Do you practice with a metronome?

[min7b5]

I pretty much only play with a metronome. Once in a while I'll just play casually around the house without one, but it's rare. I always tell students that other wise you're only practing notes.

[rick-slo]

You can practice some things with a metronome to develop and gauge certain technical proficiencies and perhaps in some cases to improve your over all sense of time. Just don't play like a metronome robot, especially for musically expressive pieces. To be musical you often need to let the music breathe and have ebbs and flows, both in tempo and in volume. For example:
http://dcoombsguitar.com/Guitar%20Mu...yBillEvans.mp3

[dagobert]

When playing the guitar I do practice with a metronome but I also tend to be a little freeer (word? is now!)

But

When I'm practicing/playing bass the metronome is always in use.

[min7b5]

I totally agree that dynamics in volume is very important, but I think the idea of music “breathing” or whatever, in tempo, is very very easily and often overstated by guitar players in particular. I think if one has very solid time and you’re going to add little rubato, the way a great classical soloist might -in a very intentional and courteous way- in a solo setting, it can be great. But for many many players it’s way overstated and robs the listener of the connective tissue for experiencing your music.

I just hear so many solo guitar players in paticular that look and sound like “good” playing, but you can’t lock into it. And there’s just something missing -most of the time the listener does not know what it is. And if you’re playing with others, this an enormous problem. Great bass players and drummers are notoriously skeptical of guitar players for this reason. If you can truly lock into the pocket with them you’ll always have friends. If you're rushing, or sagging at the end of phrases you will be replaced, and sadly probably not know why.

If someone feels robotic when working with a metronome it’s not the metronome, you just need to sit with it much longer. Because there’s a whole world of room in the math to move around in, but you’re not going to get there without that fulcrum.

For the record I’m not saying I’m the rhythm master, and always have great time. I don't. It wouldn’t be hard to find stuff on my records and videos where there’s plenty of room for improvement. But for sure, when I got more serious about this, I noticed a very big difference in audience reaction.

And lastly, I’m very fortunate to be friends with and get to play with some of the very best session players and sidemen around. One might wonder why a major star might ask a Mark Goldenberg or Adam Levy, etc, to accompany them on the Grammy awards, or to play Madison Square Garden, and it sure isn’t because they play very technical stuff, or look good in yoga pants, it’s about the tone, and very much about the unbelievably deep and reassuring pocket they deliver every time.

[Paully]

Always practice with a 'nome.

[rogthefrog]

Originally Posted by Shy Boy William

Serious musicians use them which I am not!!!!!!!!!!

It would help for many country blues and ragtime finger style pieces to use although the clicking gets annoying while I'm trying to learn and smooth out a piece.

It would be detrimental to use while playing John Fahey's Music (my favorite artist).

Not all music gets set to a clock but is fueled by emotion.

That said if it is your goal to play with others, than you'd better use one.

You don't use a metronome while playing. You use it while practicing.

If you haven't built up the skills to play perfectly in time, you also haven't learned the skills to control your playing in more fluid or rubato time. "Rubato" means stolen, and you have to give that time back, otherwise the piece won't sound good.

In my experience, the folks who claim they don't need a metronome because the music they play isn't "mechanically precise" or some other derogatory description have really terrible time.

Btw I don't mean to imply that about your playing specifically. Just pointing out the fallacy of the "I play loose music so I don't need a metronome" argument.

[rogthefrog]

Originally Posted by min7b5

I totally agree that dynamics in volume is very important, but I think the idea of music “breathing” or whatever, in tempo, is very very easily and often overstated by guitar players in particular. I think if one has very solid time and you’re going to add little rubato, the way a great classical soloist might -in a very intentional and courteous way- in a solo setting, it can be great. But for many many players it’s way overstated and robs the listener of the connective tissue for experiencing your music.

I just hear so many solo guitar players in paticular that look and sound like “good” playing, but you can’t lock into it. And there’s just something missing -most of the time the listener does not know what it is. And if you’re playing with others, this an enormous problem. Great bass players and drummers are notoriously skeptical of guitar players for this reason. If you can truly lock into the pocket with them you’ll always have friends. If you're rushing, or sagging at the end of phrases you will be replaced, and sadly probably not know why.

