Practicing with a metronome
 

I seldom practice with a metronome, and when I do I tend to choose a tempo that is comfortable for me.

Yesterday I decided to crack out the old metronome and try playing a piece I know off by heart at a slow(er) tempo. I was pretty shocked and disappointed when I couldn't do it to save my life. I would always speed up.

I spent a good couple of hours on it before I started get into the groove. But once the tempo clicked and I could "feel" the groove it sounded pretty awesome, even though it was rather slow for the song.

Now I've seen others suggest slowing the metronome right down to play only on the first beat of the bar. I'm struggling just to do it on quarter beats @ 120bpm. It's like my internal body clock and muscle memory is set to ~160bpm. Years of playing and listening to punk I guess....

Anyway, it was a huge eye opener! One that showed me my rhythm sucks and that I desperately need to slow down.

Agreed. It's a lesson I learned a lot later in life than I should have. For example, 6/8 is easy for me having the click on the beat. But once every two beats or once every third beat can challenge me. Without the nome, I can play faster and I think my timing is good. Add the nome and it still takes me to school

My attempts at playing with a metronome have been dismal at best. Other than slow songs that are only quarter notes, I get lost. My respect to those folks who can use a metronome successfully.

:D
I have the same problem as you!

I don't use a metronome because I've had dismal results too. Yet I know it's good for me and proper. I have, however, noticed that one piece of my problem with metronomes is they typically sound clicky. I was able to do much better following a straight kick drum beat to my desired tempo in Garageband. Also, I can play along with a record pretty ok. That darn click track or metronome sounds soooooo clinical to me. :)

I'm with you. I bought a met. thinking it would improve my timing-tried it once and now it collects dust.

I like Eric Skye's suggestion. I don't have the metronome tic off every beat.

For example, in 4/4, I might only use it for beats 2 and 4. These keeps me having to keep in time with an outside source but makes me provide the rest of the timing. I think he referred to that as playing behind the beat.

On a 4/3 fingerpicking piece, I'm working on, I only have it tic on the first beat. I can vary the the timing for individual measures as the song ebbs and flows but still maintain the overall rhythm.

I know I can't use the metronome when I'm first learning a difficult passage, too much to keep track of. Once I've got the passage past the fumbling stage, I'll work on getting it on time (slow at first etc).

Cue old jazz joke:
Dude goes into music shop: "You got one of them jazz metronomes?"
Music shop guy: "Jazz metronome?"
Dude: "Yeah, you know, the ones that just click on 2 and 4."
Playing behind the beat means something different: being slightly late on the beat. Something old blues drummers used to do, a lazy snare hit on 2 and 4.
You mean 3/4? ;)

I agree.
Much better to use a drum sound of some kind. Kick on 1-2-3-4 is good, 1 and 3 is better, but the best thing is a snare on 2 and 4. (Nothing else)

I would say for just about all styles of music, putting the metronome on 2&4 is a great thing. But you're not comfortable with using a metronome at all, I'd wait a little bit, because it's difficult to put it on the 2&4.... I made a little video about this last month http://youtu.be/sWOa0vfv5FY

That video is the BEST practical discussion I have ever seen on using a metronome properly. Great stuff!

I have been watching the other videos in your series. I really appreciate when a "real player" is actively posting and giving the rest of us real, practical information based on real world experience. There are some who post here with a lot of words about theory, but we have never seen/heard them play. You can get theory from any book, but having it sifted through the lens of real world proven experience carries far more weight and is far more useful to the rest of us.

Thanks,

Tony

So the last 3 days I've been using the nome extensively. I've already noticed an improvement. I've bumped it down to 60bpm on the 1 and 3 beat. This is a good tempo for learning a few songs I've been working on.

It's been a real wake up call and is highlighting all the areas of my playing that are less than mediocre. It seems like I've been storing mistakes in my muscle memory.

The click isn't that bad when it's in time. No different to any percussion noise. When playing out of time though, it is rather obnoxious.

I'm the same. I've tried a few times, but I get nowhere with one. To me timing and technique are so intertwined that I must almost always learn both at once. I'll do the finger placement and then almost immediately put them in the context of timing. Merely knowing where to put the fingers is only done when it is something very difficult for me to learn. Then I just make everything quarter notes (or half notes when I really have to dumb it down) until I'm comfortable with the fingering and then apply the timing. Then sometimes its a little tough to undo the false timing I learned, but I push through it until I'm okay with it.

That's the beauty of the nome. It forces you to play with correct technique. You have to create a sense of rhythm in your hands. If you can't play along to a metronome (with a song you know well) then your timing and rhythm is off. It's really that simple.

Timing
 

I've been working on my timing for the last couple of years and found that playing with a metronome was the first (necessary) step in getting with the tempo.

I hadn't played a lot with other people in my life and when I did, I wasn't worrying about the timing so much. But I wanted to collaborate more and knew that that was an essential piece of the equation.

I actually began to sing in a choir which helped tremendously because I had to learn to count while thinking musically. When I worked on my guitar work I found with practise I was getting better but when asked to accompany others or accompany some seasoned jazz players who were backing up our choir, it was the thing that had me most nervous: I've always really respected musicians who had great inner clocks. I wanted to get better at it so I just kept plugging away.

The thing that really turned a corner for me personally was gently tapping my left foot to the beat. I concentrate on the 1 and go from there. It has changed my playing entirely. For a while I was using a bluetooth earpiece and my iPhone...and that worked well too.

At any rate, I thought I would pass it on as it has really worked for me!

Cheeers, Peter