Part 1 · Getting Started · Chapter 8

Using a Metronome

A metronome clicks a perfectly steady beat. Playing with one trains you to keep steady time, which is the most important job a drummer has.

Tempo is measured in beats per minute (BPM). 60 BPM is one beat each second. Most songs are somewhere between 70 and 140.

EXAMPLE 8.1Lock in with the click

TEMPO

Quarter notes at 60 BPM. Try to make your stick land so exactly on the click that the click disappears.

Ways to practice with the click

Start slower than you think you need to.
Play the example four times perfectly before raising the tempo by 5.
Try hearing the click as beats 2 and 4 instead of every beat. Set the tempo to half and think of the click as the backbeat.
Turn the metronome off for a bar, then back on. Are you still together?

When you are perfectly in time, the click gets hard to hear because your note covers it. That is the goal.