Some time ago one of the sound guys from our church suggested that our band might be able to improve by playing with a click track (that’s a metronome kind of deal that plays in the ears of the worship team). He was kindly suggesting that we were having trouble holding a steady beat, and that our tempo needed some reining in.
We balked at first, talking about needing “room for the song to breathe” and “artistic license” and decrying the “robotic and flat, emotionless feel” of the songs played with a click track…but he was right. We use a click track every weekend now, and we’d rather play with it than without.
Instead of drawing the emotion out of the song, playing along with a click allowed us all to center, to lock in on a tempo, to vary the feel without taking the song waaaaayyyy off tempo in either direction. There’s still room to breathe and let the song live, but it doesn’t derail things when we get of a little.
That’s because we’re all listening to the same click-click-click-click or tick-tock-tock-tock in our ears. We listen to the click, respond to each other, allow for some “feel” and land back in time with each other.
Since the start of school, it feels like our family has been playing without a click track. Our rhythm has been elusive, and we’re struggling to play together. Everyone’s doing well, there haven’t been any major glitches, but I can tell that we need a click track to play to, and soon. We’re starting to get on each other’s nerves a little, and we need to get together if we’re going to navigate this fall season well.
Don’t get me wrong–no one’s threatening to go AWOL, nobody has demanded to be traded to another team, and there’s been no talk of mutiny. But there’s a sense of busy that needs to be addressed, and that’s a little stressy.
How do you handle stress in your schedule?
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