Better Time – 10 Ideas for Musicians

So I’ve been actively working on my time and groove for the last six 16 years (2021 edit 6+9 =16!).  

Hopefully I can pass some ideas on to you!  

Check out these ways to work on your time/groove.  For me, here’s about 10 things have helped my time and groove the most.

Questions? Comments! Ideas!

Please leave a comment and/or send me a message!

Ten Great Ways to Improve Time and Groove

1. Dancing to music (with a partner especially)
2. Playing drums and percussion
3. Playing with a drum machine
4. Playing with with recorded music
5. Warming up in the morning with a metronome
6. Make your Own Backing Tracks!
7. Rest and Relaxation – Get enough sleep, rest and food
8. with a metronome pick a speed and groove to it for at least 5 minutes
9. Get a beat machine or fancy metronome or mp3 that has long pauses where you have to keep the time yourself. And be patient! This might not come quickly!
10. Practice a little every day!

Dancing to music (with a partner especially)

Without one, where is the other?  

Think about all the types of music that revolves around dancing or moving your body.

And also remember that a lot of music may not have dancing now but it used to (think European classical music – waltzes and baroque dances, for example).

Salsa, samba, reggae, funk, waltzes, flamenco, jazz, hiphop, electronic, rock and roll, blues, zydeco, Irish jigs, baroque classical music, rnb, neosoul.

Why Musicians Should Learn to Dance?

And you feel the beat pulse through your body.  Lining up your whole body with the beat of the music is the same as lining up your hands with music.  

How Playing Music & Dancing Relate

Dancing & playing music feel similar.  

When my whole body knows what the music feels like, then I can play the music better.  

Try dancing to a whole album of P Funk and then sit down and play some funk guitar.  

Some styles that I have learned about in this manner would be funk, salsa, samba, reggae, hiphop, rnb, neosoul, irish jigs, waltzes, swing, 2nd line that I can think of offhand.

Dancing with a Partner!

Dancing with a partner motivates you to internalize a good rhythm even more.  

You gotta keep track of time for yourself, but also know what your partner is doing. So if you’ve internalized the feel really well, you’ll be good but if you aren’t sure where the beat and groove are there’ll be  some mix-ups. 

It’ll be apparent and you’ll realize that you mixed up the time.  Not a big deal, but something that helps you feel the groove better.

I definitely found about partner dancing when I started learning to dance salsa.  

The one in salsa isn’t always obvious because the bass doesn’t always land on the one and sometimes there are unexpected breaks.  

After dancing for a couple of years, I improved a lot. 

Right now I am kind of rusty because I always seem to be playing music instead of dancing but I am making a concerted effort to get back onto the dance floor. 

Remember your earplugs!

• How to Play Salsa Guitar!

Playing drums and percussion

By focusing only on time and rhythm, I’m learning a lot about what makes people move to music and keeping solid, steady time.

Why Playing Drums Improve Time & Musicianship

Drumming connects with dancing at some deep soul level. 

When your drum lines up with the beat just right and you play good accents, you start to feel the music float.  If you start rushing or dragging the music starts to feel funny.

Every morning I wake up and play drums for 5 minutes with a metronome.  If I keep the same beat going for awhile, I start to feel that groove expand.

Playing drums enlightens the mind to many of the fundamental truths about music.  Applying the knowledge to guitar playing allows your music to reach a higher level.

Playing Old-School Jazz without a Drummer

For example, I play in a jazz group without a drummer. 

My main roles are to keep the time going and the harmonies apparent.  Until recently I tried to play complicated rhythmic patterns to keep the music interesting and build intensity. 

But after playing drums for awhile, I realized the groove will naturally grow on its own. 

After that there’s plenty of cool things to do but you have to keep it in the pocket for every millisecond of the song!

I remember a quote from a drummer that defines groove concretely:

While this oversimplifies the process, it helps me to keep things in perspective.  Play the same beat over and over again.  It’s challenging after awhile.

• How to Play Drums (for Guitarists)!
• Six 5-10 Minute Groove Practice Ideas!
• Improve Solos – Right Hand Groove (Jazz Guitar version)
• Jazz Guitar Ideas – How to Improve Time (and Groove) for Jazz Guitar – Count Out Loud!
• Playing 4 on the Floor! (Classic Jazz Guitar Groove)

Here’s some tracks of me (trying to) play drums and congas!

