the thing is...the tickin just drives me mad, :)
personally i think it's actually a lot more valuable to practice to drum grooves...my thinking is that playing along to (well timed) drum beats automatically forces you to play "musical accents" eg you will for instance automatically play a lil louder on the bass drum hits, and the snare hits and so on ... which will help you develop a more musical style
to illustrate: i know that my favorite drummers tend to play the snare a lil (prolly only milliseconds) behind the beat. now ... if you practice to a metronome, and get used to the mathematical tickin rhythm ... you will prolly have difficulties locking in with the snare of a drummer who does play musically...
apart from that...i think practicing along to drum grooves actually is a lot more fun, since it makes even your practice session sound at least somewhat interesting...hence you will practice a lot more/longer ...
tear me up in midair for this comment if you will
:)
oh yeah ... i do NOT think practicin to a metronome is a bad idea per se ... it can actually help you in some ways...i just dont think it should be done exclusively !
[Edited by supercoolslides on 01-08-2004 at 12:43 PM]