How to develop your internal clock

Your internal clock is the pulse you keep when nothing is keeping it for you. You train it by taking the click away a little at a time and checking how far you drift before it comes back.

What the internal clock does

It lets you count a band in at the right tempo, come back in after a two-bar stop without rushing, and notice when the drummer has crept up a few BPM by the last chorus. A metronome that clicks on every beat corrects you so often that you never find out how steady you are on your own. The aim is to need the click less, until you use it to check your time rather than to follow it.

Click on every beat

  • You adjust to it without noticing
  • Drift stays hidden until you switch it off

Click with gaps

  • You place the missing beats yourself
  • When the click returns, you hear exactly how far you moved

What a strong internal clock lets you do

  • Tap 92 BPM from memory and land within 3 BPM
  • Play 32 bars with the click muted and still be with it when it comes back
  • Restart a song after a stop at the tempo you left it
  • Hear when a band has pushed or dragged by a few BPM
  • Hold the tempo through the hard bars without speeding up on the easy ones
  • Feel eighths and sixteenths without counting them aloud

Test where you are now

Run these four tests before you start and again after a month. Write the results down so you have something to compare against.

Tempo recall

  1. Listen to 16 clicks at 100 BPM
  2. Stop the click and wait 10 seconds
  3. Tap the tempo you remember into a tap-tempo counter
  4. Note the difference

Within 2 BPM is strong. Within 5 is good. Within 10 means you have work to do.

Drift

  1. Play quarter notes with the click at 80 BPM for 4 bars
  2. Turn the volume down and keep playing for 32 bars, counting the bars
  3. Turn the volume back up
  4. Check whether you're still with the click

Still together is strong. Up to half a beat out is good. A beat or more out: start gap practice at level 1.

Cold tempos

  1. With no reference, tap 60 BPM
  2. Check it against a metronome
  3. Repeat for 90 and 120

Within 5 BPM every time is strong. Within 10 is good.

Distraction

  1. Play a simple groove with the click
  2. Count backwards from 100 out loud while you play
  3. Keep going for 8 bars
  4. Check you're still with the click

If talking pulls you off the beat, your pulse still needs your full attention. Aim for 8 bars without slipping.

Take the click away in stages

Keep the metronome running but hear it less often, so you fill more of the beats yourself. Stay at each level until you can play for two minutes and land with every click, then move up. The first two levels work on any metronome. For the rest you need one that can mute whole bars.

  • Level 1: Click on beats 1 and 3. Set the metronome to half your tempo, so 40 BPM for a groove at 80. You fill in beats 2 and 4.
  • Level 2: Click on beat 1 only. Set it to a quarter of your tempo, so 20 BPM for a groove at 80. You fill in 2, 3 and 4.
  • Level 3: One bar on, one bar off. One bar of click, one bar silent. You carry four beats on your own.
  • Level 4: One bar on, three bars off. The click marks the start of each four-bar phrase and nothing else.
  • Level 5: Two bars on, eight bars off. Once this is easy, go back to the 32-bar drift test above and see how far you've come.

Listen to which way you're off

When the click comes back, notice whether you're early or late. Early means you rushed in the gap, which is the more common fault, so sit back a little on the next pass. Late usually means you slowed down through a busy figure. Play that figure on its own with the click until it stops pulling you back.

Learn a few tempos by heart

Five anchor tempos

Each one is a simple ratio of one beat per second, so you can check yourself against the second hand of a watch. Pair each with a song you know well: look up its tempo, play along, then try to count it off cold the next day.

  • 60: 1 beat per second. The second hand of a watch.
  • 90: 3 beats every 2 seconds. Halfway between 60 and 120.
  • 120: 2 beats per second. Double 60.
  • 150: 5 beats every 2 seconds. Halfway between 120 and 180.
  • 180: 3 beats per second. Triple 60.

Use your body to hold the beat

Moving with the beat gives you a pulse to keep steady that is separate from the notes you're playing. When the notes get hard, the movement keeps going.

  • Foot: Tap on every beat and let it run on its own while your hands play. Test it with a fill or a fast run. If your foot stops or stutters, slow down until it doesn't.
  • Breathing: Breathe in for one bar and out for the next. It helps at slow tempos, where the long space between beats makes rushing easy.
  • Head: A small nod on each beat, or on 2 and 4 in swing and backbeat styles.
  • Walking: Walk one step per beat while you sing or count a part. It's the easiest way to drill the anchor tempos away from your instrument.

A 15-minute daily routine

  • Minutes 1-3, tempo recall: Before you hear any music, tap 60, 90 and 120 BPM and check each one. Write down how far off you were.
  • Minutes 4-8, gap practice: Play a simple groove or scale at a comfortable tempo, at your current gap level.
  • Minutes 9-12, subdivision ladder: With the click on quarter notes, play two bars each of quarters, eighths, triplets and sixteenths, then back down. Change between them without a pause or a bump in the tempo.
  • Minutes 13-15, a real piece: Play a section of something you're learning with the click at your gap level. If it falls apart, drop one level.

Fifteen minutes most days will usually do more than an hour once a week. Keep your tempo recall numbers, and expect them to shrink over weeks rather than days.

Practise with silent bars

The subdivision metronome lets you choose how many bars click and how many go silent, so you can work through levels 3 to 5.