The Sound of The Metronome is Disappearing

stellar92010

Senior Member
It just started happening. I noticed I was hitting the beats right on when I was playing with songs for a few days, but at my lesson today I stopped at least 4 times because I freaked out because the sound of the metronome had vanished. It was a really weird feeling, and the instructor just started laughing said don't worry.

I started 4 months ago, and we are finishing the first book--Understanding Rhythm--A Guide To reading music which is reading exercises and I also learned a sticking method called root sticking as well as alternate sticking which enables me to read and stick just about anything. I've been playing along with a metronome usually at insane low tempo (40~60bpm) for the last 4 months.

We just started Accents and Rebounds and Syncopation. He said he usually wouldn't give anyone Accents and rebounds without at least a year of solid training, but he thought I should start it.

I'm just happy that I heard the metronome drop. I have heard that will happen when your internal clock phase locks finally. Its not that I have any talent for it I think, I've just been practicing 15 to 20 hours a week.

Anyone had this happen to them?
 
Yup! It really tests your steadiness of tempo when the sound of the metronome becomes one with your strokes!
 
Burying the click. Do a search, it has been discussed here before.
Congrats!
 
But don't get too obssessed with it, because when you stray just a few milliseconds and start hearing it again, you may try to overcompensate to get back on. It will drive you nuts, detract from what you're supposed to be doing - playing or practicing - and in the real world, nobody will hear you playing and hear your click. If it's a sequence or track and also audible to an audience, there's a little leeway that's undetectable.

I'm not saying it's okay to be sloppy, I'm saying be careful where you draw that line. The mental pushing and pulling in order to bury the click is vey taxing, when you should be playing and enjoying what you do. When you become comfortable with clicks, the process is very natural and normally doesn't require much thought at all.

Bermuda
 
...We just started Accents and Rebounds and Syncopation. He said he usually wouldn't give anyone Accents and rebounds without at least a year of solid training, but he thought I should start it.

I'm just happy that I heard the metronome drop. I have heard that will happen when your internal clock phase locks finally. Its not that I have any talent for it I think, I've just been practicing 15 to 20 hours a week.

Anyone had this happen to them?

That's very cool that you had that lock with the click - but like Bermuda said - don't obsess!
It sounds like your teacher is taking you through the classic books - Accents and Rebounds is one of the all-time best. Stick Control is a prerequisite to Accents and Rebounds - did you check out that book yet? The latest edition of Accents is great but the "accent code" has to be understood - it's all about the choreography!
 
But don't get too obssessed with it, because when you stray just a few milliseconds and start hearing it again, you may try to overcompensate to get back on.
Bermuda

Here here! I figured out that I need to chill out when I get a millisecond or 10 behind or ahead of the click. In the army when you got out of step you would perform this weird looking step that looked like a Three Stooges move to get back in step. When I get behind the click and make a conscious effort to get back on it I feel like I am performing that Stooges move with my hands. And it sounds really bad - like a gallop almost.

Change Step March...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHzmy_gk9VA

MM
 
I have stick control but my teacher said that is the book that never ends. He said, you can pretty much go on forever making up different exercises from it. LOL.

He said we will be using it, but he decided to start me on accents and rebounds, since we just started syncopation and he is really heavy into dynamics. he doesnt go in a linear fashion of teaching, for example we dont jsut start doing rudiments.


He taught me the single stroke roll at first, and then when we reached the chapter in 'Understanding Rhythm A Guide to Reading Music' (Lauren) where there where 32nd note groupings he said I needed to do them in double strokes so he showed me the form and I have been practicing it and incorportating it into my reading.

that book 'A Guide To Reading Music' by the way is a great reading book. I was cluesless when I started it in October. But he implemented strict stickings and forced me to use a metronome really slow and count my way through that whole book.

the sticking I am using are 1) root sticking method. Is where when the bar is divided up into 16 notes (2/4 or 4/4) the down beat and the 'and' and always played with the right hand and 'e' and 'ah' up beats are always left hand.

Interesting that I tried it on guitar and it corresponeded to my strumming method! But when triplets come into play it breaks down--so he has forced me to do 2) alternate sticking no matter what beat the note falls on when triplets are in the exercise. he said next we are going to break out of that and I will use a hybrid sticking after I master the first two. But now when 32nd notes appeared he introduced double strokes so the sticking is modified by that. Very interesting--and its easy to grasp.

When we got to lesson 17 of the reading book, (last one in the book) it was a syncopation exercise not unlike the exercises in the book 'syncopation'

so at that point he said the way to play them was to hit each note evenly and on 'ands' that aren't played to tap a ghost note. So then he went into upstrokes, down strokes, and taps, which I just started and he showed me how you can develop really rhytmic feels with them. So that is what I am doing now and it is really working.

the rhythm thing well, he said pretty soon i will just forget about the metronome and wont need to hear it anymore. Oh, how I wish.
 
Can we please sticky the OP's first post in this thread, just so every time someone asks how to improve their internal rhythm, we can show that someone that the answer is truly as simple as 'practice, practice, practice'? :)
Or the tl;dr version:
"I've been playing along with a metronome usually at insane low tempo (40~60bpm) for the last 4 months." "Its not that I have any talent for it I think, I've just been practicing 15 to 20 hours a week."
STELLAR WORK, STELLAR!!! You're on my 5 star list now!
 
It just started happening. I noticed I was hitting the beats right on when I was playing with songs for a few days, but at my lesson today I stopped at least 4 times because I freaked out because the sound of the metronome had vanished. It was a really weird feeling, and the instructor just started laughing said don't worry.

I started 4 months ago, and we are finishing the first book--Understanding Rhythm--A Guide To reading music which is reading exercises and I also learned a sticking method called root sticking as well as alternate sticking which enables me to read and stick just about anything. I've been playing along with a metronome usually at insane low tempo (40~60bpm) for the last 4 months.

We just started Accents and Rebounds and Syncopation. He said he usually wouldn't give anyone Accents and rebounds without at least a year of solid training, but he thought I should start it.


I'm just happy that I heard the metronome drop. I have heard that will happen when your internal clock phase locks finally. Its not that I have any talent for it I think, I've just been practicing 15 to 20 hours a week.

Anyone had this happen to them?


Yes. I remember it clearly though I was probably only 5 or 6. I have told that story before talking about my first drum teacher. In my specific story it was that I stopped hearing him play when I played. Good stuff and good for you.
 
Back
Top