Metronome at band practice?

A band I play in has trouble sometimes keeping the tempo constant throughout a song and other times just getting the tempo correct at the start. I have been wondering if playing with a metronome would be a worthwhile exercise. I know it improves my timing when practicing alone. Would this be feasible, acceptable, heresy, etc. in a band practice setting? We are an amateur classic rock cover band...Beatles, Stones, Eagles, etc.

First, leave it up to the drummer. It's his job to keep time. Some use an in-ear click, others don't.

If he can't keep time, suggest that he use a click. If he can improve from there, great, if not, you need to find another drummer.

Or maybe you don't care, and it's just a band "for fun", and that's all good too.

Can't hurt!
Over here, a lot of solo performers/duos, and even some bands use drum machines. While musically, I find it pretty unsatisfying, it does mean that these guys have near perfect time. Try practising to a drum machine, it might feel a bit more musical than a metronome being blasted through the PA:mrgreen:!

And I'll add it's not purely the drummer's job to keep time. A good drummer can't completely make up for everyone else having bad time. Everybody in the band should be sustaining the groove, and even if all you have to play is one note on the triangle every 10 bars, you should play that note as if the song depended on it.

It would be the drummer that would need an in ear click. Though some drummers take offense to it, or take it personally...you need to find a clever way to trick him or her into it.

Cool. Thanks y'all. That's good to know it's not unspeakable. Yeah, we play classic rock, so in many ways it's perfectly fine IMO for the tempo to ebb and flow a bit for effect, feel, etc., but there are a few songs where it is obvious that we are struggling with keeping the tempo constant.

I did play in a modern country band where the drummer had a little machine beside him that he would dial up a BPM on. I never did really ask him much about it, and I don't think he actually played along with it, but I think he was just using it to get the right speed in his head for songs he kicked off...like Alan Jackson's Chattahoochee for example. Is that kind of a standard thing drummers might do?

Maybe try it with the drummer. If he takes offense, it's often because he can't. I've never played with a pro who would object. If you can, then there is no issue.

The drummer that I have played with for about 10 years started out playing in a band that used tracks back in the day. That of course means that he had to play with a click. Althought he hasn't done that for years, I think it had an overwhelming influence on his ability, whether he knows it or not.

He's also like the first call guy for any group. Go figure.

Now, it may not be the drummer. Anyone can be the culprit. See what happens with the rhythm section minus the drums and a click.

Now, it may not be the drummer. Anyone can be the culprit. See what happens with the rhythm section minus the drums and a click.

Exactly. A really solid bass player and a solid guitarist can make a shaky drummer play in time. Though the buck stops at the drummer, everyone is responsible for the groove.

The drummer should be practicing with one at home, so that he doesn't need one at rehearsal. This would be good for everyone in your band, actually.

Everyone should get some in-ear click. Drummers hate it when they are the only one with the click and the bass player and guitar player even the singer is pushing and they're trying to hold it back. Lead guitarists are famous for speeding during a solo.

The drummer should be practicing with one at home, so that he doesn't need one at rehearsal. This would be good for everyone in your band, actually.

Good advice, and true for more than just the drummer!

Metronome? No drummer?

Actually most drummers don't mind using a metronome and they are the only one that needs to hear, or perhaps more importantly, see it.
If the drummer is on the beat, then no-one else can hear the thing anyway.

The drummer should be practicing with one at home, so that he doesn't need one at rehearsal. This would be good for everyone in your band, actually.
Agree 100%.

I'm a hobby musician, not a working pro, but I use a metronome at home for solo practice. I use it during practice with my wife who sometimes sings with me. And I use it sometimes during group practice with three or four friends.

For a long time - many, many years - I didn't use a metronome because I didn't realise how much it could do for my playing ability. Now that I do, I can tell that my playing has improved in many ways. Some are less obvious than others - for instance when singing solo and accompanying myself, I used to have a lot of trouble with songs where the vocals were ahead or behind the beat, or with heavily syncopated rhythms. I'm getting better at those now.

I once was briefly part of an informal trio with a drummer and rhythm guitarist. The rhythm guitarist couldn't hold a tempo and always rushed ahead of the beat. The other two of us would do our best to stay locked to him, so every song we tried to play together would speed up as we went along, and end much too fast. He indignantly denied our many attempts to gently let him know that he was the one causing our tempo problems and needed to work on his problem - until one day, at my suggestion, the drummer pulled out his Yamaha electronic drum toy, set it thumping away on an 8-beat pattern, and asked the rhythm guitarist to play along.

Well, he couldn't stay with the toy drums any more than he could with us, and this time he couldn't blame us for the problem. So he got mad, left, and never came back. :rolleyes:

Classically trained musicians all seem to know about the importance of using a metronome during practice. Those of us who learned music informally often didn't get that particular memo, though. I got it a couple of decades late. :shock:

-Gnobuddy

Yes, use a metronome.

We had occasionally used one, but started using it religiously for about three months. What a difference. Everybody got a whole lot better real quick.

Now we'll just have the drummer put it in earphones for scratch tracks and new songs.

Think of a band in layers. The drum is the foundation and it falls to the drummer to keep time. The rhythm section (rhythm guitar, bass, etc.) should lock in with the drummer to establish a solid groove. Everyone else should lock in with the rhythm section. At the end of the day, the rest of the band should be listening to what is going on instead of going their own way.

There are some merits to an in-ear click if you can have one. If not, it falls to the drummer.

Good luck!

IMO if you start introducing electronics into your music you will suck the life out of it. Of course your drummer needs to be a bit more aware of what is going on and if not, find one who does. Just sayin!

