House of Drumming.com

Wow, just did this program with my kid where you clap along to a metronome using a device hooked up to your pc that interfaces with the app itself. tests you by milliseconds, was much harder than I thought, was about 70% correct, when i was off it was only milliseconds. anyone ever done this? ive always played to click tracks etc...and thought I was in time but this makes me question it now. are the studio guys we all talk about here this perfect?

Some are I imagine, just speculating.
I've always tried to spend time practicing with a click at slow tempos, only having the click on some (not all) of the quarter notes. It's kind of like athletic/extreme drumming though - it can go too far. Having solid time and and a great feel is far more valuable i would imagine.

thx, my thoughts too. i try to have as solid time as i can, usually a little behind the beat. believe me, i have to work at it. i guess if its not 100 percent to the millisecond its ok and i would think most drummers are not that accurate and its more feel like you said. weckl always struck me as someone with great feel but actually may 100 percent dead on though.

There is a story floating around about Dave's metronome obsession when he went to Berklee.

interesting, Weckl out of any drummer I have listened to is just about perfect every time. Vinnie too, but he so much more aggressive in his playing. Dave is always so smooth. I'm really gonna take a look at playing to metronome again, and prob start recording myself. I just usually play lousy when I know I'm recording. Geez getting confusing!!

Since when DW has been to Berklee ?

Odd-Arne Oseberg wrote:There is a story floating around about Dave's metronome obsession when he went to Berklee.

Dave didn't go to Berklee. He went to University in Connecticut.
http://www.bridgeport.edu/academics/und ... /music-bm/

Isn't the goal to be able to control what you want? There is always the musical aspect
where you don't think while playing (feel) but the misconception is all the training that
supports all the feel, like a BBall player doing his 100 free throws daily.

I always think the training allows for the ability to make a groove feel like you're on
top, right in the middle, or behind the pulse. Playing w/a metro allows for this.
Playing as relaxed as possible is the hardest for me tho...that takes a lot of inner
awareness in the moment and discipline.

Read a Vinnie interview...can't recall exact one recently and the cat interviewing
brings up VC's BD in the studio saying he was as perfect to the count as anyone he
has ever worked with, then discussed the math details in milliseconds. VC's response
was similar...all the "training/work/practice" comes out w/o trying to have hit
the beats perfectly...it just was VC being VC.

Then there's Stewart Copeland...love the Police DVD where Andy counts off in a Live
stadium gig and about 5 seconds in looks at Stew and says, "Slow down..." He took off
like a rocket.

But what good is it if your time feels stiff and no vocalist can sing comfortably with it?

Yeah...that is another hybrid of this topic...stiff time. I would think that if
you captured a stiff feel the other players would comment. That's gonna
impact everyone, not just the audience right? I might be wrong here, but
the subtle implication is if my meter is dead center, the feel is stiff. My point
of mentioning VC above was his meter was dead center, but the feel was
sweet as well. It is a both/and arguments over an either/or.

That said...I first think of the Grubber impact on Dave regarding this.
When Master Plan came out in '90, pre-Freddie, I played it for a friend
who was a fusion drummer playing for a pretty big name artist. His first
comment was, "He sounds like a machine!" Now, at the time, I dug this
almost perfect time/feel...yet, one would have to argue even Dave himself
was not satisfied with this approach leading him to evaluate his playing
from a very different perspective ala Freddie.

All the metronomic practice did not go to waste...it was a great skill.
Dave just changed his perspective which impacted his feel.

PS--Dave's Wiki page sucks! Someone really needs to add a lot more data
for a man of his accomplishments and impact. Just sayin'