Anyone wish to share any tips or tricks, other than listening to the dreaded metronome, that bassists and drummers use to keep perfectly in time. Most drummers often use sticks to get the band to start on beat and the musicians often listen for certain beats or rolls to end together but does anyone have any tricks to stay right on the beat throughout the song. I just get a sick feeling in my gut when my drummer and I are just a fraction off and it seems to happen more then it should. We're all in this together... Thanks for sharing
First of all, I don't think you literally mean "perfectly" in time, do you? Since there's no such thing as perfection - even amongst the most accomplished professionals. There is only more in sync, or less in sync.
Yes, practice. But also, learn to listen to one another - very, very closely. At
all times. Most out-of-sync playing likely happens when one or more players get lost in their own little worlds, and don't pay close enough attention to what the other(s) is/are doing.
Likewise to simply practice a great deal, without qualifying the
type of practice one should be doing, is to miss the whole purpose. The proper
type of practice is
critical listening practice, in which mistakes are quickly recognized & corrected, and every effort is made to mindfully come to complete musical agreement on how to collectively approach performance.
One hour of proper (i.e. high functioning) practice is worth at least four hours of aimless, unfocused, sloppy practice.
MM
