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About Time

An easy-to-remember guide to coming in on time, all the

time.

In the live playing situation, the initiation of most tunes is left in the skillful hands of the drummer. He or she is
endowed with a single bar stick striking solo in order to shove off each song into its speedy or sluggish safari of
musical perambulation. With this responsibility the drummer must precisely evaluate the correct speed of the
imminent song in order to clearly and confidently communicate the tempo to other members of the ensemble.
This confidence can only be displayed if the drummer blatantly and convincingly knows the correct tempo and
feel. It is always vital that the drummer's account of the speed is the official and only pace to be employed,
otherwise the song may resemble the Catcliffe and Treaton Working Men's Club summer outing - both requiring
several bars to settle down.
The human brain with which we are all equipped has many amazing facets. It is perfectly capable of learning
specific song tempos and feels, just as it can recall the exact gap between songs on a tape after repeated
listening, and remember the exact running order of tracks on an album, even after years of not hearing it.
If you know a song inside out, remembering the tempo is natural and easy, so if you can find a way of acquainting
yourself with the natural ability of recalling individual tempos, this could be very useful.
To some people this poses no problem as they can accurately feel many different tempos and select a speed as if
it were logged permanently in their head. Others like myself have to find a way of forcing this ability through
learning tempos and finding methods of triggering the brain to recall what has to be remembered.
My starting point for achieving this ability is to find three reference points across the velocity spectrum. Most
modern music falls between 60 and 140 beats per minute (bpm), so my points of reference fall at 60, 100 and 140
bpm, giving me a fairly rough divide of all the tempos I might use.
60 bpm is of course one beat per second, so this, my first tempo, is quite easy to store. Remembering how long a
second lasts should be no problem. As a child I was always told that a second should last the same amount of
time as a four syllable word, so if you count 'one rhinoceros, two rhinoceros etc,' then as long as each word is
spoken naturally and not rushed, your count should be around 60 bpm. Once you have mastered this, halving it
will, of course, give you 120 bpm.
My next port of call is at 100 bpm. To remember this tempo I employ a method that I find never fails. At 100 bpm I
can comfortably play a 16 beat pattern (semi-quavers) with just my right hand, so if I beat out this pattern on my
knee to the fastest com-fortable speed, I know I'm at 100 bpm. If I need a tempo around 100, I just adjust up or
down accordingly. The same method applies to 140 bpm: at this speed my right hand can comfortably execute
eight loud beats of semi-quavers. This is also my top speed for two handed shuffles (missus).
The only problem with this method is that as you progress as a player, your speed and agility increase. When I
first put this method into practice, my single handed 16s were at about 90 bpm, so you have to constantly monitor
and adjust.
Remember, these ideas are only a rough guide to song speeds. The methods I use relate purely to my own
physical limits. You will have to experiment with your own playing quirks to find the tempos you need. A short time
with a metronome should give you some ideas.
Another and sometimes more accurate method for tempo recall is having a selection of well known songs logged
into your brain, with their respective tempos and feels. For example, I know from memory that the Led Zeppelin
track 'Good Times, Bad Times' was recorded at 94 bpm and has a straight four feel.

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So if I need to play at 94 bpm in straight 4/4 I think of that good old track and am instantly provided with a speed
and feel. Many of the songs I have mentally logged are songs I have recorded or have had to play many times, so
the vital information is clearly imprinted on my brain. I can still clearly recite the tempo of the first record I ever
played on: it was 123 bpm and is as clear to me today as it was when I played on it 17 years ago.
I've made a list of a few classic tracks that span the tempo spectrum:
Eagles 'Hotel California' 74bpm
Queen 'We Will Rock You' 80bpm
Beatles 'We Can Work It Out' 105bpm
Deep Purple 'Smoke On The Water' 115bpm
Beatles 'Ticket To Ride' 125 bpm
Motorhead 'Ace Of Spades' 144bpm
(sort of played double speed = 288bpm)
These ideas in no way replace the metronome or offer any degree of total accuracy. Most music software today
offers tempo adjustment to .00 of a bpm, and you would have to be very clever to offer the accuracy to confidently
say, 'That's 82.43 bpm, boys - honest.'
This is all just theory that I've found very useful, even though I always carry a metronome - you would be surprised
how often the battery is flat or it's too dark to read the dial. As drummers we need to take a bit of responsibility in
knowing our tempos, as we are always getting it in the neck because we don't actually produce a tonal note - this
really is one in the eye for the musical snobs.
Give it a go, it's probably not the most fun you can have with speed, but it will keep you off the streets and on the
beat... I can't believe I wrote that (Me neither - Ed).

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