Patterns are import because rhythm, tempo and timing are the
secret and the backbone to a great golf swing.
When Blast came out it was the one and only tool that we
could test the Golf BPM music with to actually see if the patterns in the App
worked correctly. The very first time we used the two Apps side-by-side it was
like magic.
On the Blast App you get readouts of your exact take-away and downswing times
that you can pair with golf music. It instantaneously gets golfers into the
correct zone to create perfect rhythm, tempo and timing. If you are working on
your tempo there is no better way than using Golf BPM Music with Blast.
With the music you are in the zone mentally and with Blast
you can get immediate feedback on the actual numbers behind your swing.
I wanted to tell you a quick story about why it took me seven years to create Golf BPM.
Every time someone asks me how long it took to create the App I literally cringe when I have to say seven plus years.
I cringe because of all the years I wasted talking about the idea and never executing it. Not to mention that Jeremy and I talked about it way back in 2008. In 2012 I had an idea, a programmer and several musicians. So, what took so long…
As far back as I can remember I’ve been teaching golf all day long and any moment I was not teaching I was working on my clothing line 18 GREENS. All the extra money and time I had went towards creating the apparel line.
The apparel industry is a beast… you have to plan what people will be wearing a year in advance. Then you have to front the cash to create the clothing and get it to the United States. Most apparel companies have three to four lines a year to gear up for each season.
So, once it arrives you are out of money and then have to sell it over the summer to make back your investment. During that time, you have already started sampling and developing the next seasons line and borrowing money to get that done in hopes of recouping the money that is already out. There is never really any down time and if your company grows that means so does your debt. UGH, I often ask myself why I do this to myself, I love the action and my goal is to make a cool line that can be worn on and off the course that is affordable.
So even though I knew Golf BPM was a great idea and something that would revolutionize music and golf… it just sat on the back shelf collecting dust which always bothered me. I am not the kind of person that sets goals and then doesn’t at least go after them.
Finally, in 2015 I decided I had to put some time and energy toward making it happen. I’m not sure what sent me over the edge, but I was determined.
Creating the music turned out to be more complicated than I anticipated. The musicians were flakes, Jeremy took a job at IBM, my clothing line 18 GREENS was gaining traction and I was getting married. The bottom line is it did not happen, now it’s 2016 and we had made zero progress towards getting it out.
May 2017
Our second go round at Golf BPM was a much more solid effort. In May of 2017, I got a call from Jeremy, he was all fired up about finally getting this thing going again. He had a friend who was a musician who he said could not only help but was onboard for a revenue share as well.
So the first week of June I flew up to San Francisco and we headed to the music studio in Sausalito. That trip was enlightening on several fronts. First, we were able to create our very first track “Smooth Groove”. That track is on the App if you want to hear it under the “Hip Hop” station.
It took three full days in the studio to create that one track. The track itself came pretty fast but the difficult part was when we started analyzing swings of the PGA tour players in relation to time, my idea and studies where a little more off than expected. The producer we were working with is a musical genius in his own right and loves golf so he really understood what I was trying do and create.
Through various studies, reading, working with students and metronomes we discovered that we needed four different swing speeds for each track. So, we had to speed up the original track to the four BPM’s we identified (126, 144, 156 and 184).
After days of being locked in the studio, we headed to the range to test it out. I hit three balls and I knew we had nailed it. Then Jeremy hit and was instantly in-sync at 126 BPM’s. I have to tell you… it was one hell of a day!
I headed back to San Diego with two tracks to test and Jeremy was off and running programming the App. Our producer/musician was going to create more tracks.
Once home I started testing the tracks with my students. I tested with pros, collegiate, high school players and juniors. The results were incredible… everyone had success with it fairly instantly.
When I came back to San Francisco in August we found out that our musician had not done any work since my June visit. In his defense he had a lot going on in his life, things that I could never imagine.
This was a problem because at the end of my previous trip I had discovered a difference between the swing tempo ratios between drivers, mid irons and putting.
I won’t bore you but essentially, I found through using the BLAST Motion sensor that good players mid iron ratios were different than their driver and even from 90 yards and in. The reason I came back to the studio was to figure out the music at these ratios and also create the tempos for putting and chipping.
When you use Golf BPM you will notice that we have four BPM’s (126, 144, 156 and 184) and also we have a drop down for club selection (Driver – 5 iron, 6 iron – wedges, and chipping putting).
