How do you work on Timing?

[OldSchoolFlats]

Excellent post, excellent video. @Hachimitsu posted video is great too.

Confession: When I started playing bass, I thought I had a pretty good sense of time. After all, I was recording on guitar and playing both guitar and bass in a cover band. Then I went to music school and found out how bad my time sucked.

Use a metronome for serious practice. (not a drum machine).

Learn how to read music.... Sight reading helps you visualize time and play with certainty.

When you have the basics sorted out, learn different feels. Jazz swing, latin jazz, driving rock 8ths etc.

The real goal of metronomes is to help you INTERNALIZE time...i,e, to be able to play without tapping or external rhythmic support. Sight reading helps develop that sense. When you hear a great player like James Jamerson, you are hearing somebody who has internalized 16th notes.

Playing with groove once you have mastered time is a snap. Learning time will not destroy groove. Some people say differently, but if you ask them to play outside their comfort zone, it becomes obvious they are wrong. Herbie Hancock "Maiden Voyage" is a good example.

Amen.

Learning to read, and really "get" 16th note slap-grooves, has been a very humbling experience.

Growing-up, I mostly played songs where the bass was buried below layers of "fuzz guitar", and it was all about a simple non-syncopated rhythmic exchange with the snare and bass-drum.

 

[byacey]

Do not think it’s all about being behind the beat. Some types of music require pushing the beat. Some types require being on it.

Absolutely, and knowing where you are in relation to the beat at all times is critical for good timing. This what some refer to as "feel".

 

[M3RCURYQU4K3]

- Evaluate if the tempo is fast or slow, or medium pace
- Determine a proportion of rhythmic tempo and syncopation
- Rest during measures when playing the instrument
- Counting time can allow a groove that would then phase shift during transitions.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Hello everybody,
I did a quick search and didn't found other threads on this topic or maybe I'm not using the right word/definition.
During the lockdown and social distancing periods my band didn't rehearsed at all, so my keyboard player and I went to record some covers.
Talking about timing, to be on tempo so to speak, when I make mistakes is always because I'm slightly before beat. Not that much, but enough to be noticed on my ears.
As far as I know it's fine to play a little off beat, but after. Off beat but before the transient of the drums sounds like an error to me.
For sure I have to work on my technique, for sure the rush is connected with muscular memory and "anxiety" to the next not to play.
So my question is: How do you work on timing?
Is there specific exercises, tricks you use practicing with a metronome or a drums backing track?
Thanks

Drum machine

 

[Snarf]

Not reading the whole thread.

If you find yourself consistently ahead of the beat, you need to train yourself to play right on the beat. Use a metronome, play quarter notes until you're on the beat, every single time without fail. Do this at various tempos. Then you can start using 8th notes, half notes, etc. I would then compose some different exercises designed to use other subdivisions, ties, syncopation, etc.

Someone made the point on the first page that playing with others is important. I agree. However, I think competency with a metronome is important as a base line (hurr durr) from which you can adjust to the styles of whatever drummers you end up playing with, or what the style of music calls for. Without that bedrock understanding of timing, you're just floating out there.