Playing to a click track

I was doing some recording last week and the engineer suggested that I play the music track (solo uke) to a click track. It was a definite fail, although the music sounded good, it was off the beet by the second verse. I wonder how much folks worry about this? How many of you practice songs to a click track or metronone? If your timing is decent (mine is) do you worry about those small deviations from a "true" beat? Just curious about how other approach the issue of timing, especially if you're recording or performing? cheers, g2

Playing in solid time with a click track or metronome takes practice. Its not easy. Same reason as you I started trying to play with a click track for recording. In the end I decided I sounded better not worrying about it although I'd rather not hear myself slowly speeding up as the song goes along.

If you plan to layer your recording by adding other instruments, players either real or computer generated then working to a constant click track is the way to go. Personally I find that practicing with a metronome has made me better at holding a constant tempo without speeding up when I don't intend to.

Mind you. I have decided that speeding up and slowing down is part of my performance. I speed up instrumentals and slow down for impact at other points. It makes the recording more interesting. Its fine when recording with just myself but it would be seriously difficult with a band.

Depends on where your going.

Anthony

Unless you're recording a track to be used later in a band arrangement, it's a definite no to the 'click' for me. Of course if you're recording something that's going to be layered upon at a later time by other session players (or yourself), then you all have to be on the same page and a click track makes sense.

But otherwise, they are very constricting, suffocating and stressful!!!! I like the freedom, as a solo player, to shift the tempo and dynamic in some songs, to let them breathe and give them space. The rigidity of a click track can be very counter-productive and quash that feeling of creative license. I look at recording as an extension of playing live, so I never have used one for solo stuff. I find they tend to make one's playing very formulaic, unimaginative and rigid - one's focus can be so much upon the click that the emotional expression of the playing is compromised. I think clicks are either for folks layering tracks in different studios in different parts of the world or for folks with a very poor sense of rhythm and timing.

just my 2c

As a bass player first, practicing with a metronome and being able to make a click track "groove" was very important, and is one of the reasons that I'm as busy as I am gigging; my time keeping with and without a click track is dead on, and I keep people "honest." If you don't have a rock solid feel for keeping time, any time someone plays either on top or behind the beat, you're going to end up rushing or dragging. If you're really good at time keeping, you can keep the same tempo but by moving from the back of the beat to the front, your audience thinks you're speeding up. When you're not.

In the studio, I try to play with a click as much as possible for the aforementioned benefits; easier to layer other musicians/instruments. It's also easier if you need to splice something, or just fix one spot (the chorus was off, but the whole piece was good). You can't do that nearly as easily/cheaply without a click.

That said, there are studio gigs where there is no click track (like the one I just did for a movie on Monday). However, with the three musicians playing together at once, having rock solid time keeping skills and opting to play the song down in its entirety, it worked out well.

While I appreciate the freedom and flexibility to play without a click track or metronome, playing at a consistent and steady tempo is crucial when layering tracks, or playing with others.

So with classical guitar, and when learning songs on the ukulele, I use a metronome about 40-60% of the time...

Keep in mind that there is plenty of "room" for expression, within each measure, in classical music this is called Rubato, where you can change the feel\tempo of phrases within each measure but still keep the beat on time.

The other benefit of practicing with a metronome is that it helps me to not race towards the end. on many pieces, either because of the excitement of playing, or the piece itself I tend to speed up and like a train, end up starting at a good pace then next thing you know I'm chugging along which in many cases results in faulty technique etc.. so the metronome helps me to slow down and play the piece at a consistent pace.

Once I'm done with the metronome for the day on a particular piece, it's then refreshing to turn if off and play the piece on my own. By then it's freeing and refreshing to go back to my internal time keeping...

Hope this helps.

I would say that recording with or without a click is just a preference and depends on the situation. Sometime its will be an advantage, sometimes not. That being said, I would consider it a problem to NOT be able to do it. If you were in a situation that really required it, this could be quite disappointing.

