Thanks all for comments! Thoughts below...
This works for me. Great for practicing...
Get a Dr. Beat or an electronic metronome that allows you to hear just the first beat of the bar at any given tempo. You can also start out by setting it to click on every other beat.
Now start using the method books or music at your disposal and start practicing at a moderate, comfortable tempo. What you will find is that at first, your "1" will be ahead of the metronome almost every bar. Have patience. By not hearing the click on every beat, it FORCES YOU TO INTERNALIZE the tempo.
Thanks, the metronome I have is electronic and will try this...
I would start by saying that playing ahead of the beat is no more right or wrong than playing behind or on the beat. A whole set of factors about the music—such as tempo, style and how the other musicians are playing—are going to determine whether playing ahead, on or behind the beat is correct. And even then, it's subjective and really up to the artist or producer.
Where our playing lays in relation to the beat is part of our individual, musical fingerprint. But a well-trained musician can consciously adjust her tendencies as required by the musical situation.
I think it's easy to get sick of your natural feel, even if others dig it. Did you ever get sick of looking at your own face in the mirror? That's how I feel about my drumming sometimes. Learning to play with your beat placement helps you change up your feel. And even if your natural feel is good, learning to do it another way means more options, which I think can only be a good thing.
That's very good points, 8Mile.. I used to think that if I play ahead of the beat, it sounds a bit uncomfortable / edgy ... which might be right for certain styles or songs... where as playing behind would make it sound more relaxed. Is this right or just an oversimplification?
Have you done much slow click practice?
E.g 30 - 40 bpm
If you just play the simplest beat (kick snare kick snare) with quarter notes on the hat you will have room to experiment.
You could try displacing by an 8th or a 16th note too and pretend you're playing behind the beat.
And another suggestion - bury the click. I learnt this from a Simon Phillips video recently... He doesn't hear his click because his kick and snare are right on it. Don't turn it up too load, play over it and if you can't hear it, then you know you're on time.
Honestly I don't know because my problem is the opposite but I can imagine these working.
Thanks, Duck Tape... yes, I have but not for this purpose.. I'll give it a go. Agree that playing with a metronome is not always helpful.
When I play to a metronome I tend to play ahead of the beat as well. One studio guy told me he just moves my whole drum track over just a hair to line it up with the click. To me it sounds like I'm right on it.
A few days ago I found the "groove guide" and "groove gate" function on my Yamaha e-kit. Groove guide lets you see on a screen and a graph where your hits are compared to the click. When I started trying it with just a short click sound I was always ahead and couldn't even lay back enough to get on the click. After a while I started playing with the metronome sound. When I changed it to a voice counting the beat, I was always behind the beat. I felt like I had to rush like crazy to get up to playing on the beat. A shaker was the same thing. Short sounds I played ahead, legato sounds I played behind. I then tried playing to some of the built in songs. With the actual music, it said I was playing behind. It was eye opening, but I am also taking it with a grain of salt. When I listen to the built in drummer playing those songs, he sounds like he is playing way ahead of the beat even though the machine says he is right on. In the end, I'm not sure what I do with a live band.
To work on playing behind the click sound i started using the groove gate setting. When you turn on this setting it won't make a sound on the pad unless you are hitting "on" the beat. You can set a window of how far off the beat you can get and still make a sound. I can only get accurate down to a 256th not either side of the click, which makes a total error window of a 128th note. But to work on getting the feeling of playing behind the click, I set the window to only make a sound if I was a little behind. It helps but it's a different feel than I'm used too.
I've also been practicing a lot lately with the "gap click". Having the sound turn on and off. With medium to fast tempos I can do four bars on four bars off and stay with it. Slower tempos, I can only do two on two off for the time being. But it's all a work in progress.
That's interesting... I have an acoustic kit so no such settings - but I can see how this might work.
There is a big difference between playing ahead of the beat and speeding up. If it takes you a few measures before you notice, are you not simply speeding up? Pushing the beat, or playing behind the beat are accepted styles of playing, Copeland made a living pushing the beat with the Police.
It is not always important to be dead on the beat, it can make you sound like a drum machine. The great Max Roach insisted "Time should be elastic, playing like a metronome is inhuman and sounds like...bap bap bap bap".
Well, on occasion I speed up too... (and an occasion slow down, too on stuff that's already very slow)... Guess I consider that a different problem. But I have been told more times 'you are ahead of the beat' than 'you are speeding up'...
Totally agree that the metronome can be inhuman and has no place in music as an art form. And as 8Mile said, a good musician will be able to choose his or her beat placement to flex with what the other musicians are doing and to express what they are trying to say.
In my case, still learning and still a way to go until such advanced playing...
I use the metronome as a learning tool and practice tool -
Have you recorded yourself and listened back? If not there's your answer. When you hear yourself....when you are not playing....you are much better equipped to understand what you need to do to correct yourself, than if someone told you about it.
Do you think you are playing ahead? Everyone feels time a little differently.
I'd suggest recording and listening back for yourself. Don't take their word for it.
You decide if you don't like where your pulse falls.
Thanks for comments, Larry.
Yes, I have recorded* and listened back. So, simpler stuff that I have known how to play for over 6 months sounds pleasant (it was an ambient recording with the band). It has a good feel to it (at least I liked it ok, not brilliant by any means). It was recorded without a click so no real baseline. But it has a good feel.
Some other stuff recorded* 2 weeks later (ambient) is a new groove I started learning 4 weeks ago (the 16th feel groove for the Chicken, if anyone is curious) and I did use a click while recording it, while the band did not hear the click. On this, the drums sound terrible. The time sounds really uncomfortable, ahead a whole time (but not speeding up)... just makes me feel nervous listening to it... weirdly, the bass player liked it. I was after a nice laid back feel...
Note: recorded means = just on a phone, but it's good enough to tell what sounds good and what's terrible...