I am often amused at the extremes some musicians will go to win a musical debate with regards to the metronome. I just read one on facebook between two high level musicians. They each commented on each others blogs on what seemed like pages of a legal brief with one trying to top the other.

They both had interesting and legitimate points of view, the length of their responses to one another are too long to address here. So, as my mother used to say," I'll add my two cents and its quite simple.

All musicians can benefit from using the metronome, what matters is how you use it. I'm also of the opinion that many musicians are never taught to use the metronome properly. The instrument is there to give you a time reference, It is not a master that you should become a slave to.

Musical extremism seems to be the problem. There are too many musicians with bad time who won't use a metronome at all to players who measure every thing to the last sixty fourth. Learning to hear the space between the notes is what metronome practice is all about. If you use a basic setting of quarter notes, it will set you on the course of what Peter Erskine calls " Time Awareness".

If you have time issues the quarter note will provide the foundation. you will also begin to hear where the subdivisions fall. This will give you the awareness  that you need. A metronome can't help you groove or swing. Thats up to the individual player and how he or she interprets the beat.

The issue of groove comes up often when discussing the metronome. A groove can't happen in a vacuum it can only occur with other musicians because it is a collective process. A musician can certainly aid the process by developing their time.

I've written a lot of this stuff in various posts before and I repeat it because the musical environment has changed and the metronome debate still continues. Musicians have to play with a click or a sequenced track on some gigs and you are going to have a rough time if you never worked with a metronome.

Good fundamentals work every time. Developing a solid rhythmic foundation will make you a better player and like it or not, the proper use of the metronome can get you there.

                                         The Groove continues...  

There are always people in music who are enigmatic. Charlie Watts of the Stones is such an enigma only for the wrong reasons. His long career has posed one singular question. How can someone be so lucky with so little ability or interest in what he's doing.

Charlie's long career doesn't exactly lend creedence to the "harder I work the luckier I get" theory. He doesn't play well because he doesn't really care and thats really the heart of the matter. The Stones will never be accused of high level musicianship, but at least the others try the best they can to put on a good performance. 

You may ask why am I picking on Charlie. He is often seen as the heart and soul of the band and that is a big responsibility. "It's good enough" is hardly the attitude that will inspire your band mates or an audience that pays a lot of money to hear you

When Charlie Watts is in the mood he can lay down a solid groove but his fills and song endings can try any musicians patience. His lack of the most basic technique causes him to lose what ever articulation or precision he has.

What is sad about this is the potential to be a good player is there. He chooses not to. Recordings and live performances are filled with sloppy playing. You can get away with that for a while but not when you've been playing for fifty years.

Charlie is from all accounts a very fine and generous man it's his lack of dedication thats in question. Charlie never grew, except for the period when Jimmy Miller was producing the band. Miller, an excellent drummer in his own right, got Charlie to up his game. When Miller left the growth stopped.

There are going to be many people who will disagree with me but when you have the same musical defeciencies in 2014 that you had in 1965 then something is wrong.

A good friend once told me that he'd rather be lucky than good. My buddy got lucky because he was good and got even better as the years went on. Charlie Watts was extremely lucky, unfortunately he failed to fulfill the talent that got him there.

                                         The Groove Continues...

I began to understand, while listening to Elvin Jones in a club, what coordinated Independence was all about. I happened to be seated in the "Catbird seat" behind Elvin where I could see his feet as well as his hands. Elvin was splaying triplets all over the set when I realized that his concept was groove based and that all of his stuff was fully integrated.

Independence had often been taught as an enhancement to a groove not an integrated part of it. Elvin used triplets as his ground rhythm to subdivide and orchestrate what he heard in his head. This was miles ahead of anything that had been written or taught since the appearance of The Chapin Book.

Coordinated independence has always been a stumbling block for young drummers, it was for me. I went through all the books and still struggled but I soon discovered that my approach was all wrong. I realized that I did not understand what I was playing. 

Every musician has to play off something, a melodic line, a harmony and in our case, a rhythmic ostinato. The quarter note is the foundation because you are using its subdivisions to create coordinated independent motion. This is the one step that many drummers overlook when trying to nail some lick.

The only real way to achieve a polyrhythmic approach is to have a firm rhythmic
foundation where you can hear and play the other rhythms inside the groove your playing. This is apparent in the work of Elvin, Roy Haynes, Steve Gadd and
Jack De Johnette and was the central concept in Gary Chester's "New Breed" books.

Coordinated independence is not only misunderstood but it is often abused. I was at a Jazz Festival listening to a well known Fusion drummer, teacher and author. It was also some of the worst playing I ever heard in my life. He was all over the place with several rhythms going on at once and not one was connected to the music.

Coordinated Independence is a prominent tool of our trade. How you use it, for the good or ill, of the music is entirely up to you.

                                              
                                           The groove continues...