Each song needs 11 speeds / tempos
4 speeds for Driver – 5 Irons 4 speeds for 6 irons – wedges and 3 speed for chipping / putting
I knew we were in trouble with the musician because he was already behind and we now needed 24 tracks total before November and each track needed 11 speeds.
11 x 24 = a lot of music that needed to be created before I was heading to The Hero Challenge tournament to pitch the music and App to PGA golfers.
Choking on the final hole
The day I was at the airport I got a call from Jeremy. He had just got off the phone with the producer/musician. In short, he wanted to quit and or be paid to finish the tracks he had not created. He had found out that by getting behind he had to work triple time and was just not that passionate about the project.
The final hour in that studio was not pretty… it was like breaking up with your girlfriend, someone you shared some great moments with but just knew it wasn’t going to work. Walking out we knew he was out and not going to be able to deliver. Our musician is a great guy but we didn’t need a “great guy” he just did not want it as bad as we did.
At that point, we had failed again…
We had done many great things and learned a lot from the producer, he dropped a lot of knowledge on me that I am forever grateful for. We finished pieces of the project like sequencing swings to music across all the clubs and learned a lot about the actual music we were creating. Sadly, once again we failed to create the amount of music we needed to get the App launched.
May 2018
After two solid failures to get Golf BPM launched I got a call from Jeremy in May of 2018. He had once again contacted a friend who was a musician that he wanted me to meet.
This time there would be no equity or revenue sharing, he was just going to pay them outright for their music. The upside of all the studio time we had logged was that we had the framework in place to move forward and the framework was spot on.
One thing we decided early on was to add a voice prompt to all the music.
Originally it was just going to be beats or tones. But since all the songs had different sound we decided to actually add a woman’s voice counting 1, 2 and 3.
The best part is I didn’t have to travel and spend time in the studio. We just gave them the files and asked them to create a sample track to make sure they could work within the framework.
Not to mention that when you pay people they seem to work a lot faster!
A week later we had a sample track “Lift Me Up” that you can hear on the “Pop” station within the App.
Within six weeks we had all the music we needed to get the App launched.
Jeremy then got to work on finishing all the programming to get the App into iTunes and Google Play. The development took a bit longer than expected however.
This is because when we tested on the driving range the voice and the music would sometimes be out of sync. Why you ask, because we wanted to build in an option to allow the users to mute the voice.
I happen to like the voice but some users found the repetition annoying overtime. Luckily Jeremy branded himself “The App Man” and if you’re going to do that you better be good at what you do. It took many tries but he is persistent, finally got it dialed in and got the Golf BPM launched.
After seven years, multiple musicians, Golf BPM went live in January of 2019! That was a good day. We are proud to say it has already aided in an individual NCAA D2 National Championship win.
In all my years of teaching golf my goal has always been to
help my students improve, make the game fun and enjoyable and to do my best to
help grow the game of golf.
Get the Golf BPM App Now!
One of my methods for growing the game has always been
through Junior golf. I have done camps, high school teams, tournaments, you
name it, I’ve done it all and have always enjoyed doing things that were unique
to the game of golf. It’s an incredibly
rewarding experience to see adults all over San Diego that I taught golf to
when they were in kids still have a love and passion for the game.
And although I’ve been recognized for my efforts, I always
wondered…
What is something that I could do to reach more people and
make the game more fun and approachable?
How can I do something that would leave a lasting impression on the
game, something players of all levels could benefit from?
In golf, every player and instructor struggle to learn or teach three things: Rhythm, Tempo and Timing.
Teachers can’t effectively teach it and players all struggle
to develop it. For the past 20 years of coaching, I have struggled to find an
effective way to teach rhythm, tempo and timing, until now!
My mission is to use music to grow the game and help players
of all skill levels have perfect rhythm, tempo and timing.
I want to personally invite you to join Golf BPM and help me
grow the game and add extra enjoyment through music.
Encinitas, CA – Golf BPM Swing Tempo Music is now offering
lifetime memberships in addition to their monthly and annual subscriptions. For
the cost of a round of golf, App users can now have access to Golf BPM for
life.
The membership offer is available at: Lifetime Membership Link and includes a full free trial where users can experience the music before purchasing.
Golf BPM Music was created so a player of any skill level can
develop the same even tempo by simply timing their swing to a library of
percussive, original music. Featuring original music from hip hop, to
electronic, to rock and pop, each song contains subtly timed verbal queues, so
users know exactly where to hit their swing marks.
