Reminder to new musicians: please learn how to play to a click 🙏

Oh dude a metronome is gonna be everyones best tool. I don't know where I'd be without one. Granted I'm a drummer but started out in orchestra on string bass and have done my fair share of plenty of other instruments. Being able to keep in time accurately will help almost all other aspects of your playing.

It's very noticeable when someone doesn't know how to keep time, and it really throws everything off. It blows my mind how little the metronome is used.

Thanks for saying so, OP

I heard John Mayer say this once. He was amazed at how good people had become perhaps being self taught, but no one can stay in time. 

The best drummers on the planet still have tiny irregularities in their meter. Most people are not the best drummers on the planet. So learning to play to a click/metronome when you are developing your sense of time can only help your musicianship. As a working player, you are supposed to have already have really good musical time. If not, you have no business calling yourself one.

Takeaway: You’re in no danger of being a robot with flawless timing, so being able to play to a click literally cannot hurt you. You cannot train out the small imperfections in your internal rhythm, only minimize their effect. Groove happens because people are listening to one another and establishing a group sense of time.

Everyone has the same job: Make the band sound good. You make everyone’s job harder if they have to chase your ass all over the stage, or you haven’t made the effort to develop a consistent sense of rhythm.

Being able to play in time is certainly an important skill and metronomes are going to be the best way to develop that for 90% of situations. That being said, to play devil's advocate a bit:

a song with tracks that have different speeds in different parts of the song

This is actually extremely common in music from all eras and genres by musicians that were praised around the world. An organic ebb and flow to the tempo is a natural and human quality which has almost always been there, it's only with the advent of modern production that we've been seeing it phased out for an increasingly robotic and precise approach. Which is also artistically valid! Most musicians seem to be going for that these days so you're right to tell them how to achieve it. It just sounds like you're writing off the majority of music history with this line.

I always had timing/rhythm issues. Started playing with a click which obviously eliminated that. BUT because of the practice my timing is way better even when the click is gone. Definitely helps in general

What helped me was to hear the groove in the click. Like what’s better than playing with a locked in drummer who is slamming on the snare on the 2 and 4? Click is like that if you have the right mindset.

I do the same thing if I am subjected to a neighbor’s car alarm or something. I’ll hum a little tune to the rhythm of the beeps, make it groove.

Even so, I don’t put in enough practice with the metronome so it’s easy to drift away from a click for a bit before I lock back in. If I were a pro I’d be on the metronome all the time and that wouldn’t be an issue. As it is I’ll get there eventually.

Lifelong drummer here. It shocks me how many drummers I've met over the years that can't hold a steady beat and/or can't or won't play to a click. As the heartbeat of the band, you have ONE JOB: keep perfect time. That's it. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake.

There's a big difference between "can't play to a click" and not using one.

Unpopular opinion maybe but I always hated using a click. Flame me, call me bad, I don’t care. The idea of a song maintaining a rigid tempo that the musicians must stick to just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it’s because I played like garage rock / punk but it just never felt right. The drummer controls the tempo and everyone else follows. The tempo going up as the song builds intensity is one of my favorite tools in music and to me that is all about feel not a machine counting for you

Take it a step further and learn beat division.

Umm..thats what the drummers for?

This is great advice, but I'll go one further:

New musicians, remember: if you always need the OTHER musicians to work harder for you, YOU are the problem (if you're the one out of time, or you need the key changed, or you "just do it" one way and won't do it another way, etc.)

The best advice in the world is this: who do you call for a gig? Not the best player you know. The most RELIABLE player you know who is GOOD ENOUGH

Be good to work with, and people will want to work with you and that starts with knowing what you're doing (and that starts with playing to a click)

Conversely, have people in your band that can count? Cant imagine playing to a click track. If we rush slightly, we rush. If we drag slightly, we drag. Creativity doesn’t necessarily happen exactly on the beat.

We use them at church and it took me a while to get used to but it sounds much tighter with a click track.

so many musicians hate metronomes but i LOVE them, they always help me nail down funky timing

My problem is when someone wants you to play a gig but don't have quality isolating in ears. So you have to either blast your eardrums with the loud click or lose it during loud parts.

I do alot of home recording and I had a friend who wanted me to record a song that she wrote. We came up with a decent tempo that I thought would work for the song and we tryed to record it. She kept telling me that the metronome was playing too fast so I would slow it down and then we would try again, then she would tell me it was to slow. This went on for hours and I finally gave up and told her to go and practice with a metronome...

