It’s day one of “rock drumming" class at Los Angeles Music Academy. The door opens to my left, and I see a guy with yellow-spiked hair, piercings, and tattoos bouncing up the aisle.
He walks up to the front of the class, puts his sticks down, turns around, and looking right at me, says, “Dude, bury the beat." He puts a metronome ("clicker") on my desk, and turns it on.
Click, click, click ...
“There’s your beat. Now, go ahead, clap with the clicker and try to match the two up. Since the clapping is louder, when you clap at the same time as the clicker, the click sound will disappear, and you’ll only hear your hands clapping (hence, ‘bury the beat’)."
So, I tried to clap at the same time as the click, but I found it pretty difficult. After watching me struggle for a while, he says, “Stop. Ok, dude, just relax, close your eyes, breath, stick-out your hands, and just let the sound of the click draw your hands together."
I started clapping again, allowing the click do all the work. Eventually, my hands started clapping closer and closer to the click, and then ... clap! I buried the beat! ... and then another clap ... and another. I buried the beat for thirty seconds straight! It felt as though my hands were doing the clapping on their own, and I just had to get out the way and let it happen.
“Dude! That’s it! You got it! You just demonstrated a force found in nature and science known as entrainment.
Once you let it, your hands naturally entrained with the beat. It’s like when you tap your foot or move your body to the music. You don’t have to think about it, it just happens."
.....That day changed my approach to music and my life forever. After more than twenty years of searching for solutions to the problems that have challenged me the most, including lack of flow, focus, and other cognitive “hiccups," entrainment is the one thing that has provided more insight and movement than anything else for me, as well as the people I’ve worked with.
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