If you’ve read my article “The One Critical Skill Nearly All Guitarists Miss” than you’ll already know that as far as I’m concerned, a having a rock solid sense of rhythm is the most important part of playing music well. If you haven’t read it, get on it!
Anyway, if the rhythm is indeed the most important element in a great music, then the next thing to think about is who is responsible for rhythm, or more specifically TIME, in your band. I’m betting that 99% of you are thinking, “Time? Rhythm? That’s the drummer’s job, isn’t it?” Well, if that’s your attitude than it’s time to rethink your role as a musician.
Stop Blaming Your Drummer
Time is the drummer’s responsibility, but it is not his and his alone. At most, your drummer is responsible for establishing the groove, but he should never be responsible for rhythm entirely. Time is everyone’s responsibility. That is so important that I’m going to repeat it again, and probably several more times before I’m through. Time is everyone’s responsibility. The sooner you accept that the sooner you will be on your way to becoming an exceptional musician.
Why is this so? Let’s take a look at a few situations that help bring this to light…
Let’s say you are playing with a drum machine. As you play, you make a mistake. Would it make sense to blame the drum machine for your mistake? If you are mature about it, then you’d agree that you could never blame a machine for your own mistakes; a drum machine is a perfect timekeeper – it never makes a mistake. If you screw up your part, the fault is with you.
“But,” you might say, “Drummers are not machines. They aren’t perfect. They make mistakes too.”
You are absolutely right, drummers are human and make mistakes just like the rest of us. But, when you make a mistake, your drummer expects you to come back in where you are supposed to be; he shouldn’t have to compensate for your mistake. It is up to you to compensate and get yourself back where you should be.
The reverse situation is also true. If your drummer messes up, it is your job to stay exactly where you are supposed to be so that he can come back in. If you are relying on your drummer to keep you in the right place rhythmically, what will happen when he screws up? You’ll be messed up too and now the whole bands falls apart. The only solution is to have everyone keep time for themselves so that the group stays together even if one person runs into trouble.
Now, I’m not talking about everyone keeping completely independent times from one another. You are all trying to keep the same time together as a group – almost like a big game of tug of war. If everyone is responsible for time than your band will play tighter, groove harder, and will be able to bounce back quickly from performance mistakes.
Now that you understand that rhythm is just as much your responsibility as your drummer’s, the next step is to start developing your sense of rhythm so that you are able to play in time independently from what your drummer is doing. There are many different areas to work on, but the simplest thing to do for now is to learn to count what you are playing. Yes, it’s a pain to do, but it will have a profound impact on your playing.