Ha, have you seen Whiplash?

Now are you rushing, or are you dragging?

It shouldn’t be mind-boggling: They haven’t put in the time to practice, or they haven’t gigged enough to know better.

All too often, I hear some musicians saying things like "the metronome/click makes music soulless, whenever I play with a metronome my music sounds absolutely awful!"

Without exception, every one of those musicians wouldn't be able to keep time if you gave them a watch and locked it in a safe.

Nobody is saying that you should only ever have metronomically perfect tempo that never varies. Yes, performances will have variations in tempo. Playing with a click is not meant to force you into a rigid, inflexible groove. But if you can't keep basic time, you're not a good musician.

I've been playing music for 30 years.

Fuck click tracks

I prefer natural performances, even if the tempo fluctuates a little. Learn to play with some natural consistency. Screw click tracks.

Everyone should practice to a metronome. Rock bands shouldn't usually record to a click but it's good for some genres.

I'm not sure if it's really mandatory for all instruments until you enter pre-production for recording. Until then it would definitely be a great benefit for the drummer to ensure that their timing is generally on point, but the rest of the band should follow the drummer anyway. When it comes to playing live, unless you're also using backing tracks, a click isn't mandatory.

I'm going to add this and be a little contrarian but also remember that the metronome is just another tool to hone your proficiency, it's not the Gospel and it is absolutely not necessary in 100% of live situations, or even studio situations. Some of the greatest musicians that ever lived never played to a click.

Not to understate its importance. Use it until you don't need it anymore. Developing an internal sense of time is a million times more important than just playing to the click.

They’re great for practice and studio but the drums serve as the clock track in a live environment.

I always start with digital drum loops and bass loops that are perfectly locked before I attempt to add guitar parts. I play with one ear bud in so I can hear the drums and bass while I'm strumming the guitar. This usually results in a pretty tight and consistent rhythm section.

If recording, it saves so much time in editing, you can copy and paste anywhere in the song and tge tempos are still lining up. It saves a Ton of money / time if paying a studio

Timing is everything.

"It don't mean a thing" - Duke

Totally agree, but you can also just throw down a quick drum loop or two to help people keep time. For the time challenged, not being in sync with a full beat is a lot easier to hear.

Agree! Good tip. It’s possible to still play musically to a click but it takes some getting used to.

Just get a decent drummer...sorted👍🏻

I have a tech question about my metronome use. I use a little orange crate hooked to a beat buddy pedal for my metronome. I like it couse I can crank the volume up. ( to match practice volume of my amp). I'm wondering if I should keep the volume of the beat down so my ears learn to pick out the beat rather than having shoved into my ears?

You need to know how to play with and around it.

When musicians complain to me about not being able to…none of them had actually just played a song with it on and fought with it… they’d just give up at like bar 1.

Jojo Siwa doesn’t so neither do you

/s

I feel like if new musicians are struggling to play to a click that playing to drum tracks or drum machines can feel a lot more natural.

You're gonna love this question: what is a click track and where do you find one? Admittedly, running away from the beat is a big problem for me, as I've played (keys) by myself for decades. I find it much easier to stay in time on guitar and bass.

I have to really hammer that down with all of my private students… and many still don’t bother using one…

Every week:

They bungle the rhythm of a song or exercise.

Me: “Did you practice this with a click?”

Them: “No…. I probably should start doing that, eh?”

Me: “Yes, it’s vital to be able to play the songs you’re wanting to learn.”

They continue to not practice with a metronome and we have the same conversation the following week.

Kinda funny, I spent so much time with a metronome in my teen years, between guitar and drums, that there are times I’m trying to track something that’s supposed to be messy/have feel/sound rough around the edges and it takes me more effort to pull that off than it does to bury the click. There’s only so much polishing I want to hear in my own playing and my gripe with a lot of modern productions is the editing/snapping shit to a grid to make it all perfect. That’s not reflective of real life.

It really shouldn't be that mind-boggling.

Reason: The bar to entry to playing an instrument is low. The minimum bar to being fluent and competent with the instrument is much higher. In between those two bars is the ability to be creative regardless of what level of fluency and skill you have.

I'd expect that many musicians who have come up via the garage band route that didn't get formal training wouldn't have followed a structured path to learning their instrument. If they get to the recording studio, before they got to a proper rehearsal studio with instruction -- then this is the outcome.

