Topic: Faultless Time

[Alex Smith]

What practice has had the most dramatic impact on your ability to stay in the pocket and have excellent time?

[Chip Donaho]

What helped me the most was playing for hours along with a metronome. 

[Mister Acrolite]

Recording myself to identify weakness, bad habits, etc.

[Bart Elliott]

Recording myself to identify my strengths and weaknesses, and developing the ability to internalize subdivisions of the beat or pulse regardless of the tempo, feel or style of music.

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[Bill Bachman]

Amen to recording yourself. It's a tough dose of medicine to take at the beginning, but listening back 3rd person makes all the difference in the world. From there you can recalibrate your 1st person perspective into what you know will sound good from a 3rd person perspective. Start simple!

[Matthew Warwick]

There are a few things I've been learning to do this year that I wished I had started doing much earlier on.

One thing I try to do when I'm playing alone with no musicians or recorded music is to play with a metronome. Playing along with a metronome has helped me in a few different areas. The first change I've noticed is that I'm able to more confidently keep the tempo steady since I know now what a steady quarter note pulse (or even further subdivided for songs with tricky vocal lines or really slow speeds) sounds like. Another way the metronome has helped is in cleaning up how my playing sounds. This one has definitely been a much slower process, especially since I'm so detail oriented. And most importantly, my ability to stay in the pocket with other musicians and with recorded music has improved since I started practicing to a click. These are all things that will help you to sound more clean and consistent.

Another thing I like to do is practice along to recorded music. I mentioned that playing along to a metronome will help you to stay more on with musicians and music, so this goes hand-in-hand with that. When you play along to a song, make sure it at least has a steady tempo or was recorded to a click track. However, play along to just the song and don't use a metronome while the song is playing. What this has done for me is help me to be able to feel music. The rhythm a metronome gives off is a pretty obvious, bare-boned click that is, at least in my opinion, easier to follow perfectly and tell when you are on with than a song. But playing along to a song will have you thinking a tad more about what you are doing.

Along with those, it's important to play along with a band. The drums are the general heartbeat of most kinds of music and it's important to be able to play steadily and cleanly when you're the one keeping the tempo as opposed to a click track or song.

Lastly, as the last two or three posts have said, recording yourself periodically is a good idea. If you've never done it before, it can be a real eye-opener. The earlier in your drumming journey you start doing these things, the better. And that goes double for the recording. Your ears will improve over time and you'll be better able to tell how good you are doing while you're playing, but even then, in order to listen critically, you'll have to listen to a recording. It has helped me to figure out why something doesn't sound right and it has improved my playing and listening abilities. As a bonus, when you get better and hear yourself doing better on a recording, it can be a major help for confidence.

Good luck with your drumming!

[David Crigger]

I think though - for all its helpfulness - working with the metronome, when it comes to fully realizing what Alex is asking about, is only one ingredient, or the icing on the cake.

There are so many drumming technique things that can drag on one's playing - basic independence issues, inability to perform accented and non-accented notes, execute rhythms accurately within the beat, voice and orchestrate on the drum set, the ear training to be able to understand the drumming demands of a piece of music, and hear both where the drums should set in relation to the muss and what should be being played.

All of these things are absolutely essential to playing in the pocket with excellent time - and I don't think the learning process of hardly any of them is improved with the use of a metronome.

And yet again all of these things figure just as much into being perceived as one that's playing in the pocket with an excellent groove.

Am I saying the metronome is without its usefulness - certainly not. Wonderful tool - indispensable tool.... for what it does. Which is provide a reference point from which to judge and assess one's metronomic accuracy. In other words, it helps reveals tendencies to rushing and dragging. Again - a great indispensable tool.

But again, it is only ingredient - and I would venture far from the most important one. There's plenty of music out there to use as a reference point. Just as preventing rushing and dragging is only one obstacle to overcome on the journey to being able to play in the pocket with excellent time.

So Alex - IMO there's no one tool or practice routine that best accomplishes this. For each player at any given stage of their development there may be. For instance, serious practice with the metronome may be just the thing for someone at one point in their growth - yet completely wasted on someone else missing other key "ingredients". This is really one of the biggest benefits private study can bring - an assessment of what elements or ingredients are most lacking in one's playing - of what is the next most important stuff to be working on.

David

[Shaun Hopkins]

Rudiments with a metronome. I have never, ever been so humbled. That little electronic demon and it's tormenting clicks.

[Matthew Warwick]

Rudiments with a metronome. I have never, ever been so humbled. That little electronic demon and it's tormenting clicks.

Haha....your description of the metronome here cracks me up.

execute rhythms accurately within the beat

David, could you clarify a little bit what you mean here? The reason I need a little extra info is because I'm a little perplexed as to how a metronome wouldn't be able to help with this in at least some way. Are you talking about specific rhythms that a metronome can't be programmed to play (i.e. a fill from a song with specific accents or syncopation), or is it something different?