Chapter 19: Trigger Happy A Quick Look at Click Tracks, Metronomes & Loops “I have perfect rhythm - it’s my metronome that keeps getting off beat.” Those were the words that I spoke to my brother my first week at music school. I had been playing guitar and leading worship for 7 years up to that point. I was pretty awesome. Or not. Learning to play with metronome was sticky at first, but helped make me a solid player individually - which in turn helped me tremendously in band senarios. Practice with a metronome. If your ministry makes use of in-ear monitoring, the rest of this chapter is for you. In-ear monitoring allows us freedom to try new things - including using click-tracks and audio loops in a live music environment. We have the ability to hear things in our ears on stage that the congregation doesn’t. Click Tracks When I say ‘click track’ I’m generally referring to a metronome sound that plays through a channel on the sound board. It provides a tempo or consistent rhythm around which to build a song. Using a click track in a live music setting enables a group of musicians to play together better (finding the pocket, if you will). Playing with a click track also provides a band with creative opportunities such as, using background loops, relieving the drummer from keeping time - allowing other instruments to take lead at times, pre- recording a missing instrument to 'fill out' the sound, etc. Loops ‘Loops’ is my general phrase to describe any prerecorded supplemental audio tracks that play concurrently with the band. In some cases it may be an actual ‘loop’, such as a 4 bar percussive beat that continually repeats until you stop it. In other cases it may be a multi-instrument backing track that plays the entire length of the song (Check out loopsinworship.com or interactiveworshiplive.com for examples). Some loops include a click-track panned to one side of a stereo track. Getting Started Worship teams around the world use a variety of computer applications to trigger and playback clicks & loops. Some such DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstation) include: Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, Pro Tools, Reaper, and so on. Personally, I use Ableton Live because of it’s flexibility in live performance settings and it’s easy midi interfacing. I trigger it using either a Behringer FCB1010 midi foot controller or an iPhone/iPod Touch with iTM Matrix app running on my LAN. If that sounds confusing to you - here’s a more simple (and affordable) way to get started: I’ve created a free online tool for you called metronomer.com. It is an online metronome and click track generator. You can enter or ‘tap’ in tempos, select a time signature, select a click sound, and download an .mp3 in the desired length. These .mp3’s can then be added to a playlist on an iPod or burned to a CD. Plug your iPod or CD player into a spare channel on your sound board, and play it like any other instrument. Insta-Click! Not sure how long your song is? Export 10 minutes worth - and just start/stop it as you need. Control it yourself or assign a point-person. I have also seen an instance where the click was run directly off the metronomer.com website from a computer in the sound booth. Whatever works! When and if you decide you’re ready to graduate to the next level - drop me a line! I’ll be glad to help!