Speaking as someone who was exactly this way and I'm very thankful for the patience of a few people along the way.

Related but unrelated, can someone explain to me why people have suddenly become obsessed with bpm?

It seems like a totally worthless number as any some with time changes will have a varying bpm throughout.

Tempo is a far more useful number. Tempo is generally consistent throughout a song while bpm can fluctuate from part to part so I can't wrap my head around why people want to use that number.

I thought I hated recording with a click in my ear, until the sound engineer in one of my recording projects changed the really annoying digital click to a tambo hit, and suddenly it was perfectly fine.

It takes a week of casual practice and then it's second nature!

Come on, Steve Albini just died, have some respect!!!

This 💪 and hell, if you’ve got the time, bassists/guitarists learn a bit of drums! Hop behind the kit and muscle through the early stages of learning drums till you can at least enjoy playing them. It is insanely helpful for your internal rhythm on any other instrument and I believe you’ll find it to be the most fun once you get past feeling like a laundry machine of limbs.

(and dance! Get in your body. Get your body into a rhythm on a consistent basis. It alllll comes out in the fingers when you get back on. You’re loose. It’s all connected. Cheers ✌️)

As a bassist my favorite way to practice is to a drum loop or metronome that I can randomly mute. That is really the best way for me to really lock in on timing. You can tell right away if you are playing behind or in front once you un mute.

Its extremely important to know how to do this because just like EVERY other RULE in music rules are made to be broken but you have to know how to implement before you break them because you are going to be following the rules most of the time.

My typical bass practice includes about a metronome but sometimes I ll set aside "timing practice" by playing a scale or a few bars from a song I am working on to a metronome but Ill mute it and come back to it back and forth until I feel like I have a sense of timing for it.

For me there are different stages of click/metronome practice.

1. Being able to play basic rhythm patterns with whole/quarter notes all the way to faster and more complicated time signatures and 16th notes.
2. Being able to play syncopated (off beat) rhythms on a metronome
3. Being able to mute the time keeper and still be on time when its un muted
4. Being able to know when to play on top, before or after the click because for some songs it adds the right dynamic but I am mindful of where I am doing that.
5. On a drum loop I try to get to a point where I am keeping time with the kick and the snare or kick and tom or snare and tom basically two elements of the drum kit and then I will work on an off beat rhythm or slow it down to a crawl and then speed it up.

This is such a strangely relevant issue. Known a couple guitarists who even mock other guitarists "needing" a metronome as if it's for an entirely different reason that they weren't capable of holding a tempo to save their lives.

I don't know how anyone can play to a click. It's beyond annoying. All I hear is that click, click, click, click, click, for HOURS after a recording session. That endless click literally make me insane. I program drum tracks and play to that instead of a click. No way I am doing that to myself.

lol wut - you can't master songs that have different tempos throughout the song? What are you doing rhythmically in the mastering process?

This is so important

I often set a drum machine to do a basic drum beat rather than using a straight click. I feel like a groove a bit better that way, but totally agree with your advice. It's amazing how you don't realize how much you're dragging or rushing until you play to a steady click or beat.

I've been saying this for frigging decades. It drives me nuts the number of times I've met a 'good' player whose timing was a massive Achilles heel and they wouldn't do anything about it. Immediately makes me think of a drummer I worked with around 1999 who wanted to play the weird off-beat stuff with a lot of fast hi-hat (I think he was listening to a lot of DMB) but could only do it for like twenty seconds before his timing fell apart. It was almost impressive. I tried getting him to play to a click, which I was doing all the time myself as a keyboardist, and he acted offended, but he wouldn't even practice by himself ('practicing alone isn't fun' is another massive issue). I already had pretty good timing before I ever had a drum machine but got way better from playing to digitally-timed tracks like that, and I wanted to do stuff like Mouse on Mars and Nine Inch Nails and some hip-hop but the band can't be offended about having a drum machine keeping the time.

You should be able to play to a click track - but let me remind you that some great music is great because it is not recorded to a click track.
For example, The Police's 'Roxanne' is slightly faster during the chorus which emphasizes the contrast to the calmer verses.

Also, with a click track, it's impossible to insert a 'getting slower' break.
And what about complex structured songs with parts for improvisation?

And then there is Stairway to heaven with all its increasing tempos ...

