JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Bass and Drum Forum Do Click Tracks Stink???

John,

I'm a big fan of learning to play with a click. I'm also a big fan of learning to play with a drummer or another musician who makes the time "breathe," as we say in the local studios.

You say "FEELING is a by product of the click" but I say the click is a by product of feeling. It all started with heartbeat which is not even. It is affected by gravity and "swing" literally. A Strauss waltz was never meant to be played in strict time, it would lose that swing at the beginning of a phrase. Even in strict time music, if the players all played dead on the beat, you wouldn't have had Motown or Memphis. The drummer can play the snare a little ahead or behind for amazingly good results.

Years back, I co-produced a session for Richard Dobson. The drummer was Richie Albright, drummer for Waylon Jennings and the Waylors, as well as producer for George Jones and others. I was new to playing session bass, more used to playing rhythm guitar, but I could hold dead steady to a metronome. On the first day of the session, in my naievity, I complained that Richie's time was drifting in the Texas waltzes. Man, was I ever wrong. Older, wiser heads took me aside and let me know that I should play Richie's time instead of mine. I listened, and dropped the bass a red pubic hair behind Richie's foot. Richie's drums swung and danced, they sparkled. The project got a "recommended pick" from Billboard. I looked like a genius instead of a green kid who almost ruined the project by bringing in a click. After that, I made it a mission to learn the genres. Texas waltzes aren't in strict time.

I was a click Nazi.

Now, of course, for anyone wanting to play music at its highest level, they should learn how to play to a click. They should also learn how to play to a conductor, and a drummer whose time is "breathing," and to a banjo player who is, correctly so, accelerating. It's the old "color between the lines" argument. Amateurs will argue that you not bother with coloring between the lines, they will also argue that you should always color between the lines. Pros just color away and make it look good. Well, that's the way it is with music. Make it sound good...but the key word is "make." If Matt has the happy accident of being able to make music that sounds good even if the time "breathes," then fine, as long as breathing-time music is all he ever aspires to play. If, however, his music just doesn't "get it" with loose time, then he needs to loosen up his insistence on eschewing the click. I haven't listened to his new stuff, so I can't comment. He may be doing just fine for what he wants or needs...or he may not. I wonder what his team says?