“We surveyed our App customers and the one thing that kept coming
up was they all wanted to be members for life versus a monthly subscription”
says Golf BPM co-founder Jeremy Callahan. “So, in addition to subscriptions,
golfers can now buy lifetime accounts. We created a special website for new
users to get the offer or they can be purchased within the App”.
Golf BPM is a cross-platform App available in the iTunes and
Google Play. It offers a 7-day free trial on monthly and annual subscription and
now can purchased as a lifetime membership.
Today I wanted to tell you about the benefits that Golf BPM swing music can have to your game. Most golf training devices usually involve some sort of physical device made out of plastic. Golf BPM is just music with subtle tones that you time your swing to.
If you swing to the counts in our music, you will develop a
perfect tempo and timing. But there are some more subtle things you will also
benefit from that are not always obvious.
Listening Off Course
Getting your breathing, thoughts and mind in the proper
state before a round is extremely important. The problem is, there is no way to
do this and no one knows where to begin. The first hidden benefit of our music
is that you can listen on your way to the course in your car.
Our tag line is “Music makes your body move”. By listening
on your way to the course your mind and body will connect so that the second
you step out of the car you’re in the perfect headspace. I recommend that you mute
the voice count and just listen to the music only.
As you walk to the club house you will be relaxed and
grooving to your perfect tempo.
Swinging Slower
As you know swinging harder never produces better results. You can swing faster or shift your weight
more violently but that will not help you. Have you ever watched a professional
woman swing? Fred Couples or Ernie Els?
These players have one thing in common. They are using
perfect rhythm, tempo and timing to produce maximum results. In particular, you
never see a LPGA player overswinging or trying to produce power with muscle.
The second benefit of Golf BPM is that you can actually
swing at a slower pace and produce the same or more power. Think about the last
time you played golf and someone in your group said “That was a great swing”
after you hit a shot?
They didn’t compliment where your ball went, they
complimented your swings rhythm, tempo and timing.
Swinging Faster
The third hidden benefit isn’t for everyone. This is usually
reserved for Seniors, Women, Juniors or beginners. These are the people that
have long deliberate swings that are slower than our lowest BPM (126).
If you fall into this category, then Golf BPM can speed up your
swing in a positive way. All of our four BPM’s are at perfect swing tempo ratios.
So, if you do feel the need to swing faster, then select the next BPM and know
that even though you are swinging faster, you will be in perfect form.
Better Contact
After you get the musical timing down to your BPM you are
going to notice something right away. If you impact the ball on the 3 count… your
contact will improve, and the ball will consistently go straight.
You will also notice that if you are late on the 3 you will
fade or slice the ball. And if you are early on the 3 you will hook the ball. Having
said that, this is not a way to learn to hit fades or draws. It’s just a byproduct
of bad tempo that makes this happen.
It really comes down to your body being off beat. If you stay
with the counts you will be harmonious, flowing and in-rhythm. And by simply
doing that, your contact will improve dramatically.
Kids Love It!
Last summer while I was running my junior camps, I decided
to test the music with the kids. I fired up the music on a speaker the final 30
minutes of the first day. Not only did it work with kids that had never swung a
club before… They loved it.
The next morning, they were begging me to turn on the music
so they could hit to it.
If you are introducing golf to children, the first and most
important thing is: It has to be fun! If you are a parent you’ve struggled to
teach your kids something. Do not be that parent on the course… Keep it fun! Fire
up the music and sit back and watch your kids swing to the beats.
And for that matter… If you are teaching your husband, wife, kids or anyone else, don’t be that person on the range giving advice when you can’t even break 80. Just have them put on Golf BPM and time their swing to the beats. Keep if fun, keep it simple.
As an instructor I have always wanted a tool to use to teach
my students how to repeat their rhythm tempo and timing. I used various methods;
I’ve found that a metronome was close but still not what I was looking for.
This is when Golf BPM was created, I worked with “The App
Man” Jeremy Callahan and various music producers to create an app that helps
you with your rhythm, tempo and timing. Golf BPM can be used on and off the
golf course, making it fun and effective to use while practicing, playing or
even just listening casually while driving in your car.
Just think of all the different things going on around you
while driving, if you had music that you could listen to that had tones that
match your perfect rhythm, tempo and timing it would be almost as effective as
actually hitting at the range. Instead of wasting timing doing nothing in the
car except for getting mad at the traffic and all of the horrible drivers you
actually be doing something to help your golf game.