Learning arhythmic music, please advise

One of my teachers always said, "The metronome is the friend that never lies to you". How true indeed.

I tell anyone who's starting out (or who definitely still needs it) to play with a metronome until your right hand is a metronome.

I still use one when I'm learning something new, and I've been playing for decades

The drummer is the click. The drummer must be one with the writer and adjust tempo of if necessary as necessary. Sorry. If he or she needs a click, then just do digital drums to record and find a good drummer for live. Guitar players on the other hand greatly benefit from clicks when recording because it helps them determine swing appropriate for the song p, and not have to go back to the audio track and fix mistakes from lack of a click.

Got any advice on where to start? I'm self-taught and write my own songs, but I'd like to be able to play with a band for a fuller sound at some point and my apprehension about being the fuckup definitely keeps me away from dipping my toe in

That's one of those things that tells you real quick if someone is gonna go the distance

If you’re reading this - fo sho work on a metronome. Please

So I don't know what is wrong with me. I have excellent rhythm, I can keep in time with myself, other musicians, or a pre recorded drum track. As soon as it's a click, I'm lost. It throws me right off and it frustrates me to no end.

I'm not advocating to never practice to a click, or to not learn how to play to one. But the viewpoint some people have here that every song should be set to a specific BPM with no variance is bizarre to me. I record to a click when it's right for the song, but sometimes it isn't.

Im pretty beginner level. I play songs along with the tracks on ultimate guitar pro. I have the metronome on always but should i be focusing on it? Or is more of a background thing? The only time i focus on the click is for rests or bars of rests to count myself back in.

I didn't have any idea what to do but I knew I needed a click. So, we put a click on the 24-track which then was synced to the Moog modular

I don't care, I'm programming patterns.

As you’ll see a lot in these comments, a lot of people hate practicing to a metronome because they hate things that tell them they are doing something wrong.

I also love when the reply is “only drummers need to practice to a metronome”.

You can usually tell because such people are horrendously bad at maintaining even subdivisions and they end up out of time whenever they try to do an extended phrases.

I do agree that students should practice to a click and/or to steady backing tracks, and also practice playing with other musicians. That being said, you can totally record a track with a dynamic meter. I think you are overstating things a little. Plenty of world famous musicians recorded without a click. They had a good sense of internal rhythm, just don't go overboard here.

I used to be anti click. Now I use it constantly, studio and live.

You have no idea!

Imagine a percussion band where the huge big traditional Portuguese drums are always out of tempo and you have to follow the fingers of the bagpipes players to not get lost (fortunately I play bagpipes and can figure it out that way when I can't see them doing the beat with the foot).

And why are the ones that are always out of tempo...the freaking loudest?

Sounds like me been playing 14 years and io have no clue how to play or use a metronome.

I had a drummer once that absolutely could not develop a timing. I even made him use a click and grilled him about practice... The SOB had exactly zero natural rhythm.

Later on I find out that he never played an instrument in school, which is weird... I thought everyone did that (some people drop middle of HS though). Nope, not once. Well I remember picking percussion when I was in like 4th grade or some shit.

I kinda wonder if that lack of early learning was detrimental to future efforts.

“Imagine trying to master a song with tracks that have different speeds in different parts of the song “

Oh, the horror. Fuck the grid.

Playing with a metronome is a skill into itself, completely separate from the skill needed to play your instrument well. Needs its own practice and attention before it will start actually being helpful and useful.

Drummers mostly, yes

I played bass on an album, and both our producer and our sound engineer flat refused to work with us unless we used a click.

As a life long musician who has played professionally and is a former music teacher, I 100% agree. If you’re new and you’re reading this and you’re thinking to yourself that you can just skip the metronome practice, you are sadly mistaken.

I agree but with one small caveat. If you're brand new to playing you can work on the physical stuff before you start with a metronome. Starting an absolute newbie with a metronome on guitar would not be my recommendation as a teacher. There are many schools of thought and I'm sure someone disagrees but I'd wait until you have some muscle memory under your belt.

For me, I feel like you have to understand how the quarter-note pulse intersects with the rhythms you’re playing. Then consistent pulse over time can happen.

There’s the pulse, then there’s the rhythms your playing, then there’s what the rhythm sounds like with the pulse added in

Build the coordination to physically represent the pulse with your head or a foot while you play the rhythms.

Playing with a click track is only something that became fashionable in the last handful of years. Prior to that there were few bands that did it and a zillion albums that were recorded, and concerts performed, without a click track.

