How I learned to play to a metronome.
After the band formed, it became hard to concentrate in school. I felt like something bigger was going to happen and paying attention in class turned to day dreaming about playing in front of thousands of people. Duran had to go back to Florida for a while, and Carly, Ben and I began practicing at the Fairfield School of Rock after school multiple days a week. Mike would show up and give us stuff to work on, which was to write more songs and document them for Duran so that he could learn them while he was in Florida. One of the songs we wrote we called Fuchsia because it made us think of the color. Fuchsia had a riff that was in 7/8. Another song we were working on was the famous, Hot For Teacher by Van Halen because I played a double kick pedal and Ben could play the entire solo flawlessly. My dad was a huge part of these rehearsals because of his musical background. When Mike couldn’t be there, he would be there helping us stay on track and give advice. He and Ben were able to work on guitar parts, and he was able to help Carly since she was still starting out on bass. Another song we started working on was called, Go. It was actually a song that my dad and I wrote together when I was in 8th grade. It had this cool guitar riff in the intro that my dad wrote inspired by Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo à la Turk. Go was the first full song that we had as a band that really established our sound.
One day, Mike came to practice to hear us play. He suggested I start learning to play to a click track so that I could eventually run tracks from my kit (many drummers play to a metronome or click track to stay in perfect time throughout the song. Running tracks means having some sounds like synths, extra vocal parts, and electronic pieces on a pre recorded track that comes out of the speakers). He shoved a Tama Rhythm Watch RW200 in my hands and handed me a pair of iPod headphones. Ben and Carly began plucking away at the song as I wound the dial on the metronome to establish a tempo. 162 bpm (beats per minute) was what we decided for Go. I set the metronome down on a stool and pressed start. Mike was impressed and said the song sounded better. He then suggested that I sing the song since I wrote it and since Duran wasn’t there yet. Not wanting to let him down or sound hesitant in my skills to play drums to a metronome and sing at the same time, I swung the boom stand across my left shoulder and pointed the mic towards my mouth. I pressed start on the metronome again and it clicked loudly in my ears. We started jamming and I began to sing, terribly out of tune as I didn’t have a monitor to hear myself and my ears were plugged up by the headphones so I could stay in time. I noticed I was having a really hard time following the loud clicking noise in my ears and singing at the same time so I decided to just ignore the tempo. The beat began to drift faster and slower around 162 bpm. Only I could notice because I was the only one listening to the tempo. I did this for quite sometime and Mike didn’t seem to notice.
It wasn’t until another day at practice that I began to feel guilty for my lack of skills and decided to fess up. Mike was always good at knowing when something was distracting me and he asked me what was wrong. Tears began to well up in my eyes and I confessed that I was completely ignoring the click track because I couldn’t follow along while singing. Mike laughed which eased the tension I had built up. He told me I needed to get good at this or else it won’t sound good we added the track elements. I knew he was right and it was silly of me to think I could ever get away with it. I knew that I had to get better and that this challenge was good for me. Determined to be the best, I never slid off the tempo again. It took me a few tries before singing was second nature to playing and didn’t feel uncomfortable anymore. I was proud that I figured it out and made it work.
Ben, me and Carly at rehearsals after school at The School of Rock in Fairfield, CT.
