Tips & Tricks

Timing Trick of the Stars

Sure, maybe YOU have a metronome built into your brain, but your bandmates probably don’t.

Man, how frustrating is it when you are rehearsing a new tune and the timing is all over the place. Try as you might, the timing just doesn’t come together. Talking about it doesn’t seem to make it any better, and pounding it into the ground just makes it worse. What’s a band to do?

First off, recognize that timing fluctuations are usually most common during:

• Stops


• Starts


• Going into changes/breaks


• Coming out of changes/breaks

Listen up to see where the band might be having problems speeding up or slowing down. Of course, the cool trick would be if the band could play to a click track or metronome during rehearsal. It would be easy to hear where the train falls off the track (so to speak). The problem is how to hear the click unless everybody wears headsets? And who is going to do that? It is expensive and a hassle to set up.

Cory Wilkins, famed vocalist and guitarist that he is, showed me a great trick one day at his rehearsal studio when the band was having some timing issues. There was a difficult change that was giving the band fits, and here is how he solved it.

Cory grabbed a spare vocal mic, a Shure SM58 in this case, and plugged it into the sound board. Then, ready for this? He took a small pocket metronome out his guitar case, placed it directly in front of the mic, and turned it on. A few adjustments to set the bmp’s (beats per minute) to match the song, and voila. Instant click track coming through the PA.

The band was able to work through the troublesome change with the timing click clearly audible to everyone, and after a couple of takes the problem was solved. I thought it was a brilliant idea!

And if you haven’t heard Cory, you should. He has a great set of pipes, and his tunes are foot-stomping, infectious fun! Check him out at www.corywilkins.com