LearnGospelMusic.com Community

Please login or register.
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Read 4298 times)

Offline Zelevo

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 257

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« on: February 13, 2006, 07:51:56 AM »
I am still not perfect with my timimg when playing with a Click track. I don't seem to land on the 1 after my fills. Sometimes the track just vanishes then comes back again. It is very fustrating. We are preparing for an Outreach program and it needs to be right.

Any tips
Repetition deepens Impression

Offline freddyfusion

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1683
  • Gender: Male

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2006, 09:19:24 AM »
try
- counting in your head:  even bob your head to the click and don't let what you play change your "bob". but start out by playing more simple grooves and fills until you can count and not be distracted by it and then keep counting and trying to play more complicated stuff

- don't play as loud while practicing so you can hear and feel the click.  then as you do that for a while successfully, play a little louder. do this until you can play with it at your normal volume.

-focus on the tempo and click mopre than what you want to play. it will keep what you play more simple and keep you on.

hope this helps
LIVE FROM HEAVEN- Eph. 2:6
play where you wanna be

Offline crazyfoot

  • LGM Royalty
  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 388

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2006, 10:37:41 AM »
whats good doc! Freddy is right with that. Anotherr thing you can do is play with a click with a music track for me it is easier caus i canhear the melody or if i slip up i know how to come back ya kno. 8)

Offline freddyfusion

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1683
  • Gender: Male

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2006, 11:07:22 AM »
yo is it a click- percussion track or just click- like 1-2-3-4/ click-click-click-click?

if it has percussion, or if you could add percussion for the gig - like shakers/maracas/ clave hits/ bongos/claps etc. it should be a lot easier for you to follow the tempo and rhythm.

i'll put up an example of this- percussion click- tomorrow.
LIVE FROM HEAVEN- Eph. 2:6
play where you wanna be

Offline Ibilddrums

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 681
  • Gender: Male

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #4 on: February 13, 2006, 11:20:27 AM »
If I have to play with a click vs a sequence or loop, I try to get something like a cowbell or the MPC click through to my mix. I don't like the "beep" clicks or "click" clicks they get lost sometimes.
Above everything, treat the click like another member in the band. You're trying to play along with the groove of the click. Listen to the groove between the clicks (notes). Don't over emphasize the fact that you are playing to a click.

FerrariRed

  • Guest
Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2006, 11:49:35 AM »
All the prior mentioned make great suggestions.  I'll just provide my input as to what I dealt with.   Initially, I was horrified of the click, loop, etc.  But I just dug in and now I try to program everything to loop.

Anyway, I build my loops around the time signature.  For example, if it's 4/4, I program a sound sample that cuts through with a snap, clap, cowbell, etc (whatever compliments the song) that is 4 beats so I constantly hear the four.  Then I build other aspects of the loop around it (maybe a tamborine on 2 & 4, etc).

Now when you get good (someone told me this a long time ago and it's true) and "lock in" with the click or loop, you barely hear it or don't hear it all.  That's when your time is right on.  Sometimes when I play and this happens, it's scary, cuz I'll turn around and check my beloved Roland MC-909 to make sure it's still working. :)  But all is well, I've just "locked in" with the click.

To get comfortable with it, just do everything to a click or loop until you are comfortable.  The same thing we do when we learn a new lick or beat. :)

Offline NINOdaDRUMMA

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 257
  • Gender: Male

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #6 on: February 13, 2006, 11:59:28 AM »
Quote from: FerrariRed
All the prior mentioned make great suggestions.  I'll just provide my input as to what I dealt with.   Initially, I was horrified of the click, loop, etc.  But I just dug in and now I try to program everything to loop.

Anyway, I build my loops around the time signature.  For example, if it's 4/4, I program a sound sample that cuts through with a snap, clap, cowbell, etc (whatever compliments the song) that is 4 beats so I constantly hear the four.  Then I build other aspects of the loop around it (maybe a tamborine on 2 & 4, etc).

Now when you get good (someone told me this a long time ago and it's true) and "lock in" with the click or loop, you barely hear it or don't hear it all.  That's when your time is right on.  Sometimes when I play and this happens, it's scary, cuz I'll turn around and check my beloved Roland MC-909 to make sure it's still working. :)  But all is well, I've just "locked in" with the click.

To get comfortable with it, just do everything to a click or loop until you are comfortable.  The same thing we do when we learn a new lick or beat. :)
when i play with my practice pad i turn the metrenome down a little so that if i do get right in tack with so that i cant hear ill know it. but yes it is amazing when u get ur timing perfect and dont hear it.

