,
with the metronome. Finally, put the two together; perhaps several
measures (bars) of time followed by a fill. Be sure to do this at very slow tempos ... working your way to the faster versions.
- Record yourself
as you play and/or practice. Listening back and analyzing when you
speed up and slow down is a great way to isolate any problems you may
be having. Look (listen) for tendencies ... such as rushing fills or
speeding up on particular sections of the song (ie. chorus). Many
drummers have to work through these types of things ... so be
encouraged. Also know that adrenalin plays a big part in all of this.
You may be fine in the practice room, but watch what happens when you
are playing in front of a crowd of people! Work on ways to control and
harness your energy / emotions while you play; you can use it to your
advantage.
- Musical maturity is something that you
can't really teach, but comes over a period of time ... as you get
older. There's only so much that talent, practice and instruction can
do for this area of your playing; most of your development will come as you
age ... kind of like a fine wine. I don't know how old you are or how
long you've been playing music, but developing your musicality really
just takes time. I say all of this to encourage you and to know
that simply getting older, playing more and more, listening to other
great musicians, your playing and time keeping IS going to get better.
This
would be my initial approach if I were to work with you ... student to
teacher. It's not necessarily the only approach, but is certainly a
good first step to developing your skills as a musician. If you look
through some of my other articles you'll find some other suggestions
that may help you as well (ie. "say it before you play it", etc.)
Reprinted from Bart's Corner - Questions & Answers
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