Several things can push the tempo forward — excitement, a fill, a tempo that isn't automatic yet — and from behind the kit it often doesn't feel like rushing at all. That's the frustrating part. When you're keyed up, a speed that feels too slow while you're playing can sound right on playback. The way forward is to find where you speed up — a fill, a certain tempo, a certain song — and practise that spot against a click.
Speeding up isn't a sign you have bad rhythm. It's a common thing to work on, and it responds to targeted practice rather than more playing at full speed.
Which of these sounds like you?
Pick the version that matches what you hear. More than one can be true at once — that's normal, and it just means you have more than one thing to work on.
"I hold it fine, then the fill launches me forward." Fills are a common place for tempo to jump. This suggests checking the transition between groove and fill first — leaving the groove, playing the fill, and landing back on beat 1. The drill below is built for this branch.
"It creeps up slowly over the whole song." No single moment breaks; you just end faster than you started. Tempo control and your internal clock may be the bottleneck here. Test it: take the tempo from a metronome, turn it off, play for a while, then switch it back on and hear where you landed.
"Only at certain speeds — slower ones feel impossible." Some tempos can be personal weak spots, and slower tempos are often the hard ones to lock into. Running through a range of speeds can reveal which ones you struggle with. Playing slowly can be harder than playing fast, so slow does not mean easy.
"I'm fine on my own, but I rush with the band or the track." Check listening before you blame your timing. The drummer often gets the blame when someone else is pushing the beat — and for you to hold the tempo, the band needs to hear the drums well enough to respond to you. If it's a recorded song, check whether you can hear yourself over the track at all.
"It only happens when people are watching." Nerves can push the tempo, and your sense of speed can shift with them. This suggests working on recovery and reference points rather than on the groove itself — you already know the part.
"I lose the count, then everything gets faster." If the counting drops out before the tempo moves, start with counting. See can't count while playing.
Targeted fixes
If it's fills: practise fills inside the groove, not on their own. Loop three bars of groove and one bar of fill so the fill always has to hand you back to beat 1.
If it's a slow creep: use the click-off test above regularly, and set the metronome slow enough that you can treat every click as a reference point to line up with. Grab a note and check it against the click, over and over.
If it's specific tempos: stop practising only at your favourite speed. Move the click around — including slower than feels comfortable — so beats and fills work at a range of tempos.
If it's the band or the track: sort the monitoring first. If you can't hear yourself, timing practice won't fix it.
If it's nerves: rehearse the recovery, not just the groove. Play to a click, let yourself rush on purpose, then practise easing back into the click instead of stopping. Also load the tempos of your songs into your metronome so your count-off starts in the right place.
If it's a specific bar in a specific song: loop that bar. The bars where you lose the groove are your weak spots, and looping them makes it clearer whether you're pushing ahead of the click or falling behind it.
The drill: fills that hand you back to beat 1
This one serves the fills branch. If your problem is a slow creep or a particular tempo, the fixes above fit you better.
- Set the metronome to 60 BPM. If that's messy, drop to 50. There's no speed you have to prove here.
- Play a basic groove for three bars.
- On bar four, play the simplest fill you can: four snare hits, one on each beat. That's it. An impressive fill is not the point.
- Land on beat 1 of the next bar, back in the groove, still with the click.
- Loop it. Three bars of groove, one bar of fill, repeat.
Listen for one thing only: does beat 1 after the fill sit on the click, or in front of it? If it's in front, keep the fill at four hits and slow the click down. Add a busier fill only once landing on beat 1 is boring.
When that's solid, walk the tempo up — 60, 70, 80 — and try the same loop at each speed to find which tempos fight you. Repetition at the awkward speeds is what wears them down.
If the fill itself is where you freeze rather than where you rush, see freezing during fills.
Common mistakes
- Practising only at your comfortable tempo. It hides the speeds you can't hold.
- Treating slow practice as a punishment. Slow can be the harder skill, and it's where coordination gets built. Speed the pattern up when the part feels second nature, not before.
- Making the fill fancier to make it easier. More notes means more places to rush. Strip it back.
- Practising in one long weekly session. Short, regular practice tends to do more over the long haul than a few heavy days a month.
- Assuming it's always you. If the whole band is accelerating, check whether someone else is pushing — and whether they can hear you at all.
- Stopping every time you rush. In a song you can't stop. Practise pulling yourself back into the groove instead.
Related
- Timing and counting basics — how the pulse and subdivisions fit together
- Can't count while playing — if the count drops out before the tempo moves
- Freezing during fills — if fills are where it all falls apart
- Building a practice routine — where the click work fits in a daily session