Offline FenderJazzGuy

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 75
  • Gender: Male
    • Gospel Bass players and other musicians

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #7 on: February 13, 2006, 12:16:48 PM »
if ur losing time when u do fills. it could possibly mean your grooving is in time but your losing it with your fills. You shud maybe put more time in practicing singles, doubles, paradiddles......etc. Fills are filled with all those kind of strokes and if you cant do them in time it will throw off your groove when u do fills. I mostly play bass and when i do a run its jus like when you do a fill. I must keep it in time so when i return back to the groove im in perfect time. When ever i practice i always turn on some kind a click that way everything i do is in time. Make sure u constantly practice with a click. It will also help you when your not playin with a click. It stops you from starting worship song slow and at the end it sounds like "shouting music".

Offline min_amw

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1911
  • Gender: Male
    • Divine Soldiers

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2006, 12:27:11 PM »
When I build loops (click tracks), I always make sure that there is a constant that won't mess up the feel of the song. For example, I'll have a shaker going  on 8th notes, a low 808 on the down beat every 4 or 8 measures, and a clap snap, or tambourine on the 2 and 4. So basically, i'm playing with a perfect drummer. As of recently, I've been taking some of those elements away to test my timing. First, I took away the kick. Now I'm working on getting the shaker to straight quarter notes to see how well I can keep the timing with the bare minimum. I can really see where I fall short when I do that.
Love God. Live Long.

Offline bmoredrummerguy

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 175

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2006, 08:00:21 PM »
i say program a bass drum hit on the one so that u can hear it know when the one comes thats how i use to have to do it

Offline SabianKnight

  • Moderator
  • LGM Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 5885
  • Gender: Male
  • Art by C1... Thanx Bruh!

Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #10 on: February 13, 2006, 11:32:34 PM »
Sing the melody/a melody or rhythm while you are playing.
Try not to become a person of success but rather a person of VALUE. - T. Harv Eker

Offline isaiahshan

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3

Re: Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2006, 08:18:12 AM »
hello everyone,

im new to the site.  Great information. 
As far as playing with a click....

what I do is practice simple rudiments with a drum machine or mpc.   play simple patterns as well such as paradiddles, flam taps (will really help ur sticking), alternating triplets and so forth.  Also if u r right handed,  get that left hand up and out of its comfort zone.  Just one example, I will practice to a click at about 120 bpm (sometimes faster or slower).  I play single strokes using my left hand (im right handed)  to hit cymbals and hi hat.  Do that while going around the kit.  If you practice that you will start seeing some results.   Also,  I practice with marching band sticks with a weight on my stick in left hand.   Let me know if this helps you.

Offline depondrums

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1271
  • Gender: Male
  • GOD IS THE ONE AND ONLY JUDGE........

Re: Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #12 on: February 23, 2006, 08:24:09 AM »
try
- counting in your head:  even bob your head to the click and don't let what you play change your "bob". but start out by playing more simple grooves and fills until you can count and not be distracted by it and then keep counting and trying to play more complicated stuff

- don't play as loud while practicing so you can hear and feel the click.  then as you do that for a while successfully, play a little louder. do this until you can play with it at your normal volume.

-focus on the tempo and click mopre than what you want to play. it will keep what you play more simple and keep you on.

hope this helps

Agreed.
I PLAY TO THE GLORY OF GOD........

Offline SabianKnight

  • Moderator
  • LGM Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 5885
  • Gender: Male
  • Art by C1... Thanx Bruh!

Re: Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #13 on: February 24, 2006, 04:31:36 PM »
I am still not perfect with my timimg when playing with a Click track. I don't seem to land on the 1 after my fills. Sometimes the track just vanishes then comes back again. It is very fustrating. We are preparing for an Outreach program and it needs to be right.

Any tips

You are loosing it in your fills because you are not fully understanding the notational value/placement of the pattern in time. You are also loosing it because you are trying to do too much and not repeating your fill is in a structured sense. Playing  a song to a click generally shows your weaknesses in knowing the music structure of a song.: how many bars to the verse... how many bars to the chorus... how many bars to the bridge.... how many bars to your solo. You should be able to do the exact same solo every night you perform because it is well constructed.

The solos that Dennis does with Santana are structured and the rotate who gets the solo but they have like 3 solos that they do throughout the whole tour night in night out. We have to strive for that level of consistency. Neil Pert (I was told) has been doing the same 30 min solo for like 20 plus years.
Study his new DVD The Anatomy of A Drum Solo and learn how to orchestrate your parts. 
Try not to become a person of success but rather a person of VALUE. - T. Harv Eker

Offline sugabear

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1867
  • Gender: Male
  • Wolfgang, if you don't know...find out! Seriously!

Re: Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #14 on: February 24, 2006, 04:52:05 PM »
I am still not perfect with my timimg when playing with a Click track. I don't seem to land on the 1 after my fills. Sometimes the track just vanishes then comes back again. It is very fustrating. We are preparing for an Outreach program and it needs to be right.