Practicing to a click is something that I believe everyone should do at least a little bit. It will really open your eyes to how much your time is fluctuating, and is often a very surprising endeavor. I would go so far as to say that being able to play along with a click would be a pre-requisite to having good time.

I think that what is developed by playing with a click is this:

1) A higher priority placed on the importance of things being played in time. I think anyone can play in time well, it just depends on how much of a priority it is to that person in their music. If its very important, you will find a way.

2) The ability to play the song and pay attention to something else at the same time. The reason it's hard to play along to a click at first is because we are used to paying most of our musical attention to what our hands are doing and the sequence of mental events that must happen to play a song. When a click is thrown into the mix, quite a bit of that mental power is diverted or distracted to handle a new and foreign task. As you get used to playing with a click, you gain more of a multi-tasking ability and it becomes easier. After a while it becomes second nature. To me it is similar to learning to sing and play at the same time. At first it is hard to do, but over time it becomes very easy. This kind of development will definitely make you a better player over time.

I think its always an advantage to practice at least a little bit to a click. It gives you a new perspective on how good your time really is, and is a good check to see how well a song has been learned. A click doesn't have to be creatively stifling or limiting. It can be used in a lot of ways to get better results in the studio or just as you develop your playing.

Another good thing to practice with a click track or a backing track is to be able to stay not only in time but to continue after mistakes.

it's important when playing in ensembles to be able to recover\disregard a mistake and continue with the flow of the music.

When playing by yourself, it's easy enough to stop and fix the mistake then continue but you can't do that when playing with others or you fall behind, so practicing with a backing track will help you develop the ability to recover and move on with the music.

And as the previous poster commented it's a problem NOT to be able to play in time... but it's a matter of priority on how you want to play. Like not using a metronome at all, it would be just as bad if you used one all the time, it would end up in a very artificial\robotic type of playing.

The metronome, click track or other tools are just that, and should be used only as part of your practice routine.

By the way I use Amazing Slowdowner for Mp3s and Speeduptv for videos on my ipad, it allows me to change the speed of a video or mp3 to a pace that's comfortable for me to play along with as I learn a song or piece...

again all these are just tools and I use them as such in proportion during my daily Ukulele and Classical Guitar practice.

As always the first few responses hit on points that I should have mentioned in the OP. First, my timing is actually pretty good, but like Jon, I enjoy varying the tempo and strums slightly to accentuate different parts of the song. Yes, for recording multiple tracks, it is good to use a click track, I'm not used to playing with one and so it is very very distracting -- like tear the cans off and throw them on the floor frustrating. But obviously this is a matter of practice, which is why I asked my original questions. Also I think that the engineer can easily push or slow the tracks to fit things together. (We're not talking ten tracks here, 2-4 at most.) It sounds like it's worth practicing but I'm still curious to hear what others think. For some reason (perhaps the ones that Johnny mentioned) I have trouble tapping with my foot to keep time while playing, it's always made me screw up. Maybe it's that pat your stomach while rubbing your head thing <g>. Thanks for all the interesting opinions. cheers, g2

It all depends on personal goals.

But, in my book - the ability to play in time is essential. It's something not easy for some at first, but, anyone Can
improve their time substantially by working on it regularly.

People say that my timing is pretty good and I tap my foot most of the time. However, I don't think you can really say that your timing is great until you CAN play with a click track without it distracting you as required. Practicing with a click track certainly improved my timing. It takes practice.

Mind you I will still record some songs without a click track. Some intro's and outro's I deliberately play slowly. I do however expect to keep constant time through most of the song and I can check later by counting bars and see just how constant I was. I'm pretty good. I've measured 2 different verses and they were within a 1/16th beat of each other after 30 bars or so. I was practicing with a metronome beforehand.

Anthony

garyg said:

Also I think that the engineer can easily push or slow the tracks to fit things together. (We're not talking ten tracks here, 2-4 at most.)

Click to expand...

If you want to pay for their time to do that, sure. Having watched many sound engineers do their magic, it's not as easy as you may think, especially when there is no click track involved to be used as a guide. I'd much rather use that money on getting a couple extra takes and finding the most consistent - as well as the best vibe - and keeping that over having the engineer produce and fix a track because the overall timing was shaky.

