A notion I’ve been toying with for improving my sense of time in drumming is to start using a random dropout feature with metronomes. The setting for a random dropout has been inspired by an idea I had using Benny Greb’s Gap Click, where within the app you can specify and alternate between something like a quarter note pulse and then a whole note pulse. In doing exercises and grooves using these constraints, I witnessed my own time becoming more aligned as I relied less on the click of the metronome and more on my internal tempo. Almost like my sense of time was rewarded every time it lined up with longer and longer gaps.
My hypothesis is that in classical metronome training, landing with the click is the stimulus/reward and that removing it from time to time forces the mind to fill in the gaps. But if we can rely on the result to consistently hit, then we are still relying on the metronome. So what happens if we make the metronome more unpredictable?
For background, this idea was inspired by the Rescora-Wagner model of Pavlovian conditioning where the unpredictability of the outcome—in this case, the metronome click—enhances the resilience of what has been learned. More in line with my own background, it is also inspired by the over/under-fitting of machine learning models.
I’ve since found out that Pro Metronome has a setting for this. Excited to try it out and let you know how it goes!