dialing in on a songs bpm to play along

primemover · Not So Newbie Joined: 20 Jul 2008 Posts: 9

Hi All...

this is my first post here (so be kind!), well, beyond my intro post in another section (please see that post for my specs)...

i'm a newbie and was trying to dial in my metronome (the clicker in my dd-55 yahmaha drum machine) to the bpm to a song that i thought had a nice intro beat (The Knack, My Sharona - i'm no real fan of theirs, just got the song in my head the otherday, that's all)...

anyway, i was having a real tough time finding the sweet spot (somewhere around 140-150 bpm) so i decided to check the net (everything is tehre anyway!)...

i find at least 2 dif bpm listed for this song:

140 bpm
and
152.4 bpm

the 140 works ok at first, but i think it is too slow after a few measures...

the 152 might work, but i can only adjust in increments of 1 (152 or 153)...

so my question is this:

do any of you typically try and set a metronome for a song you are trying to play along with?

my impression is that no one is "perfect" (well, unless you have NEP as your initails!) and it might be expecting too much to think that the beats of drums in any typical song would perfectly align with a metronome no matter if you could dial it in on a fraction of a beat (i.e., set it to 152.2)...

?

thoughts?

thanks...

- prime

Rasta · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:36 pm Post subject:

I don't do that. Doesn't mean it's a bad idea . . . .

Simple fix would be just have the song as your guide when playing to it. The musicians were most likely listening to a metronome, so if you are "on" with the music, then you are gravy.

Then you can try playing the same piece without the music, THEN use the metronome.

Hope that helped.
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Exzilibus · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:05 pm Post subject:

I don't think the song was recorded to a metronome. I just listened to it with 148 bpm which seemed to match for most of the song...but then it sped up to 150 towards the end and then slowed down again.

I would practice it to 148 though since that tempo matched up the longest out of anything else I played around with.

I firmly believe that using a metronome makes you a tighter and better drummer when you're practicing...so I do typically set a metronome for a song I'm playing with unless there are a ton of timing/speed changes in the song.

The metronome WILL line up perfectly as long as the song was recorded to a metronome in the first place. Some drummers prefer a "natural" feel and record without one and then a metronome will never line up.
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primemover · Not So Newbie Joined: 20 Jul 2008 Posts: 9

thanks!

indeed, the bpm drifts a little... so i'll just do the best i can...