Practicing drums with metronome and not hearing its tick

Question

Often times when I'm doing simple strokes (as from Stick Control) to the tick of a metronome, I get into streaks of not hearing the metronome, just my strokes. I suppose that's a good thing, right? Meaning it's well coordinated enough as to suppress the metronome's tick.

But since it's just my guess, I wanted to know if it's something to aim for. Maybe consistently hearing the tick just after the stroke could be more desirable, I don't know. And I often wonder if I don't subconsciously do louder strokes as to suppress the tick, masking my actual timing precision.

Answer 1

If you can't hear the click because it falls right underneath your strokes, that's called "burying the click", and it's generally a good thing. If your stroke is consistently just before the click, that's referred to as playing "ahead of the beat"; If your stroke is just after the click, it's called playing "behind the beat". Both are valid techniques to achieve a certain feel, but you don't generally want to use them all the time.

Answer 2

I cannot speak specifically to percussion, but when I have worked with both wind players and pianists, when the student "loses" the metronome click, that is typically a bad thing. This is because they are so caught up in what they are playing that they are not concentrating on their time, and they are actually ignoring the metronome so much that they do not perceive the metronome sound anymore, no matter how audible it is. I would be surprised if a similar phenomenon was not in play here to some degree.

I have three suggestions for such students:

1. Slow down, possibly ridiculously, until it is possible to play the passage easily without losing the metronome. Then, and only then, work on speeding up.
2. The metronome is not usually the first thing to use when practicing. If the student does not have reasonable control of the technique of a passage, the metronome will not help anything. If stability of tempo or evenness is in question but the student can basically play everything, that is when the metronome is the best.
3. If possible, get a metronome with a different timbre. "Dr. Beat" is one such metronome, though I typically recommend avoiding the voice counting "one, two, ..." because it does not adequately indicate the takt (plus, it's annoying). In your case, if the metronome sounds too much like the instrument, this suggestion could be particularly helpful.

Answer 3

I can't work with a visual cue either. I would suggest using headphones like leftaroundabout said. Others have made a fair point that the sound may be obscured due to perfect timing, but it also may be obscured by other things including psychology (as Andrew said) :P.

If your timing is perfect, hearing the metronome via headphones and confirming it won't hurt anything. Of course, you'll also want to practice without the metronome to see if you can manage without it, and playing with it there but inaudible unless you go off-time may be a good intermediate step between off and always-audible.

Answer 4

You could watch the "visual" beat on the metronome instead of trying to hear the tick. That would not be masked by the sharp sound of the drum.

Edit:
Some metronome apps for Android has vibrator. Maybe this could help if having it in your pocket, and you will feel the beat.

Edit2:
To help with the timing on a visual cue, you could look to a classical old style mechanic metronome, where you have the pending stick that gives you a clue when each beat approaches, and not just a sudden blink as you have on the digital ones.