Drums 4: Expert: studio, sessions and teaching

01

The click, tempo and the maths of time

In simple words

A click is a tiny clock that never gets tired. In a studio, everyone follows the same clock so the guitar, the bass and the drums land together. If you know how long each note lasts, you can place every hit exactly where it belongs.

Key facts

BPM = beats per minute. One beat lasts 60,000 divided by BPM milliseconds (ms). At 120 BPM one beat is 500 ms.
Note lengths in 4/4, where a quarter note is one beat. The last column shows the time at 120 BPM:

Note	Beats	Time at 120 BPM
Whole note	4	2000 ms
Half note	2	1000 ms
Dotted quarter note	1.5	750 ms
Quarter note	1	500 ms
Eighth note	1/2	250 ms
Sixteenth note	1/4	125 ms

A dot after a note makes it half as long again. A dotted quarter note = 1 + 1/2 = 1.5 beats.
A rest is silence of the same length as the matching note, and you still count it.

Rest	Beats	Time at 120 BPM
Whole rest	4	2000 ms
Half rest	2	1000 ms
Quarter rest	1	500 ms

Subdividing the click: the click can play every quarter note, every eighth note or every sixteenth note. A click on every subdivision is easier to follow when you play fills and 16th-note grooves.
Tempo map: a studio recording program (a digital audio workstation, or DAW) can store tempo changes bar by bar. Ask for the tempo and any changes before you play.
Count-in: the click usually plays one or two bars before the song starts so you can feel the tempo. Ask how many bars you will get.
Practise at a tempo, then record yourself against the click (Drums 3, Lesson 5) and check where you rush or drag.

Step by step

Pick a tempo, for example 90 BPM.
Work out one beat: 60,000 divided by 90 = about 667 ms.
Work out an eighth note (half of that, about 333 ms) and a sixteenth note (about 167 ms).
Set the metronome to eighth notes, then to sixteenth notes, and play a basic rock beat against each one.
Write a bar of 4/4 using a dotted quarter note, an eighth note and a half note: 1.5 + 0.5 + 2 = 4 beats.
Clap that bar with the click, counting "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &".
Check: you can say how long a quarter note, an eighth note and a sixteenth note last at any tempo someone gives you.

Watch on YouTube

Josh Devine's secrets to playing with a click trackEVANS Drumheads · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01The click, tempo and the maths of time

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:15

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "In the studio, the click is the boss. Let's measure it."
[Text on screen: 60,000 / BPM = ms per beat] "Divide sixty thousand by the tempo. At one hundred twenty, one beat is five hundred milliseconds."
[Screen: note-length table with times] "A half note is one thousand, an eighth is two fifty, a sixteenth is one twenty-five."
[Text on screen: dotted quarter = 1.5 beats] "A dot adds half. A dotted quarter note lasts a beat and a half."
[Host] "Know the maths, and you never have to guess where the next hit goes."

Try it now

5 minutes: work out ms per beat, per eighth and per sixteenth for 60, 80, 100 and 140 BPM. Check with a calculator.
5 minutes: play a rock beat at 100 BPM with the click on every quarter, then every eighth, then every sixteenth note.
5 minutes: clap three bars of 4/4 that use a dotted quarter note and a rest. Say the counts out loud.
5 minutes: record 2 minutes of one groove and note whether you are ahead of or behind the click on beat 1.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Drums 4: Expert: studio, sessions and teaching" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "The click, tempo and the maths of time".

What the lesson teaches:
- BPM = beats per minute. One beat lasts 60,000 divided by BPM milliseconds (ms). At 120 BPM one beat is 500 ms.
- Note lengths in 4/4, where a quarter note is one beat. The last column shows the time at 120 BPM:
- Note - Beats - Time at 120 BPM
- Whole note - 4 - 2000 ms
- Half note - 2 - 1000 ms
- Dotted quarter note - 1.5 - 750 ms
- Quarter note - 1 - 500 ms

The exercise I'm working on:
- 5 minutes: work out ms per beat, per eighth and per sixteenth for 60, 80, 100 and 140 BPM. Check with a calculator. - 5 minutes: play a rock beat at 100 BPM with the click on every quarter, then every eighth, then every sixteenth note. - 5 minutes: clap three bars of 4/4 that use a dotted quarter note and a rest. Say the counts out loud. - 5 minutes: record 2 minutes of one groove and note whether you are ahead of or behind the click on beat 1. ---

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "The click, tempo and the maths of time" from the course "Drums 4: Expert: studio, sessions and teaching".

Here's what the lesson says:
A click is a tiny clock that never gets tired. In a studio, everyone follows the same clock so the guitar, the bass and the drums land together. If you know how long each note lasts, you can place every hit exactly where it belongs.

The activity:
- 5 minutes: work out ms per beat, per eighth and per sixteenth for 60, 80, 100 and 140 BPM. Check with a calculator. - 5 minutes: play a rock beat at 100 BPM with the click on every quarter, then every eighth, then every sixteenth note. - 5 minutes: clap three bars of 4/4 that use a dotted quarter note and a rest. Say the counts out loud. - 5 minutes: record 2 minutes of one groove and note whether you are ahead of or behind the click on beat 1. ---

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

My notes

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