TESTAMENT Drummer GENE HOGLAN Offers Five Tips On Timing - "I Had Heard The Click Track Could Turn A Drummer Into A Crying Baby..."
April 6, 2016, 8 years ago
Drum legend Gene Hoglan (Testament, Strapping Young Lad, Death) recently spoke with Music Radar and offered his five tips on timing. Following is an excerpt from the interview.
Find Rhythm
Hoglan: “You can work on your timing absolutely anywhere. You can be driving in your car and your turn signal can be your metronome for a minute. If you have a light that is burnt out in your car then that signal will be like a shuffle, ‘dack, a, dack, a, dack’. If you’ve got a clock in a room and you can get the room quiet enough to hear the clock ticking, use that as a metronome for an hour while you’re sitting on your couch. A water faucet drop can be a rhythm, rhythm is everywhere.”
Don’t Cry
Hoglan: “I had been playing for 15 years before I really learned the importance of timing. Meter and things like that weren’t all that prevalent in what I was doing. I thought I had great meter, but I didn’t. It wasn’t until I started using the click track when I got hooked up working with Devin Townsend that I turned my whole life around. I had heard the click track could turn a drummer into a crying baby so I quickly wrote two songs to the metronome and played along to the click with them. That’s when I realised I was pretty solid with the click.”
Go to this location for Hoglan's complete rundown.