What the
Pros Say About Tempo
Sir Nick
Faldo was quoted saying that rhythm, tempo and timing is the glue
that holds every great golf swing together and as a coach I couldn’t agree
more. The more you can ingrain that flow in your mind, the easier it will be to
repeat when you get into close match or coming down the stretch in a tournament
or casual round.
Sam Snead is said
to have had one of the most graceful swings in the history of golf, he has been
quoted saying that he would whistle a waltz tune while playing and this what
helped him to keep perfect rhythm, tempo and timing under the heat of the
battle.
Jimmy
Demart put out some instructional records that helped you
understand how to use music as a tool for your golf swing. There are so many
different sayings and counting methods that you can use while swinging the club
that can help you get your tempo going but now you can have music that is made
specifically for you in mind.
Music
Makes Your Body Move
Music and tones have a powerful effect on most brains,
different sounds and rhythms create certain responses. Music has the ability to
take you to a certain frame of mind and provokes a certain mood or feeling.
The music we have built is all original and is designed in a
certain format and certain BPM’s that allows your mind be at ease while
listening. We want the golfer to be able to zone out and get lost in the rhythm
of the music, using the tones and/or the counts to guide you on your journey to
creating a repetitive golf swing.
We have done a lot of research and have spent countless hours
reading about the effects sounds have on your mind. Not only do we use certain
tones but all tones are timed to the best swings on the PGA Tour.
Teaching Golf Tempo With Music
The best part about the Golf BPM is that through all of our
testing with various levels of golfer we found that it is fun and effective.
If you are a fellow golf instructor, Golf BPM is also a great
training aid to use during lessons or during junior clinics. You will find your
students will love it and the kids will bug you to turn the music back on.
For those that didn’t understand the importance of music and
the tone/counts prior to listening they sure understood after five minutes of
playing with the app. We found that all of the students and/or juniors that
listened to the music with the voice counts on, quickly got themselves in a perfect
rhythm.
The voice counts and/or tones will also help all golfers with
the rhythm of their pre shot routine, the way they walk to the ball, set up to
the ball, look down the line and the starting of the overall swing. The goal is
to get yourself moving to the BPM that best fits your swing tempo.
How
to Choose a Swing Speed (BPM)
Finding the BPM that best fits your swing is fun and can also
be challenging. We recommend starting with selecting driver to five iron and
then choose the 144 BPM, you will immediately discover if this is too fast or
too slow.
Even if you feel it is too slow, try and sync up with the
counts/tones, get some confidence going and then if you want to explore please
do so. We have found that moving up in the BPM’s will help increase your club
head speed also.
We also like to use the 126 BPM for a good foundation to get
everything moving smoothly at the beginning of a practice session. We have not
really seen a pattern except that the younger more advanced players love to try
and swing at the fastest BPM (184 BPM’s).
We love the fact that we have built a training aid that will really help golfers of all levels improve their rhythm, tempo and timing which will help them improve their overall game.
Golf BPM Swing Tempo Music CEO Doug Timmons and “The Dukes” drummer Greg Jacks have collaborated and completed recording for putting and chipping music. The music is set to be released in the App the week of May 28, 2019.
The collaboration produced 36 new tracks that App users can listen to while putting and chipping. All of the musical prompts and beats help golfers create consistent tempo at a perfect 2:1 backswing to downswing ratio.
Timmons traveled out to Phoenix, Arizona and went into the studio to work out the final details and sequencing of the music timing. “In 2018 when I created the putting music, the timing always seemed a bit off. Working with Greg we were able to finally nail the exact sequencing needed for the perfect putting & chipping rhythm.” Says Doug.
The music is set to be added and released in the App the last week of May. “This is the most significant App release we will do this year” says CTO Jeremy Callahan. “When we initially launched the App in January, we did not have enough short game music to release. Rather than wait, we decided to get the App with the full swing music out and release the short game music later”.
About Greg Jacks
Greg Jacks is the co-founder of Dynamic French Art Rockers “The Dukes” which was formed in 2010 by Jacks and Francois “Shanka” Maigret. They have released three records: “Resilient Lovers”, “Victory”, and “Smoke Against the Beat”. Jacks was also part of the multi-platinum pop rock band Superbus, which won an MTV award, and 2 French Grammy nominations (winning in 2007 for Best Rock Album).
If you head out to your local driving range, you will see tons of people listening to music while they are practicing hitting balls. If you go to a PGA event and head to the range, you will also see the pros practicing while listening to music.
