Subdivision

Time & Groove

Also called subdividing, counting subdivisions.

Subdivision is what happens between the beats. If the beat is "1-2-3-4", the subdivisions are the "&"s, and the "e"s and "a"s inside those. A drummer who subdivides hears "1-e-&-a-2-e-&-a" running like a clock, then places every stroke against that grid.

This is the real secret to steady time. Rushers do not speed up out of malice. They feel a gap of sixteenth notes as empty and fill it. Draggers drop notes into spaces they cannot hear. When the space between beats is full of counted ticks in your head, the time has nowhere to hide.

Practise with a metronome, then take it away in stages. Play your groove with clicks on every beat. Then clicks on beat 1 of each bar only. Then one click every four bars. If you drift on one click per bar, the subdivision is not inside you yet.

Tip: take a groove you know cold and play it while saying sixteenth notes out loud the whole time. It feels stupid for two minutes, then the grid clicks. Drummers who count subdivisions out loud fix their time in a week. Drummers who "just feel it" take a year.