Practice guide · 15–20 minutes

Keeping good time when the click drops out.

The subdivision tree gave me the best results. Start there, then use gap training and a displaced click to check whether you can hold the pulse on your own.

By Matt · GigClick developer and drummer

Why I changed how I practised

I could play with a click. Without it, my time still moved.

I used to practise with a metronome and assume that meant my time was getting better. Then I would turn the click off, or play with other musicians, and find that I was still pushing, dragging, and depending on the click to pull me back into place.

The problem was not that I needed more hours with a metronome. I needed to use it differently.

All three exercises helped, but the subdivision tree made the biggest difference to my time. It taught me to hear the space between notes instead of waiting for the click to place them. I would spend most of a session there, then use gaps and a displaced click to find out whether that internal pulse held up.

The aim is not to get good at playing along with a click. It is to stay in control of your own time.

Slow tempo · six subdivisions

Use a subdivision tree to learn the space inside the beat.

This is the exercise that gave me the best results, and it is where I would spend most of the session. At 50 BPM, the gaps between clicks are long enough to hear whether your notes are evenly spaced. When you change subdivision, the first note of the new pattern should land correctly without needing a few notes to adjust.

Quarter notes

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.

Slower is harder. Work from two bars per subdivision to one bar, then one note. Once you can complete all three cleanly, lower the tempo by 5 BPM and start again.

How to practise it

Set

Start between 45 and 55 BPM. Use 4/4 with a quarter-note click. Keep this tempo while you work through all three progressions.

Progressions

01
Two bars per subdivision. Play the full tree from quarter notes to sixteenth-note triplets, then come back down without stopping.
02
One bar per subdivision. Repeat the same journey up and down the tree, changing subdivision after every bar.
03
One note per subdivision. Change rate after every note. Hear the next subdivision before you leave the current one. The first note falls on the beat regardless; the second note is the one that shows whether you have the new spacing.

The final boss

−5 BPM

Once Progression 03 is clean in both directions, lower the tempo by 5 BPM. Go back to Progression 01 and work through the sequence again.

Sound, then silence

Use gaps to find out whether you are carrying the pulse.

A continuous click can hide small corrections. You drift, hear the next click, and move back without noticing. A gap removes that correction. When the click returns, you hear where your time actually went.

1CLICK

2CLICK

3CLICK

4CLICK

5YOU

6YOU

Start with four bars of click and two bars of silence. Keep playing through all six.

How to practise it

01
Choose a comfortable tempo and something familiar to play. The exercise should test your time, not your memory.
02
Set Gap training to play four bars and mute two. Keep counting or feeling the subdivision during the silent bars.
03
When the click returns, listen before you adjust. If it arrives ahead of you, you slowed down. If it arrives behind you, you sped up.
04
Once the return is consistently close, try two bars on and two off, then one bar on and three off.

Quarter-note click · displaced in your count

Move the click away from the downbeat.

Leave the metronome on quarter notes, but stop hearing each click as the beat. Start by hearing it as the “&” between beats. Once that feels settled, move it to the “e”, then the “a”. The click never changes; only where you hear it in the bar does.

Level 1Click on “&”

1beat &click 2beat &click

Level 2Click on “e”

1beat eclick & a 2beat eclick & a

Level 3Click on “a”

1beat e & aclick 2beat e & aclick

The metronome still plays quarter notes. You are changing where those clicks sit in the count.

How to practise it

01
Set 4/4 with a slow quarter-note click. Use a simple groove or pattern, tap on a table, or work without making a sound.
02
Count “1 & 2 &” and hear every click as “&”. The numbered beats now sit halfway between the clicks. Hold that placement for eight bars.
03
Count sixteenth notes and hear every click as “e”. Keep the downbeat in place even though the click now lands just after it.
04
Then hear every click as “a”. The next numbered beat should land one sixteenth after each click.
05
If you lose the placement, hear the click on the downbeat again, settle the pulse, then shift it. These three positions are a progression, not a limit; you can eventually try any consistent subdivision.

Foundation first

A 20-minute practice block

Spend most of the block on the subdivision tree. Then use gap training and off-beat clicks to check whether the pulse stays steady.

10 minSubdivision treeTwo bars, one bar, then one note per subdivision; lower by 5 BPM and restart
5 minGap trainingFour bars on, two off; shorten the “on” time when ready
5 minMove the clickStart on “&”, then move to “e” and “a”; eight bars at a time

Use the click differently

Reassurance, not reliance.

Subdivision controls, Gap training and a clear count display are built into GigClick. For the displaced-click exercise, leave the click on quarter notes and change where you hear it.