Any tips

You are loosing it in your fills because you are not fully understanding the notational value/placement of the pattern in time. You are also loosing it because you are trying to do too much and not repeating your fillis in a structured sense. Playing  a song to a click genrally shows your weaknesses in knowing the msuic structure of a song.: how many bars to the verse... how many bars to the chorus... how many bars to the bridge.... how many bars to your solo. You should be able to do the exact same solo every night you perform because it is well constructed.

The solos that Deenis does with Santana are structured and the rotate who gets the solo but they have like 3 solos that they do throughout the whole tour night in night out. We have to strive for that level of consistency. Neil Pert (I was told) has been doing the same 30 min solo for like 20 plus years.
Study his new DVD The Anatomy of A Drum Solo and learn how to orchestrate your parts. 


This is something that I'm still overcoming, but, I was told as a youngster that if you practiced your soloes that you're considered whack. If you can't do stuff of the top of your head and sound tight then you ain't got it yet. I'm learning that it takes a little bit more musicality to perform something sequentially and with the structure than to just go off the top of your head.
My goal as a musician is to be better than myself.
check out my site www.tampogo.com/alsmith!!!

Offline SabianKnight

  • Moderator
  • LGM Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 5885
  • Gender: Male
  • Art by C1... Thanx Bruh!

Re: Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #15 on: February 24, 2006, 09:37:58 PM »
I am still not perfect with my timimg when playing with a Click track. I don't seem to land on the 1 after my fills. Sometimes the track just vanishes then comes back again. It is very fustrating. We are preparing for an Outreach program and it needs to be right.

Any tips

You are loosing it in your fills because you are not fully understanding the notational value/placement of the pattern in time. You are also loosing it because you are trying to do too much and not repeating your fillis in a structured sense. Playing  a song to a click genrally shows your weaknesses in knowing the msuic structure of a song.: how many bars to the verse... how many bars to the chorus... how many bars to the bridge.... how many bars to your solo. You should be able to do the exact same solo every night you perform because it is well constructed.

The solos that Deenis does with Santana are structured and the rotate who gets the solo but they have like 3 solos that they do throughout the whole tour night in night out. We have to strive for that level of consistency. Neil Pert (I was told) has been doing the same 30 min solo for like 20 plus years.
Study his new DVD The Anatomy of A Drum Solo and learn how to orchestrate your parts. 


This is something that I'm still overcoming, but, I was told as a youngster that if you practiced your soloes that you're considered whack. If you can't do stuff of the top of your head and sound tight then you ain't got it yet. I'm learning that it takes a little bit more musicality to perform something sequentially and with the structure than to just go off the top of your head.

Fame gets recorded. One hit wonders don't get called for sessions and major tours. That old school ghetto foolishessness you can get a Holy Water drive-by and take that right on off the block.

Anything worth keeping is worth repeating bottom line.

You cannot pull a solo of the top if you have nothing in your vocabulary. It's like a book report. The teacher want accept it without the outline and the bibliography.

Sugabear, I am glad you are learning because folk have really got to grab on to the fact that the people perish for lack of knowledge. So as a man thinkith in his heart...  The heart is the storage for your truths. If you truthfully have nothing to musically say or truthfully have a limited musical vocabulary your heart is going to tell off on you. That solo is not going to move anyone. it is not going to fit the song.

Don't memorize how to play, Learn how to play. When you know something it comes naturally but water has keep moving and circulating to stay fresh and filed with oxygen. Meaning you can never stop learning or you want have any fresh water to pour out into someone else.
Try not to become a person of success but rather a person of VALUE. - T. Harv Eker

Offline CJKeyboardPlaya

  • LGM Royalty
  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3752
  • Gender: Male

Re: Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #16 on: December 16, 2012, 02:30:25 AM »
Just what i needed... THANKS!

Offline SabianKnight

  • Moderator
  • LGM Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 5885
  • Gender: Male
  • Art by C1... Thanx Bruh!

Re: Playing with a Click track.? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
« Reply #17 on: December 16, 2012, 08:43:13 PM »
Amazing to see this conversation posts holding the test of time.

It is so important to "bury the click" entirely especially the inner beats that tend to be the subdivisions that make up the fills we do.

Practicing locking in in cut time on slow tracks and half time on faster (smaller subdivided/syncopated) tracks in various time signatures will make use better. Most make the mistake in trying practice more to click tracks than practicing our parts with a metronome (which makes us actually focus on the notes rather than be distracted/entertained by a musical "beat", sequence or loop). In doing this we ourselves expose more of our weaknesses without effort to truly improve quickly.
Try not to become a person of success but rather a person of VALUE. - T. Harv Eker
Pages: [1]   Go Up