Playing with a drum machine

But BeatCraft is great, but I’ve since switched to ProMetronome and Logic/GarageBand.

The only time I really use a drum machine now is when I practice some stuff with clave – I’ve been trying to record my own drum tracks more.

But if I didn’t play drums, I would definitely be programming more beats.

Here’s a drum machine beat I put on YouTube:

From 2011:

I started practicing with a drum machine when I found Beatcraft. I program the frameworks of the different beats I need and then practice songs and improvisations along to the beat.  I enjoy this more than playing with a metronome because I add a crash cymbal to mark 4 bar phrases.  This has helped me get a good feel for phrasing and also insures that I am playing in 4 bar phrases instead of 3 1/2 bars, which I sometimes did with a metronome.

To practice straight-ahead jazz, I put a hihat on the 2 and 4 and a cymbal on the 1st beat of the 4 bar phrase.  Then, I practice songs by playing the melody, soloing, maybe comping, and playing the melody again.  You know when you are in time and in place both by the cymbal crash as well as watching where you are in the phrase.

Watching where I am in the phrase helps with more uncommon time signatures like 7/4, 11/8 and trying to learn flamenco, too.  It’s something I’d like to practice more.

Playing with recorded music

I think this helps me get a feel for what some great musicians were doing.  I feel like I have a lot to learn and learning from records provides so much fertile ground. 

I like So What by Miles Davis a lot because the chords and scales are simple and the tempo is pretty mellow, so it’s great to warm up to.

In general, I (used) to play along with So What every day. 

If I have more time, I then play Milestones and Giant Steps and Witch Hunt. On drums I play with Burning Spear and New Birth Brass Band.

• Great music by Oscar Peterson and Count Basie
• Learning to Groove with the New Birth Brass Band!
• Learning to groove (on guitar) with Rebirth Brass Band
• Learning to Second Line (for Guitarists)!
• Practicing Jazz/Swing Groove (C Jam Blues)

Warming up in the morning with a metronome

Every morning (well when I get the chance) I play drums with a metronome to get a feel for a solid groove.  

After a few minutes, I have the groove locked in more or less and there’s something about feeling the groove locked in that settles everything down in the body.

Warming Up (on Guitar) Slow & Relaxed with a Metronome

Then I warm with simple strumming at a slow speed (like 38 bpm) on guitar.

This helps me warm up my hands as well as get a feel for a very slow steady pace.  After I go through the warm up I play a rumba at a medium tempo (usually twice the bpm of the warmup, so 76bpm)

Over time I believe this has helped me solidify my time (at least somewhat).  While I have a lot to learn in this regard, I also have learned a fair amount.

• Chill Flamenco Guitar Warmup (Right/Strum Hand)

Do you want to test your time/groove?

If so, check out the exercises with the metronome lower on this page.  You can use ProMetronome, Weird Metronome, Beatcraft or Garage Band.

Working on Time with a Metronome

I’ve been working on good time for awhile now. 

I practiced with a metronome since I started playing guitar but I never really thought about rock solid time until a few years ago (aka ~2007).  Before that, it didn’t seem that important to me.  If I had understood the significance of really good time at earlier point in my life, I would have practiced good time earlier.

Having good time makes everything come into focus.  It helps connect the different player.  It’s the starting point for getting people to dance.

Lock in your time early in the day

I already mentioned this above, it’s not about using a metronome per se, but about working on time, even for a little bit, in the morning.

Besides being a good warm up for my hands, I find playing with a metronome first thing in the morning gives me a better sense of time. It reminds my body of what a solid tempo feels like.

Make Your Own Backing Tracks!

This has become one of my favorite ways to work on my time.

1. Get a metronome (or beat, or good tune)
2. Record Playing a groove or chord progression
3. Then play back the recording and solo and/or play over it!

Benefits

Instead of listening to what I recorded, I am focusing on soloing.

It gives me good feedback about stuff I am doing well and stuff that might work better.

For example, I record a groove on drums.

And then solo over it on piano. I am practicing piano, but at the same time I can feel what works and what doesn’t on drums (usually keeping the same groove seems boring when I am playing drums – but when I playing piano the simple, tight grooves work best).

