Comments on: How to introduce click tracks to your band

By: Lutus8

Lutus8 — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:42:00 +0000

We use a Tama Rhythm Watch that I modified. Rather than having the footswitch change to the ‘next’ pattern, I opened it up, soldered some jumpers and now it is an on/off footswitch. Big deal I hear some say. Well, now we can ritard for big keychanges by turning off the click with the footswitch and then turning the click back on when the music director hits the downbeat. Our bass player (me) controls the click, but the music director could just as easily control it.

No matter how good a musician your guys think they are, a click will make EVERY band sound better. Why else do the super giant bands ALL use them when playing live and 99% of what you hear on radio now a days was recorded to a click. And those studio musicians actually are the best in the world…..

By: Bryan Nelson

Bryan Nelson — Tue, 31 May 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Aaron…one way to introduce click/loop tracks is to use it during sound check. There’s a 7-Minute Sound Check process setup by mymusicwriter.com that streamlines the process, guides both FOH and musicians using an IEM (in-ear-monitor system), but it also can be a starting point to getting bands to learn how to play with a click and also allows the FOH to get used to mixing in a loop track. Best of all, it boils down any sound check process to seven minutes. The trick is to use the sound check process on a weekly basis (with rotating musicians and FOH operators). Hope this helps.

By: Aaron Hein

Aaron Hein — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 06:27:31 +0000

What a great article! I am the worship pastor of a small church and I use loops and lots of synths with pulsing things (or at least I try to) but the band just doesn’t know how to hear some of the complicated poly-rythms I create. I’ve known for awhile I needed to introduce a click because I’ve really been limited with what I can pull off without them. I appreciated the insight to how the band could potential react and how to sell it. I use Mainstage with a MIDI controller and love it so when I get my click track integrated into the software I’ll post a How To on my blog. :-)

By: John

John — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:51:10 +0000

The worship leader at my last church used clicks extensively. I only played occasionally since I was the tech director. Now that I’m a worship arts pastor and worship leader at another church, I just started introducing click tracks in the last several months. Only one drummer was offended – he thought I didn’t trust his meter – but when he made it through a whole song to the click for the first time, his face lit up and his whole demeanor changed. We still are only using them occasionally but I hope to use them for every song. Praise Charts now offers clicks WITH loops to many of there songs…very cool!

By: Mark Zubert

Mark Zubert — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:36:40 +0000

Going to try adding click tracks to worship band. Any tips? Anyone use ableton for this? http://bit.ly/xl4oz

By: josh collesano

josh collesano — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:42:57 +0000

great article, something every musician in every church needs to read in order to understand the importance of it. We stress excellence a lot at my church and we use a click track to almost every song (98% of em) and now when we don’t have it my players say they “feel musically naked” without it… which goes to show that a little struggle at first can produce some amazing results…

an encouragement: It’s going to be tough at first, but after a few weeks they payoff is worth it…

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:21:06 +0000

The human side for us wasn't that big of a deal. The rest of the team is aligned vision wise on where we want to go creatively so it made sense for everyone and really got our creative juices flowing. We use Abelton Live so it generates the click for us. I have a post on how to create your own click track in Garage Band that you may find useful if you're a Garage Band user.

By: b davis

b davis — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:06:37 +0000

At our church, when we’re not using sequencing or loops, we use a Tama Rhythm Watch. It’s programmable, super-easy to use, and has a jack for a foot switch (so your drummer can switch programs during a rumble fade). When we’re using sequencing or loops, we use Reason, Digital Performer, or Logic through a firewire audio interface (Outputs 1 & 2 stereo to FOH & monitors, Output 3 to monitors ONLY for click).

The “human side” was a little rough at first, but was well worth the headache. We started doing 2 songs a weekend to the click, sent just to the drummer and worship leader (the rest of our backline was on wedges). This helped us get used to it. Slowly but surely, we started using it for every song and eventually got our entire team on IEM’s and locked in to the click (yes, even vocalists – you’d be surprised how much singers drag).

From a personality standpoint, it was a little more difficult. Every drummer thinks they’re rock-solid and doesn’t need a click. All of our drummers hated it at first. Now, if we tell them we’re doing a song without they’re the first to ask “Are you sure?” If you couch it as a vision thing (i.e. “We’re doing this to be a better team, better musicians, and create fewer distractions for our congregation”) it will give you lot of leverage – who doesn’t want to become a better musician, gel more as a team, and create a better worship environment?

Hope that helps, Lee!

By: Lee Hoffman

Lee Hoffman — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 13:04:39 +0000

I totally agree. I have a few questions. How did you deal with the human side of the change? What program are you using to generate the click track?
thanks

By: theworshipcommunity

theworshipcommunity — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:34:07 +0000

How To Introduce Click Tracks to Your Band @ TheWorshipCommunity.Com: http://snipr.com/daen4