Turn on a metronome and clap your hands in time with the ticks. You will find that, when a clap coincides exactly with a tick, the tick is not audible.
I don't have equipment to measure the error tolerance for this. I assume it's about one hundredth of a second. So, if your clap occurs within 0.01 seconds of the tick, you can't hear the tick. And, it turns out that the same thing happens when playing lute with a metro- nome, perhaps because of a percussive sound associated with plucking the string. This gives one an objective, easily verifiable, and challenging goal in developing precision in technique. I suggest that you begin with clapping before trying it with a lute. Sometimes I walk about the room and try to maintain precision in clapping. This looks a bit silly, but it is not easy, and it makes me appreciate the skill associated with rigorous dance training. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
