Practice with Metronomes

[IfSabianWasCheap]

I'm going to buy the DB90 (recommended?) metronome this weekend and was wondering how should I practice with it? I'll be honest my rhythm is terrible and I really wanna improve it... I've been playing for 'bout 4 years but I never took my rhythm serious.

[fumbled time]

Rudiments at a slow tempo then increased as able to. I personally like to listen to the radio and then play rudiments on the practice pad to the time of the song thats on. It adds a little enjoyment to the practice.

I am not familiar with the metro mentioned, but should be fine. I looked for a metro with led's so I didnt have to rely on the volume of the metro.

[AndyC]

This is a video I made a while back of my favourite timing exercise.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSKPqdRRtA4"]YouTube - Timing Excercise[/ame]

Andy

[ProjeKtWEREWOLF]

I tend to use 'Tempo' on my iPod Touch as a metronome. Quite versatile and fairly programmable.

[drmn4life]

i own the metronome, and its pretty decent, my only beefs with it are its kinda hard to program tempo changes if u have any, the lcd display is hard to see at times, and unless you have a decent pair of isolation headphones, its only good for practicing with pads. or if u have an e-kit. and it has a pretty hefty price tag for a metronome. i wouldn't get it unless you plan on buying a good pair of isolation headphones, of course if u already have a pair ur all set lol.. good metronome for practice and such.

[rekrdskratcher]

I've recently undertaken the same quest, starting with just sticks and a practice pad (or even a pillow if I'm feeling ambitious!), since my kit resides at my band's practice space.

What I've found is starting to work for me (as long as I stick with it!) is this:

I go through the first couple of pages of Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone (if you don't have it, I highly suggest picking it up.) I've also got a very basic software drum machine called Drumsite (which I originally used for scratch drum tracks in my past life as a songwriter, haha) but there's probably other programs out there that will do the same thing - basically, you're supposed to repeat each exercise in Stick Control 20 times. Fine. You *can* do this with a metronome (it definitely won't hurt you to have to count the number of times you do the exercise, I suppose), but the way I have it set up, I program a basic click track for a number of measures that equal doing each exercise 20 times, so that I can focus on proper grip, technique, staying relaxed, etc.

About halfway through each exercise, I have the click cut out COMPLETELY for a couple of measures, except for the beginning of each measure, just to make sure I'm able to keep consistent time even without the click going. And this program also allows me to change the tempo very easily - so what I frequently do is warm up at a low tempo for each exercise (~100 BPM or thereabouts), and then practice at a higher BPM until I consistently play the exercises at that BPM, and then move up, etc. I've also found it helps to do the complete opposite - in other words, play these exercises at a very low BPM with the same number of notes per measure (which is surprisingly harder than it sounds) and try to maintain the same consistency as at higher BPM. (Again, you can do all these things with just a "regular" metronome - I just like the flexibility of what my drum program offers for this kind of thing.)

Hope this helps!

[tselanne]

Great video.

[jaguar36023]

When you're done with rudiments definitely play on your kit with the metronome in your ear. Play at different tempos and make sure you are constantly in rhythm with the click! Especially after those face melting fills.

[late8]

First, on the DB90. Find a good location to mount it. I'd highly suggest investing in some hardware to mount it securely to a stand. In my case I bought a Tama Rhythm Watch "L" rod that has a 5mm thread end that came with a Tama multi-clamp and rod grabber. The DB90 has a rubber washer and an adapter thats included and threads into the top of the metronome in a hole designed for the adapter.



I found it handy to mount the DB90 as low as I could to prevent my headphone cord from interfering with my left hand sticking. Once you find a good spot for the metronome, make sure you can see the sweep and the red LED light to help you keep time if the drumming drowns out the click. I highly suggest using headphones.




The voices on the DB90 are not that loud. If you are playing with a band, I suggest you run the DB90 into a headphone amp to pump up the volume. The suggestion of a good drum book is really important. If you don't have a good grasp on sight reading notes, Stick Control as suggested by rekrdskratcher is simple to follow since the tabs are written out with RR LL notations.

xybalreborn's suggestion of finding a good drum teacher is solid advice. My instructors helped me understand the importance of sight reading. This helped me read drum tabs in drum books written for both hands and feet to improve limb independence.





I've recently started teaching myself double bass playing and with the knowledge I gained to read simple drum tabs, I can pull together all of the elements I've been taught and use the metronome to its fullest capacity.

[Drumbledore]

Now you don't have to get this one, but for me, this has been my fail-safe time-keeper/click/metronome/whatever for a long time, the Roland R-70 drum machine. What I like to do is to have either a simple quarter note cowbell/woodblock or a very simple pattern with 4 quarter note cowbells to the bar, 1/8th notes shaker (or triplets, depending what I'm playing) and a tambourine hit on beat 1.



The best thing about it though, is that I have a choice of four different simple bass sounds....electric, acoustic stand up bass, slap bass or synth bass (very 80's!) I call it my lil' "Drummer's Revenge".....because I'm fairly familiar with programming simple melodies and bass lines, can you imagine what it's like to have a perfect playing bassist, who will never be thrown off when you want to do trickier drum stuff like beat displacement, polyrhythms or time signature changes? Of course, as a drummer firstly you will need some decent time playing in 4/4 covered, but when time really becomes locked in with you and you know what's going on with the music 100%, then you can push it further. But yeah, playing and practicing consistently with a metronome or click is a skill that you cannot ignore.