DrumDoug
Senior Member
A few days ago I had surgery on my knee. I'm not going to be able to play for a few weeks and I'm going to miss 7 or 8 gigs. It will be better in the long run, but missing those gigs will be a bummer. While I was in the pre-op area and they had me hooked up to the monitors. There was this annoying beeping in the background that kept speeding up and slowing down. It would skip beats every once in a while and sometimes beat two in a row really quick and then stop for a second. I asked the nurse what it was and she said it was my heartbeat. I know I have PVC and it caused a slightly irregular heartbeat but I had no idea that it was that irregular. That got me thinking about an interview I read in Modern Drummer, I don't remember by who, where the drummer said you could keep good time by listening to your heartbeat. He said your heart will fall in line with the beat of the music and your pulse would match the tempo. I remember being skeptical of this. I can't feel my heartbeat unless I have been exercising really hard. Keeping time has always been one of my biggest weaknesses. No matter how hard I try, I always speed up. It's not like I don't work with a metronome. I always practice with one, and I spent years playing in a couple of bands where we used a click track with every song every show and rehearsal. One of the bands I'm in now, rehearses with a click. Hearing how irregular my heartbeat is, made me wonder if your heartbeat has anything to with your ability to keep steady time and if my irregular heart keeps me from being able to keep steady time. Is it common for people to be able to feel their heartbeat and for it it to match the music you're playing? If my body doesn't keep a steady beat, can my brain overcome that and keep my limbs moving in steady time anyway? Am I overthinking this and it's all a bunch of bull?