Practising with the click on 2 and 4
Quarter-note chords through Am7, D7, Cmaj7 and E7 with nothing but a side stick on beats 2 and 4, the way jazz and soul players practise with a metronome: you keep beats 1 and 3 yourself. It moves the job of keeping time from the click to you, and it teaches the backbeat, where the snare drum sits in nearly all popular music.
Opens in the player looped and counted in, with drums playing along, and speeds up 5 % every 2 loops to 100 bpm. No account or microphone needed.
- Goal tempo
- 100 bpm
- Starts at
- 60 bpm
- Length
- 4 bars, looped
- Tuning
- E standard
- Time
- 4/4
- Level
- Intermediate
- Plays with
- Drums
How to play it
Feel the side stick as beats 2 and 4, not 1 and 3: count the first loop out loud before you join in.
The drums play nothing but a side stick on beats 2 and 4. The guitar plays a chord on every beat: Am7, D7, Cmaj7 and E7, a bar each, with beats 2 and 4 slightly accented to sit with the click.
Before you play, listen to a bar and count it: the clicks are '2' and '4', the gaps between them '1' and '3'. Once you hear it that way, join in on 1.
Keep the strums short and even, from the wrist, and let go of the chord a little between strums so they don't run into each other.
Mistakes to watch for
- Hearing the clicks as 1 and 3, which shifts the whole bar by a beat.
- Drifting during the gaps: beats 1 and 3 are yours to keep.
- Strumming every beat with the same weight. Lean on 2 and 4.
A speed plan
The player starts at 60 % of the goal and plays each tempo twice before stepping up:
- 60
- 65
- 70
- 75
- 80
- 85
- 90
- 95
- 100
That's 16 loops and about 3 minutes before you're playing at 100 bpm. If it stops being clean on the way, stop the ramp there and loop that tempo until it is. With a microphone or an audio interface you can record while you play instead: Demiurg checks every loop and steps up only after two clean ones in a row, and back down after a poor one. Strums are checked for when they land, not for which strings rang.
Questions
How fast should I play Playing with the beat on 2 and 4?
The goal is 100 bpm in quarter notes, which is 1.7 strums a second. Start wherever every strum is clean: the player begins at 60 bpm. Signed in, you can set a goal of your own, slower or faster, on the Exercises page.
Why put the click on 2 and 4?
It's where a drummer's backbeat falls in rock, pop, jazz and soul, so feeling it there is closer to playing with a band. It also leaves half the beats for you to keep, which builds your own time.
Can I set the metronome like this for other exercises?
The drums in each exercise already keep the beat with you. To practise any song this way, set a metronome at half the tempo and count its clicks as 2 and 4.
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