Why is it very easy to play guitar or bass to a clicktrack, but very difficult to play drums to a click??

Drummers tend to push/pull the tempo a bit...
(As might a solo classical pianist)
This can be done when playing to a click... but it's an aquired skill.
Also, when acoustic drummers are slamming away, it's all to easy to drown out the click... and thus lose sync with it.

Another explanation is that its easier to play guitar/bass/keys to a click because you're primarily playing 'around' the click... whereas a drummer is primariliy playing on top of it.

ORIGINAL: Jim Roseberry

Why is it very easy to play guitar or bass to a clicktrack, but very difficult to play drums to a click??

Drummers tend to push/pull the tempo a bit...
(As might a solo classical pianist)
This can be done when playing to a click... but it's an aquired skill.
Also, when acoustic drummers are slamming away, it's all to easy to drown out the click... and thus lose sync with it.

Another explanation is that its easier to play guitar/bass/keys to a click because you're primarily playing 'around' the click... whereas a drummer is primariliy playing on top of it.

Use a click that cuts through the cue mix and use headphones that don't let the click bleed into the open drum mics.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.asp?m=768738

Your drummer will then have only one reason for not playing with the click.

Another staunch supporter of being able to play to a click while maintaining a feel. Honestly, if you can't do this, you are really missing out on one of the most valuable and marketable drumming skills you can have. If you can play to a click and do it well, naturally, and often, you will be able to play "in time" without a click and people will KNOW they can depend on your timing. Then, you can work with the group you work with and get your ebb and flow, speeding up and slowing down intentionally together and knowing that when you go back to the original tempo, you are ON. I feel like you should be able to play equally comfortably WITH a metronome as without one.

I've read every single post in this thread. Whew!

As primarily a guitarist and brass player as well as a dabbler in keys I'd say I have nothing but admiration for good drummer/percussionists who can play with and without a click as required by the circumstances.

I reckon I have great rythmn in my hands but cannot coordinate that with feet at the same time as in playing drums. No way. That takes physical and mental attributes I don't possess. Also I find programming the drums the most difficult of all my compositional challenges.

Best concert I've ever heard was a James Taylor gig in Sydney in the late 80's. Why was it the best? The drummer/percussionist made the show. Still sticks firmly in my memory as a real moment. There was just something I can't describe now but felt at the time.

As far as bad drummers go I've heard all the jokes but they apply equally to other musicians who's egos get in the way when you have to play with others. I started playing in marching bands playing trombone at about 12 years of age (after 4 years of learning guitar). Now do that for 4 hours while you're marching and you've got something to complain about. Not only keep time with music but in step with people in front of you and behind you doing some precision marching drill. And while you're playing you might hear the feint echo of a distant band/s in the same parade also playing. Man that was some difficult thing.

But you know what. You could do it. Because you practised. And that is the biggest downfall of many modern band situations. The lack of practice playing together with other musicians in a structured format. Music is all about structure balanced by feel.

That's my 2 cents.

I show 2 hours early to set up the stage.
Our drummer shows 1 hour early, just as I'm finished and going off for coffee.

I come back and he's cruising on some technical exercise. Really cruising.
I get closer. He's in the cans, too. Eyes are closed.
His Roland V-Drums has a click going. He doesn't even know I'm there.
He does this for about 45 minutes to the click track that he brought with him. Relentless. Very steady.
"OK. Now I'm warmed up. Let's play." He says.
And oh, yes, he plays. He studied with Garibaldi for a lot of years. Garibaldi made him use the click.
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During practice, we play "tempo games". Goes like this:
"Eric, this song goes at 140. Where's that?"
I answer him, "Click, click, click, click." (Snapping my fingers to a tempo.)
He checks me with the V-Drums metronome. Nope, that's 138. Pretty close.
Or he plays a click or a song, and I guess the tempo. Nope, off by 4 bpm. Darn.
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We practice with the click. We game with the click. We groove with the click. We record with the click.
When the lights go on and the mains go up, we turn OFF the click and play like we mean it.

To answer the original question.

A guitar player can follow a click track because nothing he or she plays obscures the click and although the click track can be artificially perfect it stands out to the guitar player. But the click sound is obscured by the percussion. The drummer can only be in time with the click track by playing so on top of it that they cannot hear it. If the drummer feels the need to hear the click track they will inevitably drag behind it. The drummer that can play to a click track does it by getting the click to disappear and to stay away because it stays obscured OR the click track is done with eight notes so that the drummer can hear the intermediate notes.

I started classical piano lessons in kindergarten.
My teacher had a metronome that ran continuoulsy.
My next teacher taught ragtime. She had a metronome that ran continuously.

Started trumpet in the 3rd grade. All my teachers used metronomes.

Played bass with my dad at the age of 10 on gigs.
He played a Baldwin B210 organ (late '60s and early '70s) and our drummer was a machine.

Every studio I've ever worked in had clicks. Period.
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That being said, it's time for levitee

Q. What's the difference between a drummer and a mutual fund?
A. A mutual fund will eventually mature and produce income.

Q. What's the difference between a drummer and a deep dish pizza?
A. A deep dish pizza can feed a family of four.

Enough bashing drummers:
Q. What is perfect pitch?
A. When you chuck the accordian in the dumpster, and it lands right on the banjo.

Q. Which is bigger, a viola or a violin?
A. They're the same size, but the violin looks smaller because the violin players have bigger heads.

Q. Why does a banjo player leave his fingerpicks on the dash of his car?
A. So that he can park in the handicapped zone.

Three notes walk into a bar, a "D", an "F", and an "A".
The bartender looks at them and says, "Sorry guys, I can't serve minors."
So the "F" leaves, and the "D" and the "A" have a 5th between them.

Four notes walk into a bar, a "C", an "Eb", an "F#", and an "A".
The bartender looks at them and says, "Sorry guys, I can't serve Diminished 6ths."

The very best drummers can and do play to clicks. It's required.

Don't forget:

Q: What do you call a person who hangs out with a bunch of musicians?
A: A drummer

:-)

My humble opinion as someone who played drums for a couple years when I was 11-13. I started piano at 8 switched to guitar at 12 cause no room or money for a piano my mamma told me. But the church I went to needed a drummer, they had a kit and they said I was a natural. I liked the compliment but I suck at drums now lol. Anyway, drummers should always practice with metronomes but NEVER record or perform to one. YUK

EDIT: Although I do know this drummer that went to Berkly in CA he was so use to his metronome he would have it live where he could see the light ticin' away lol

I had one experience of recording a drummer who could not play to a click. He was in a band I had just joined. We kicked him out immediately after finding out he couldn't play to the click.

I'm also a drummer and have no trouble playing to a loud click in my ears. I don't know if it's just because I practiced or if it's inate, but it's very very necessary. Especially if you want to sync midi to your song later...