Conquering the Russian Dragon

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After playing drums for over 40 years, I would like to give you what is ultimately my most important piece of advice distilled into one pithy statement. Here it is.

 

You must keep good time, and keeping good time is difficult.

 

Yep, from my point of view, that’s pretty much what it boils down to. This is probably true for most if not all musicians, but for a drummer it is non-negotiable. If you can’t play in time, nothing will really sound good, even if there are many other positive attributes to your playing. And unless you run your own band, you’re unlikely to be doing many gigs as other musicians are relying on you to be the expert when it comes to accurate timekeeping.

We must face the Russian Dragon (referring to our propensity to be either rushing or dragging!) squarely in the eye and emerge victorious. This is not easy, and the degree of difficulty can depend on a variety of factors. These include, but are not limited to:

 

  1. Tempo
  2. Style
  3. Dynamics
  4. Other musicians
  5. Transitions
  6. Fills
  7. Fatigue
  8. Technique
  9. Equipment
  10. Concentration

For example, you timekeeping may be solid and consistent at medium tempos like 100-120 bpm, but playing something really slow (40-60 bpm) may become much more difficult. This is due to the vast space between the notes creating much room for error. Conversely, you may be playing a fast tempo, but your technique may be inadequate and eventually you start slowing down (dragging). Or maybe you’re just tired, and having trouble focusing – your capacity to remain consistent and accurately monitor, assess and correct errors in your playing can be affected. The opposite of that is being ‘pumped up’, and your adrenaline is racing – when this happens, you have a tendency to play things much faster.

When you really start to think about all the factors that can undermine your capacity to keep good time, the task can seem pretty daunting. If this is a problem for you, I would like to suggest a few ways you can increase your consistency (and although I’m predominantly speaking to drummers here, this applies to other musicians too).

Get the most out of your metronome.

This might include changing how you ‘hear’ the click. For example, you might just have the click on beats one and three, or two and four. Or maybe just the first beat of the bar. You may even want to move away from the downbeat completely, and perceive the click on the ‘and’ of each beat, or even the 2nd or 4th partial of the beat (assuming 16th note subdivision). There’s lot’s of different things you can try that will challenge your timekeeping and enable you to strengthen the inner clock.

 

Record yourself, and map this against the metronome.

If you have a metronome with a tap feature, you can tap with the recording and find out the tempo. Let the metronome run at this tempo across the recording and note where things may be speeding up or slowing down.

Take time in rehearsal to play with the metronome.

This could be through the PA if you want everyone to hear, or just in the drummer’s headphones if appropriate. By playing with the metronome, you’ll hear immediately where the tempo varies and you’ll begin to form a clear image of all the sections of the song being played in time. When you take the metronome away, you’ll be used to how it feels and be in a much better position to keep things consistent.

Learn to hear (and sing) subdivisions

This is particularly valuable at slower tempos. If you are only thinking about each downbeat, there is a relatively large gap between each of these that creates plenty of room for error. However, if you start to internalize eighth notes or even sixteenth notes, you’ve chopped up each beat into smaller components that are easier to deal with. Conversely, faster tempos can be made to feel much more relaxed if you don’t focus on subdivision – it may be more manageable to think of the tempo in half time. If you are ‘hearing’ these subdivisions in your head that’s great, but being able to ‘sing’ them (even if very quietly) can be a fantastic way of reinforcing the time. Also, many metronomes have the capacity to play the subdivisions of each beat, like 16th notes or 1/8th note triplets. Introducing a fuller representation of the subdivisions can really help refine your timing.

For a more detailed look at these concepts, I really recommend Billy Ward’s Big Time DVD. He talks about these concepts in detail, and also provides lots of other useful tips. I wish you well with you battle against the Russian Dragon – keep fighting the good fight!