I'm a metronome convert, I've come to LOVE the metronome when I am learning a new song that has tricky timing - in fact, the first thing I did this morning was order an actual metronome on Amazon since I can't hear my iPhone metronome clearly enough!

In general timing comes really easy to me if it's 3/4 or 4/4, but the ensemble I play in has taken on some songs in 6/8 recently and - the trouble I suddenly had with timing came as a shock. My instructor had me start practicing with a metronome, and the improvement was amazing; this past week the whole ensemble practiced with an amplified metronome and it helped so, so much. It's not easy, but the payoff is so worth it in the end!

I suppose the whole issue of timing is more important when playing with others, particularly if you play in instrumental-only ensembles like I do, than if you play alone to accompany your singing... But I think it's improved my playing in general as well.

I had a lesson about timing reinforced years ago. It was an eye opener.

I can remember hearing that my niece wanted to play a piece on the piano for my wife and me. She had been studying for several years,
and everyone was impressed with the level she had achieved.

We were over visiting one Sunday, and she played the piece for us. Technically, she was doing these long complicated, fast runs
that obviously took a great deal of time and practice to achieve. But - none of it was in any kind of time. Time wise, it was a sloppy mess.

She spent years with a professional teacher, and that teacher was teaching all of that, with no regard to time.

If she had to play that along with any other musician, it would have been a disaster.

Music is much, much more than the notes played. The time is the foundation, and it should be worked on with as much effort
as any other category of music study.

Ever hear a great guitar player who breaks into a lead, and the lead is impressive, but the lead is no longer in time?
It winds up - Killing the music.

I don't perform on ukulele so far, just play for fun and there are no groups to play with or accompany at this point, so I don't use a metronome. I tend to play along with youtube videos of the songs in order to keep the tempo where it should be or play alone and just enjoy the vibe.

I use a metronome extensively with my wind students and when I am working up something to performance tempo. Once I can nail the recommended tempo I push a bit beyond so I will be prepared if the conductor/director wants to push it.

One of my last gigs, the flute player came unglued because the orchestra wasn't going right with the metronome marking that she had practiced. I thought it was rude that she argued with the conductor about how fast the piece should go. We are payed to play, but that's another post.

One of the reasons I love the ukulele is that there is freedom to let the tempo ebb and flow. I'm about to start trying some scales and modes on ukulele and the metronome will come in handy for keeping me on target.

I have several tuners, but right now use an app on my phone called Tonal Energy.

Thanks for the interesting advice everyone. cheers, g2

When I'm recording, I find a click track distracting. I recently started recording with a preprogrammed drum track that I delete before converting to MP3.
I don't know why a full drum track works for me while a click track doesn't.

John Sargent said:

When I'm recording, I find a click track distracting. I recently started recording with a preprogrammed drum track that I delete before converting to MP3.
I don't know why a full drum track works for me while a click track doesn't.

Click to expand...

As many have posted playing to a click (tick, tick, tick...) takes practice. I'm sure it takes YEARS of patience and practice. Neither of which I have. My thinking is that the "tick" sound is very unnatural and for those of us who don't have the patience or have the time to practice with the robotic "tick" of the click will have a VERY difficult time playing to it.

For me because it's so unnatural sounding, after a while of listening to it, I start to phase out and ignore it. Then I'll find myself off time with the click. But as John Sargent mentions above, playing with a preprogrammed drum track seems to work better than the click. I have to agree with John on that point.

I know for GarageBand, it's very easy to set your tempo, add a instrument track, drop in a sampled sound, then loop it so that you can have the nice sound of a drum beat or congas to play along with. It's also possible to do this with a midi track.

Another approach is to change the sound of the click, to something more natural, like a hi-hat. I've used this technique when I've recorded artists that have never played with a click before and they seem to respond better to the hi-hat than the "tick" sound.

Hope that helps,
Vance