These three exercises help you hear different note spacings, keep a steady tempo when the click stops, and play the beat while the click falls between your notes.
You can play these exercises on your instrument, tap them on a table or count them aloud. For displaced-click practice, make your notes audible so you can hear the space between them and the click.
Why these exercises help
A click on every quarter note helps you stay on the beat. But you can adjust your playing to meet each click without noticing whether the notes between clicks are evenly spaced.
Some notes may be too close together and others too far apart, even if you land on each click. When the click stops, you have to keep the tempo steady yourself.
Each exercise gives you a different task. In the subdivision tree, you learn how different note spacings sound. During gap training, you find out whether you can keep the tempo steady without hearing every beat. During displaced-click practice, you place each beat yourself and listen to the space between your notes and the click.
Learn how evenly spaced notes sound, then use the click to check your own timing.
Subdivision tree
Play each subdivision in turn and listen to how the spacing changes. The more familiar you are with each spacing, the easier it is to hear when your notes are uneven. This helps you keep time without relying on every click.
Quarter notes
12
Quarter-note triplets
1triplet
Eighth notes
1&2&
Eighth-note triplets
1triplet2triplet
Sixteenth notes
1e&a2e&a
Sixteenth-note triplets
1triplet&triplet2triplet&triplet
Each row covers two quarter-note beats. The pulse stays the same while the number of notes inside each beat changes.
Why a slower tempo makes this harder: A slower tempo creates more space between the clicks. You hear the click less often, so you have to do more of the timekeeping yourself. Small differences in your note spacing become easier to hear.
Set up GigClick
Set the tempo to 50 BPM. Use 4/4 with a quarter-note click. Play on your instrument, tap on a table, count aloud or hear the subdivisions in your head.
Practice steps
Play one bar of each subdivision. Start with quarter notes, then play quarter-note triplets, eighth notes, eighth-note triplets, sixteenth notes and sixteenth-note triplets.
Repeat the subdivisions in reverse order. After sixteenth-note triplets, work back through the list until you reach quarter notes. Do not stop between subdivisions.
Imagine the next subdivision before playing it. Imagine how the next subdivision sounds before you play it. Get the spacing right from the first note.
Practise at a slower tempo
Once you can complete the tree cleanly in both directions, lower the tempo by 5 BPM. You can also shorten the time between changes: first play two beats of each subdivision, then change after each note.
Listen for
The space between every pair of notes
Whether the notes remain evenly spaced within each subdivision
Whether the first space after each change is already the correct length
Whether the quarter-note tempo remains steady throughout the exercise
Record yourself and listen back if you can. If the first few spaces after a change are uneven, stay at the same tempo and practise that transition again.
Gap training
Use gap training to check whether you can keep a steady tempo on your own. GigClick mutes the click for part of the cycle while you continue playing. When you hear the click again, check whether your next beat 1 lands with it.
1CLICK
2CLICK
3CLICK
4CLICK
5YOU
Start with four bars of click followed by one silent bar. Keep playing through all five bars.
How to practise it
Choose something you already know well. Play at a comfortable tempo. The music should be easy enough that you can concentrate on your timing.
Set four bars with the click followed by one silent bar. Keep playing through all five bars without changing what you play.
Keep counting during the silent bar. Continue counting the beats and subdivisions in your head, tap your foot or use whatever method you normally use to keep time.
Compare your next beat 1 with the returning click. If you play beat 1 before the click, your tempo increased during the silence. If you play it after the click, your tempo decreased.
What to listen for
Whether your beat 1 matches the click when it returns
Whether particular fills or passages make you play early or late
Whether the difference becomes smaller over several attempts
Record yourself and listen back if you can. Once you can stay close to the returning click, use two silent bars. Then try one bar with the click followed by three silent bars.
Displaced click
When the click falls on every beat, you may adjust your timing to match it without noticing. You might rush a few notes, then slow down to meet the next click. In this exercise, you hear the click between the beats instead. You have to keep the beat yourself and listen to the gap on either side of the click. For me, learning to hear those gaps is the key to keeping steady time.
Level 1Click on “&”
1beat&click2beat&click
Level 2Click on “e”
1beateclick&a2beateclick&a
Level 3Click on “a”
1beate&aclick2beate&aclick
The metronome still plays quarter notes. You shift where you start playing so that each click falls on “&”, “e” or “a” in your count.
How to practise it
Set GigClick to 60 BPM in 4/4 with a quarter-note click. Turn off the accent on beat 1 so every click sounds the same.
Choose something simple and make your notes audible. Play on your instrument, tap on a table or count aloud. You need to hear both your notes and the click so you can compare their spacing.
Let the click play for a couple of bars. Then place your first quarter note halfway between two clicks. Treat the next click as the “&” of beat 1.
Continue placing each quarter note halfway between the clicks. Count “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”, with every click on “&”. Keep the click on “&” for eight bars.
Listen to the spacing. Compare the space from your quarter note to the click with the space from the click to your next quarter note. Both spaces should be the same length.
Trying other click positions
Move the click to “e” after you can hold it on “&” for eight bars
Count “1 e & a” and listen for even sixteenth-note spacing
Move the click to “a” once its position on “e” is steady
Lower the tempo after all three positions are steady
At the slower tempo, the spaces are longer and small timing differences are easier to hear. If you lose track of where the click falls, count it on the beat again, then try once more.
Sound on. To let you hear each position quickly, the click in the video moves one sixteenth note later every bar at 80 BPM: on the beat, then “e”, “&” and “a”. When you practise, hold each position for eight bars. Watch it on YouTube if the player above does not load.
A 20-minute practice session
Spend most of the block learning the sound of different subdivisions. Then test your time through silence and practise placing the beat against a displaced click.
10 minSubdivision treeOne bar per subdivision, up and down; lower by 5 BPM when the spacing is even
5 minGap trainingFour bars with the click, then one without; increase the silence when ready
5 minDisplaced clickStart on “&”, then move to “e” and “a”; hold each position for eight bars
Practice tools available in GigClick
GigClick includes subdivision controls, Gap training and individual beat accents. Use them to practise the exercises on this page and check your timing between clicks.
