Singing With A Click?

“Should the singers have click in their ears?” many a worship leader has asked.

I can almost feel the visceral reactions as you read that.

“I’m not putting that trash in my ears!”
“That’s what we have a drummer for.”
“I don’t use in-ears - I need to hear the congregation.”
“100% yes!”
“What’s a click?”
“I wouldn’t sing without it!”

I’ve noticed something. You can tell when the singers and the band aren’t locking together. There’s a diminishing of the impact of the music. The congregation becomes less confident.

Let’s review the effect of using a click or a metronome to play live. (and I’m not advocating for backing and guide tracks, just clicks) Without a click, here’s what often happens.

The keyboard player follows the drummer.
The worship leader follows…the Spirit?
The singers follow the acoustic guitar player.
The electric player follows the keys player.
And, of course, I’m the drummer. The tempo is what I say it is.

It can be chaos. Or it can feel like everyone is in lockstep.

The magical effect of playing to a click is exactly that. It forces everyone to follow one single, unchanging member - a metronome. And that’s also precisely why it’s so hard for so many musicians. All my former go-to’s are gone. I must submit myself to a new discipline and approach.

And the result (in time) is no less than transformational!

What I notice about the teams where singers don’t have the click is a drop in tempo during acapella sections, or the intro is played at one tempo, and then it shifts when the singers enter. Or the lyrical rhythms lack crispness and punch - they just don’t feel right. It’s much like the trap acoustic guitars fall into when they force the song into their playing style rather than altering their default playing style to fit the song.

We’ve all likely experienced singers with lovely voices who don’t “sound modern” or get the right feel. There are several causes of this misalignment in vocal style, but one will be corrected over time as you submit your voice to singing with a click. A musical skill that playing with a click instills in a musician is a regular sense of pulse. And what that allows is for you to feel accent rhythms off of that pulse. That’s another way of saying “syncopation.” Syncopated rhythms off the beat will feel more natural when you have a firmly established pulse on the beat.

Bottom line, your team will be more together, sound more powerful, and be easier to follow if the whole team is using the click. (and it’s loud enough in their ears). Of course, it’s also important to maintain a connection to the congregation, something that can be done through a “crowd mic.”

For easy steps to implement the click, read this: https://www.adlibmusic.com/worship-fertilizer/135

And for some straightforward standards for singers, read this: https://www.adlibmusic.com/worship-fertilizer/113

-Dave Helmuth
Author of the Five Faders and Founder of Ad Lib Music

Singing With A Click? (Nº 463)