Drummer needs to work with a metronome, period. He should have been using one from the day he started to learn to play. Natural, slight changes in tempo are acceptable and some times used to enhance sections of certain songs but the drummer must have control of what he's doing and that's laying down a consistent tempo. Nothing drives me crazier than speeding up a song with out a reason. Think of the dancers, they can feel it and it will put them off quick. The guy should welcome a chance to make himself better, it's certainly not a put down.

yes. but put it on a music stand

You know, I know drummers that can keep good time, but lack the authority to keep the band leader in check when he wants to speed up.

The drummer should be practicing with one at home, so that he doesn't need one at rehearsal. This would be good for everyone in your band, actually.

This is really it. People who grow up keeping good time by practicing with a metronome will not need one in the band. And this won't be something fixed by just having a metronome at rehearsal, because your band members are "practicing" their poor timekeeping during the week.

Lets call a spade a spade....or shovel.

Is it band practice or is it rehearsal?

If it's practice do it however you need to to get it right. If it's rehearsal, do it the way you're going to play. That's why it's called rehearsal. Tons of pros use in ear clicks at least to start the song. But once it starts it takes a third hand to turn it off. In other words it keeps going. Unless you're Omar Hakim. I really believe he has 3 arms and hands. Beat bugs, clicks, whatever. It works. A good drummer plays around the thing, not just on top of it like a drum machine. The song can still breathe if they guy knows what he's doing.

Just a side note: if you're playing so quiet you can all hear the metronome TURN IT UP; YOU'RE NOT PLAYING LOUD ENOUGH.

... Omar Hakim. I really believe he has 3 arms and hands.
Maybe even a few more than that...he's absolutely incredible!

I saw/heard Omar Hakim for the first time quite recently, on a DVD of Sting's "The Dream of The Blue Turtles". Watching and listening to him play his big drum solo left me slack-jawed in disbelief. And this was recorded live, not some pieced-together Pro Tools trickery.

-Gnobuddy

... where the drummer had a little machine beside him that he would dial up a BPM on..... Is that kind of a standard thing drummers might do?

I saw Buddy Guy live and his drummer had the same thing, so I would say yes :lol:

Cheers,
Doug

Just a side note: if you're playing so quiet you can all hear the metronome TURN IT UP; YOU'RE NOT PLAYING LOUD ENOUGH.

Right! when you don't hear it, you're on it.. so you're good!! It's when you start wandering offbeat that the annoying tick-tick rears it's ugly head!

As the drummer in my band, I would'nt put timekeeping solely on my shoulders... Then the drummer's just a crutch for the rest of the band! Everybody should stick together. I was in a band once in which the guitarist's time sucked so much, if I got into anykind of fill and he lost the hi-hat on the 8ths and snare on 2 and 4, the song would fall apart! The bassplayer was a good friend of mine, a real solid rythm guitarist with exellent time. He recorded whole tracks alone with me and we were dead on the click. The guitar player struggled with his overdubbed parts.

I'm a very consistent drummer, the tracks laid down for the album of my current band were within one or two seconds in running time and the meter was consistent throughout... It's something I worked on quite a bit in my early days and it's something so basic, everyone should do it too!!

It's like if carpenters all had rulers with inches different in length... nothing would work!

I play in a Celtic band with the only drum being an Irish hand drum (Bodhran) and on one song, my mandolin is the snare and the timekeeper. What I did the other night at practice was to put my SNARK tuner on the headstock and tap in the tempo which shows a blinking heart on the display. I locked with that thing and at the end of the song, the bass player stood up and congratulated me for being so on time-wise. Usually we're polyrhythmic on that song, and it's not how we intend it to be.

Metronome good!

If you ever record, you'll probably have to play to a click-track, so it's good to practice with one sometimes just so it's not completely foreign to you.

It's hard playing with a click track. I would be too focused on it and lose the feel of the song. I've only used click tracks while recording but never in live situations. As for drummers, usually you'll get a drummer who's a showman but can't keep time or a drummer who CAN keep time but is too plain. I'd rather have the drummer who can keep his tempo. I'm sure any bass player would agree with me on this. :mrgreen:

-Jagg

I was in a band where we all had a click track in our in-ear monitors. We used it for every practice and every live gig. We noticed people started dancing a lot more when we used it. The drummer HATED the click when we started, but now he almost refuses to play without it. It can be tedious, and it depends on the nature of the music, but it will do wonders for your sense of rhythm.
Personally, I prefer not to play live with a metronome, takes a little magic out of the night.

Yeah, I was just going to say get the drummer a click track.

I watched a video on YT the other night about the Byrds when Clarence White was going to join the band.
Gene Parsons said the only way he agreed to join was if they replaced the drummer. Apparently they were having a little trouble with meter as well.

You know, I know drummers that can keep good time, but lack the authority to keep the band leader in check when he wants to speed up.

Right freakin' on. In some instances the band is held to a super-steady and authoritive bass player, not neccessarily loud but solid.

Another little fun fact I got from a guy you plays in Canada and Europe: Solo performaers and duos often have better time than their counterparts in America because they play with drum machines and backing tracks. So, after 20 years basically doing every gig with a metronome they can keep pretty good time!
Personally I'd rather have a real drummer though.

Right freakin' on. In some instances the band is held to a super-steady and authoritive bass player, not neccessarily loud but solid.

I understand where you're going with this but it's only true if you play 4 quarter notes every bar. If you give some of these drummers an inch, they'll take a beat.