If someone feels robotic when working with a metronome it’s not the metronome, you just need to sit with it much longer. Because there’s a whole world of room in the math to move around in, but you’re not going to get there without that fulcrum.

For the record I’m not saying I’m the rhythm master, and always have great time. I don't. It wouldn’t be hard to find stuff on my records and videos where there’s plenty of room for improvement. But for sure, when I got more serious about this, I noticed a very big difference in audience reaction.

And lastly, I’m very fortunate to be friends with and get to play with some of the very best session players and sidemen around. One might wonder why a major star might ask a Mark Goldenberg or Adam Levy, etc, to accompany them on the Grammy awards, or to play Madison Square Garden, and it sure isn’t because they play very technical stuff, or look good in yoga pants, it’s about the tone, and very much about the unbelievably deep and reassuring pocket they deliver every time.

Quoted for truth.

I bet Mark G. looks great in yoga pants, though.

[semolinapilcher]

Originally Posted by brianmay

I'm a human, not a machine and changing the tempo of a song whenever I want is part of my interpretation.

Of course! But it's better when it's a choice.

My rhythm has always been much better than my tempo; my tendency is to speed up gradually during the course of a song. I first became aware of it many years ago when I was listening to a live recording I'd made of our duo. While listening to a track, I clicked back to the beginning and... hmmm... different tempo. No one is going to ask me to conduct the Philharmonic.

[Pitar]

No gnomes here, metro or otherwise. If you can't hold a natural rhythm can you expect a timing device to train it into you?

[zhunter]

Originally Posted by Pitar

No gnomes here, metro or otherwise. If you can't hold a natural rhythm can you expect a timing device to train it into you?

Assuming you can play, yes.

hunter

[amyFB]

Originally Posted by rogthefrog

Ed Gerhard mentioned the same thing. He described rhythm as a contract you have with the audience, and if your rhythm isn't solid (you slow down or speed up randomly, or you add / subtract beats), that contract is breached, and it's a lot worse than flubbing a note.



I agree.

Beautifully said!

[rick-slo]

You don't make up for rubato by speeding up elsewhere, though you may or may not return to the original tempo.

Here is a pleasant example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hK3XoVdO-8

[funkapus]

Originally Posted by Pitar

No gnomes here, metro or otherwise. If you can't hold a natural rhythm can you expect a timing device to train it into you?

Yes.

And FWIW it's my experience that very few hold a tempo well, or keeps good rhythm, *without* having spent some time working with a metronome; but many many players think they do.

[SFCRetired]

Never mind.

[patrickgm60]

Originally Posted by min7b5

I totally agree that dynamics in volume is very important, but I think the idea of music “breathing” or whatever, in tempo, is very very easily and often overstated by guitar players in particular. I think if one has very solid time and you’re going to add little rubato, the way a great classical soloist might -in a very intentional and courteous way- in a solo setting, it can be great. But for many many players it’s way overstated and robs the listener of the connective tissue for experiencing your music.

I just hear so many solo guitar players in paticular that look and sound like “good” playing, but you can’t lock into it. And there’s just something missing -most of the time the listener does not know what it is. And if you’re playing with others, this an enormous problem. Great bass players and drummers are notoriously skeptical of guitar players for this reason. If you can truly lock into the pocket with them you’ll always have friends. If you're rushing, or sagging at the end of phrases you will be replaced, and sadly probably not know why.

If someone feels robotic when working with a metronome it’s not the metronome, you just need to sit with it much longer. Because there’s a whole world of room in the math to move around in, but you’re not going to get there without that fulcrum.

For the record I’m not saying I’m the rhythm master, and always have great time. I don't. It wouldn’t be hard to find stuff on my records and videos where there’s plenty of room for improvement. But for sure, when I got more serious about this, I noticed a very big difference in audience reaction.

And lastly, I’m very fortunate to be friends with and get to play with some of the very best session players and sidemen around. One might wonder why a major star might ask a Mark Goldenberg or Adam Levy, etc, to accompany them on the Grammy awards, or to play Madison Square Garden, and it sure isn’t because they play very technical stuff, or look good in yoga pants, it’s about the tone, and very much about the unbelievably deep and reassuring pocket they deliver every time.

Excellent post; stated better (and with more credibility) than I would have.

As a frequent listener to the Open Mic section, I find poor/uneven tempo to be the most frequent reason for me stopping, early into the recording.