PERCUSSION
Jayson Brinkworth is a drummer, percussionist, educator, author, and industry builder. He has also recently
released his first solo EP under the artist name J5B.
By Jayson Brinkworth
THE Exercise to Get Your
Time Happening!
How many of you hear the word “metronome”
and break out in a cold sweat
(no James Brown pun intended)?
The fear of practicing and working
with a metronome is very common
among young drummers, but in
today’s music industry, it is absolutely necessary to be
able to work with the click both live and in the studio.
First off, we have to understand why we are working
with the metronome. We are not trying to develop perfect
machine-like time that has no feel; we are working on
feeling the space between the notes we are playing, and
being as consistent as we can from note to note. When
we start taking our time very seriously, we have to exert
a great amount of mental energy and concentration.
This is a tough hurdle to get over as it requires patience
and persistence.
There are many ways to work with the metronome:
working on our rudiments at various tempos, practicing
grooves and fills, etc. Anytime we practice with the
metronome, it’s a good thing, but I have a found an
exercise that really cuts to the chase and sharpens our
feel for space.
This exercise is made up of four parts, each with a
beat and fill that move through a variety of rhythms. The
whole exercise is to be played at a slow tempo. (Sorry,
but this is the only way we really develop our internal
metronome.) Let’s set the metronome at 40 bpm and
work through each exercise separately at first.
The X at the top of each exercise is where you will
hear the click. The fills in Exs. 1, 2, and 3 are all SD, T1, SD,
FT. The fill in Ex. 4 is a hand/foot pattern in 1/16 triplets.
Ex. 2 is in double-time, so the click will be on 1 and 3.
Once you can play them all on their own at 40 bpm,
try running them together. You can play 1 and 2 as an
exercise, 1,2,3 as an exercise, 3 and 4, and so on. The
transitions between rhythms, beats, and
fills are the secret to developing our feel.
Also, I have purposely put the triplets
after the double-time to really get your internal
metronome gears working. When
we work with the metronome adding and
subtracting notes as we go, we start to
learn how each of us feels space.
Pay close attention to your dynamics.
Many drummers will play very loud at
EX. 1
EX. 2
EX. 3
EX. 4
This shifts to double-time
first, trying to attack the quarter notes; play
quiet and relax into each beat. And don’t
get frustrated if we are sliding around a bit
in the spaces. This is the path we need to
be on to really work on our time.
Remember: the metronome is our
friend, not an enemy. Just be patient and
keep chipping away. The benefit is greatfeeling
time that no one can take away
from you!
Check out Jayson’s accompanying video lesson for this column at:
www.youtu.be/x11COXrtnQM
28 CANADIAN MUSICIAN