I’ve been playing 19 years and I’ve just started training myself to play in time. I was in bands about ten years ago and it was constantly anxiety inducing not really knowing what I was doing with time. Felt like an idiot so much. My number one priority now is timing even though I’m not playing in bands anymore.

Isn’t this basic knowledge in school? I don’t remember a time I didn’t use or practice with a metronome.

I'm a drummer and I can't play to a click. I guess I'm not a great drummer!

There's an anecdote from Dave Grohl in his documentary Sound City where he talks about using a click for the first time with Nirvana and how he had trouble at first but then grew to love it. They were always slowly speeding up by the time they got to the end of a song.

I also saw a video on YouTube that had quantized classic tunes and claimed it drained all the soul out of them, but I honestly couldn't tell the difference.

This is especially good advice for drummers

You can take the boy outta the metronome but you can’t take the metronome outta the boy

You’re so awesome

Woah, who knew that r/musicians was one of the few corners of reddit full of old fashioned boomers? Does everyone need to be contrarian about everything?

Do people really think mechanical metronomes haven't been around since before recorded music? What do these people think a conductor is doing for an orchestra?

That's what a drummer is for

I teach 4 instruments and I make sure that people can clap 8th note rhythms to a metronome within the first 3 lessons

It’s literally metronomic time.. be in touch with it

"imagine trying to master a song with tracks that have different speeds in different parts of the song!!"

Explain yourself.

a recording of the worst, most amature, out of time, shittest band that ever excisted can be mastered.

you can grab 5 people who have never picked up an instrument in their lives, give them drums and guitars and tell them to play whatever they want, record it, and master it.

the speed at which they are playing is irrelevent.

what are you talking about?

I’ve recorded a lot of music with my band and we almost never use a click. We’re all good musicians and play in time together, and the natural ebb and flow of tempo changes help bring dynamics to the songs. That being said, we do use the click when it makes sense. Sometimes I’ll want to lay down guitar first or guitar comes in before drums or something, so we throw on the click, or we want a super consistent beat or sampled drums or something and we use it then. Or maybe if it’s just not working without a click we try it with a click. Enough with this dogmatic pro-click vs anti-click nonsense. Get you some musicians who can do both and learn to play with and without one. Whatever gives you the best result for that particular song.

Ready to be mindblown?

I play to a click LIVE on stage...And im the SINGER 🤫

Metronomes are awesome. Everyone should use them.

After a while the clicks run together and counting can be tough. An additional bit of advice that I still use is to accent one of the beats. The 1 or the 4. Click- click- click- tsss.

God the snobbery on this post is nauseating.
Yeah playing with a metronome is a good thing to do.
I don't always use one, I recorded just fine, good engineers, lots of practice and a few extra takes and it went pretty smooth. Modern recording practices make it a lot easier.
You don't enjoy using one? Great, have fun, play some music, nobody is going to notice irl and say 'YOU'LL NEVER BE A REAL MUSICIAN!!11!".
What are y'all a bunch of jazz majors or award winning composers? Lmfao. I've been drumming for 22 years, most bands and musicians don't use it either.

God the snobbery on this post is nauseating.
Yeah playing with a metronome is a good thing to do.
I don't always use one, I recorded just fine, good engineers, lots of practice and a few extra takes and it went pretty smooth. Modern recording practices make it a lot easier.
You don't enjoy using one? Great, have fun, play some music, nobody is going to notice irl and say 'YOU'LL NEVER BE A REAL MUSICIAN!!11!".
What are y'all a bunch of jazz majors or award winning composers? Lmfao. I've been drumming for 22 years, most bands and musicians don't use it either.

Learn to play with a click, and learn to play without a click. Both are useful IMO. Being able to lean/push into a section without obviously rushing, or to pull back without dragging are advanced skills you can’t learn when playing to a click - but you probably need to practice with a click first in order to get to that point in my experience.

I've recently played with middle aged men who have an abysmal concept of rhythm. So it isn't just kids. Some players can spend half a century sidestepping entirely this aspect of music performance.

Click tracks destroy groove and stop musicians listening to each other. I agree that many musicians have a terrible sense of rhythm and pulse which I find so surprising when most of the music we hear has an absolutely regular pulse because it's been recorded (or produced) to a click.

Hell no, play some pre recorded drums in the headphones. I will never play to a stupid click, amateur recording practice.