That begs the question… what are the listening to? And
better yet, is that music helping their tempo, rhythm and timing?
The answer to if the golf music is helping is 100% NO! Each
song in your playlist has a different BPM (beats per minute) and that is not
helping your tempo.
In the early 2000’s when the iPod came out this same exact
question came to Doug Timmons. At that point he had been teaching golf and
started to notice more and more golfers were practicing with golf music. Doug
loves music and out of curiosity would ask what golf music they were listening
to. Of course, this music ranged from hip hop to rock to pop and everything
else.
But all the music had one thing in common. And that was it
was not helpful to the golfer’s rhythm, tempo and timing. And as an instructor
the main issue in his teaching was, he could never consistently teach students
how to develop perfect tempo.
So, Doug created “Golf BPM” golf music. Golf BPM is an App
similar to Pandora with stations and playlists with one gigantic difference.
All the golf music is tailored to help golfers of all levels develop perfect
rhythm, tempo and timing in their golf swing.
When it comes to golf music compare what the pros are doing…
First, let’s look at Rickie Fowler. Our swing analysis of
Rickie shows that he hits at 184 beats per minute. In a “Golf Digest” online article
Rickey listed four songs he loves to listen to:
1. “Wake Me Up,” Avicii – 124 BPM’s
2. “Radioactive,” Imagine Dragons – 136 BPM’s
3. “Mockingbird,” Eminem – 84 BPM’s
4. “Take You Higher, Goodwill – 128 BPM’s
Second, here is Rory Mcilroy list from the same article.
Rory swings at 156 BPM’s
Now I’ll concede that both Rickie and Rory certainly have
better musical taste than me but their music selection from a beats per minute perspective
is all over the map. Not to mention that the BPM’s are at a much slower pace than
their actual swing.
It’s interesting to see that with all the technical advances
in golf that even the best pro players are not effectively using music correctly.
Think about that… if you find that you swing at 184 BPM’s then all you have to
do is find music in that range.
Here are two options you have for finding perfect golf music
for your swing:
Golf BPM Music App: First, Golf BPM will also help you
determine your perfect swing BPM when register on the App. Then all the golf
music has three distinct beats and a voice prompts. Golfers just pick a
station, club (driver, 5-iron, etc.) and then put in their headphones and time
their swing to the music.
The second thing you can do is once you know your BPM you can
then download an iTunes add-on called: “BPM Detection”. With this add-on you
can see and order all your songs in iTunes by BPM. Then you can create your own
golf music playlist at your exact BPM.
With the Golf BPM App and the BPM Detection add-on you now have a fast and simple solution to having perfect, tailored golf music to practice to.
Golf BPM Swing Tempo Music App has launched a new skill on Amazon Alexa. Alexa users can simply say “Alexa, install Golf BPM” and after the install can say “Alex, Play Golf BPM”.
The initial release includes one trial song available so that golfers can hear and sample a full Golf BPM song. The song is at a mid-range BPM (beat per minute) of 144 BPM’s. The song also includes the voice over counting 1, 2, 3. Golfer can time their swing to the counts by starting their swing on the 1, starting their downswing on the 2 and making impact on the 3 count.
Golfers can get a full version of the App which is available in iTunes and Google Play. Within the App there are over 100 songs, 4 stations and 4 different swing speeds (BPM’s) to swing to. It offers a 7-day free trial on monthly and annual subscription or users can purchased as a lifetime membership.
This weekend Golf BPM will be offering expo attendees the opportunity to experience their music via a silent disco at this year’s Haggin Oaks Golf Expo.
“We wanted to give expo attendees a unique way to experience our swing temp music without having to download and install our App” says Golf BPM’s CTO, Jeremy Callahan. “By creating a silent disco, attendees can just put on headphones and go hit to our music on the driving range”
Attendees can find the Golf BPM silent disco at the 18GREENS Apparel booth located in the Front Super Shop section of the expo. Golf BPM co-founder and CEO Doug Timmons (PGA) also owns and operates 18GREENS.
18GREENS will be selling gear at amazing prices during the expo. They will be offering deep discounts on shirts, pants, shorts, hats for men, women and juniors.
About 18GREENS
18GREENS apparel is built with golf in mind and the great lifestyle it has to offer. Established in North County, San Diego, where the weather is perfect year-round, we are inspired by music, travel, water, athletic activities and sunshine. Our family is constantly chasing blue water, bright sunshine and green grass.