Here’s a video I did with some ideas and example (jazz, rumba flamenca, and drums & piano):

Here’s the short article I wrote about the above video creating my own backing tracks – Make your Own Backing Track (5 Minute Practice Ideas)

Here’s another backing track I did of an Eb Jazz Blues – it’s another example – you can make up your own stuff.

Looping

Looping is great, too. I prefer recording because I can do longer tracks (~5 minutes), but I do like looping, too! For me, recording is faster (and I can focus on the playing), whereas looping (for me) requires more setup. But they are both great!

I think it really depends on the person. But I would recommend trying out both.

Here’s a funny looping video I did that demonstrates me playing with a looper (and trying to playing viola and cello):

R & R

Of course, practicing helps, too.  But getting enough sleep really helps.

You may find that being well rested helps your groove and time, too.

• Health, Wealth and Love in Music
• 12 ideas for good health (Wellness for everyone including musicians)
• Daily ideas for living healthy
• Positive Self-Talk in Life and Music
• Kindness in Learning Music
• Playing music when you are really tired

Groove with a metronome

Playing with a click and trying to make it groove opens up a lot of feel and technical questions.  

I definitely have been surprised that something I was playing didn’t really work as well as I thought it was working.  

But keeping that feel going for a 5 minutes or more (the length of song) will help you get to a higher level of playing.  

Creating a groove, whether it be a single line solo, a repeated riff or chords, takes time.  And part of the challenge of grooving is to keep the groove going as long as possible!

The backing track examples from above showcase me (hopefully) grooving to a metronome. Here’s the video again, if you want to check out on way of practicing grooving with a click.

Count the Beats Out Loud While You Play!

So, for example, if you’re playing chords, just count 1,2,3,4 while you play the chords in time.  You can do it time.How to improve your rhythm.

Here’s one of the videos I got the idea from:

The main musician I learned this from is Ruben Diaz! I really appreciate his energy and I hope to take more lessons from him someday!

I wrote an article about this – especially how it relates to Jazz Guitar, but it really works for any style of music.

Jazz Guitar Ideas – How to Improve Time (and Groove) for Jazz Guitar – Count Out Loud!

Practice Solidifying Your Time (with Silent Beats on a Metronome)

One way to check that you are starting to solidify your time is to create a beat that has a measure or two pauses.  You keep playing and once the beat comes back to the beginning, you should still be locked in with the beat.

1. I currently use ProMetronome. It has a feature called “Rhythm Trainer“. (ProMetronome Android & iOS)
2. Try something like what I’ve done with Beatcraft
3. or try check out Weird Metronome if you have a PC
4. If you have a Mac or PC, you can use Garage Band or another mixing software

4+ Great iOs/iPhone Apps for Practicing Music!

Ideas for Weird Metronome

Here’s some beats that I have programmed on Weird Metronome and in Beatcraft.  Basically, you keep adding longer pauses in the metronome so you have to focus on keeping better time on your own.  I do these for chords, solos and melody.

Good solid time

More Challenging

Beginning to develop solid internal time

Start using these daily at a variety of tempos.  You can have to ticks be on the 1 and 3 instead of the 2 and 4.  And you can add more pauses latter on.

Here’s the patterns on Weird Metronome, make sure you take the spaces away.3101 0101 0101 01013101 0101 3000 30003101 0101 3000 0000

Here would be some ideas for the next level of patterns for Weird Metronome, make sure you take the spaces away.

Beat Patterns on Weird Metronome

3101 0101 3000 3000 3000 0000 3000 0000

3101 0101 3000 0000 3000 0000 0000 0000

3101 0101 3000 30000 3101 0101 3000 0000 3000 3000 3000 0000 3000 0000 0000 0000

3101 0101 3000 0000 3000 0000 0000 0000 3000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000

Beats with Beatcraft

The beats for Beatcraft can be found here.

(Daily) Practice Makes (Great Long-Term) Progress!

Of course, there’s lots more, too. But consider dedicating 5-10 minutes a day to practicing groove and time!

Best wishes and enjoy your musical journeys!

• Six 5-10 Minute Groove Practice Ideas!
• Make your Own Backing Track (5 Minute Practice Ideas)
• Musicality: Nature, Nurture & 10,000 hours?
• Five 5-10 Minute Practice Ideas

Special thanks to photographer LASZLO ILYES.