Metronome / looper for my performance

[rabbuhl]

I was practicing yesterday and used my metronome. That really made me play better and made the whole song feel overall better. In another thread, I mentioned I bought a Boss RC-5 looper to use at my performance. I used it once but need a lot more experience. As an acoustic performer what is the way to have that beat which helps to stay on track? Do you use a metronome, a looper, or something else to mark the one?

[JonPR]

The metronome is best, because its information is minimal. So you are forced to provide beat subdivisions. and to predict where the next beat will fall.

This is way metronome training consist of slowing the metronome down (reducing information), not speeding it up. So your internal clock has to do more work, to stay on track.

A looper is a lot more fun, of course, especially using it to build grooves. Nothing wrong with that, and it can certainly help develop a sense of time for a beginner.

But once you find a looper (or backing tracks or drum machines) easy to stay in time with, that's when (if you want to get better still!), you'd move to a metronome. Start with it on each beat, but get more advanced by halving the rate and hearing it as 2 and 4, or even put the click on a single beat in each bar.

[rabbuhl]

Originally Posted by JonPR

The metronome is best, because its information is minimal. So you are forced to provide beat subdivisions. and to predict where the next beat will fall.

This is way metronome training consist of slowing the metronome down (reducing information), not speeding it up. So your internal clock has to do more work, to stay on track.

A looper is a lot more fun, of course, especially using it to build grooves. Nothing wrong with that, and it can certainly help develop a sense of time for a beginner.

But once you find a looper (or backing tracks or drum machines) easy to stay in time with, that's when (if you want to get better still!), you'd move to a metronome. Start with it on each beat, but get more advanced by halving the rate and hearing it as 2 and 4, or even put the click on a single beat in each bar.

Can you perform with a metronome? If so, what's the best way?

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by rabbuhl

I was practicing yesterday and used my metronome. That really made me play better and made the whole song feel overall better. In another thread, I mentioned I bought a Boss RC-5 looper to use at my performance. I used it once but need a lot more experience. As an acoustic performer what is the way to have that beat which helps to stay on track? Do you use a metronome, a looper, or something else to mark the one?

Hi rubbuhl
The beat is kept in my head, and released through my hands.

A major difference between the metronome and looper is the looper (when loops are done well on the fly) will maintain the feel of a piece and corral the speed 'in place' in a less mechanical way than a drum machine.

Tempo, for me, is not about exactness or precision, but like the speed of the water flowing down a 'river' (through the song). I've done studio work where they keep a click track going in the background, and it really hampers playing with 'feel'.

I think of tempo like water in a stream…if the bank narrows, it gets a little faster. If the bank widens, the river spreads out and slows a bit…It can ebb and flow with great effect.

Metronomes are what I use to deliberately lower the speed of passages/songs while I learn new techniques…I slow the speed till I can play the passage/notes perfectly. Then I slowly increase the tempo as I keep the notes correct and then re-establish the 'feel' of the piece.

I've played for 65 years now, so I don't struggle as much with the beat or tempos. But when I was starting as a young kid (8 yrs old) I'd use a metronome to help me learn the speed and feel of a piece, before taking it out of the equation once I had the 'pace' learned.

I do still slow passages down extremely during practice on guitar as I am mastering new techniques, or learning solo inserts for songs (lead guitar), especially when they demand fingerings I've not worked into my fingers/brain.

To understand tempo, I recommend checking out John Williams' scores running through Star Wars or Indiana Jones movies (and many other movies he's scored, and directed).

Metronomic and high speed performances of "Flight of the Bumblebee" or Gypsy Jazz versions of "Sweet Georgia Brown" are fun once or twice, but overall this style of performance doesn't have the magical touch of a well executed movie score which sets the tone for what's happening on the screen and ties together the pace of action and dialogue.

That's the main reason great orchestras have a conductor up front, not an in-ear metronome for each player.