Metronome practice

[rdeane]

I don't like using a metronome, but I find it essential now to keeping myself in time (especially for songs I'm learning or where I have some rough spots). I find it very useful to be able to change the sound--my Snark metronome has a few different sounds that I can run through that may better accompany what I'm playing. Still don't like it, but I think it's really useful.

[rllink]

Originally Posted by Tahitijack

I'm learning piano and my teacher doesn't believe there is any value in a metronome. He doesn't want me to become mechanical in my playing but rather play the melody as I would sing it. I'm playing songs from the great American Songbook and I listen to Frank, Tony, Andy, Ella and others the use of a metronome would ruin the music.

I think that is fine is you intend to always play solo, but as soon as you add someone else to the mix you had better be able to keep time or have someone who is good enough to stay with you wherever you go. I was lucky for a long time to have the latter and I had an awakening when he moved away.

I struggle with the metronome for the reason that I can't listen to the beep beep and concentrate on my plying, but perhaps that is what it is all about. I'm working at it.

Originally Posted by Andyrondack

I was trying to remember how my music teachers at school got me to play at a steady tempo but whatever techniques they might have used I've long forgotten how they did it.
I certainly never used a metronome so they can't be that essential though I wouldn't be without one now.
This video has a good test to see if you can maintain a steady pulse, shame there is no way to change the bpm.
https://practisingthepiano.com/rhyth...-steady-pulse/

In grade school our music teacher played the piano and we sang along. I remember one of those old pyramid shaped metronomes sittng up on her piano but I don't remember it clicking. Maybe it did.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Joe Beamish

Being able to play with a metronome will not make you mechanical.

It might tend that way if you routinely work up new material (especially more emotive things) while playing a metronome.

[lowrider]

Originally Posted by Tahitijack

I'm learning piano and my teacher doesn't believe there is any value in a metronome. He doesn't want me to become mechanical in my playing but rather play the melody as I would sing it. I'm playing songs from the great American Songbook and I listen to Frank, Tony, Andy, Ella and others the use of a metronome would ruin the music.

I'll bet you that Frank, Tony, Andy, and Ella all kept perfect time. You don't hear it because they are in time. If they were swinging all over the place, people would be crashing into each other in the orchestra behind them.

Folkies used to like to say that Bob Dylan's timing was all over the map and he did pretty good for himself. When you are Bob Dylan, you can do whatever you want, until then you need good timing.

I just realized that over the past 2.5 years playing alone my timing has gone into the crapper. I'm now working almost full time with the metronome. I don't like it anymore than anyone else does, but it's one of those things that you just have to do.

[b1j]

Originally Posted by phydaux

When I practice, usually just strumming lightly with my fingers, I intentionally stare at the ceiling. I don't look at either hand. And with time & practice I find that my hands remember how to find the notes & strings just fine.

When I practice with my metronome I find that I have to concentrate on the metronome. Like Robin said, actually listening to the guitar so that I stay in time with the metronome. As I do that I find that my hands then forget EVERYTHING. My left hand misses chord changes, and right hand fingers miss the strings.

So then I have to concentrate on the metronome, while listening to the guitar, while I look at BOTH of my hands, snapping my head back & forth like I'm watching a supersonic tennis match. As as I do that my tone just goes to pieces. My dynamics are all over the place, some notes too loud and some barely audible.

And lately I've been getting super aware of my tone, and how generally LOUSY it is.

It sounds like you’re entering a growth spurt. I’m excited for you. Keep at it.

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

It might tend that way if you routinely work up new material (especially more emotive things) while playing a metronome.

In my experience, playing with a metronome opens up new ideas for cadence and timing. It’s made me a more dynamic player, if anything. I haven’t seen any evidence that a metronome makes a player mechanical.

[reeve21]

Eric Skye (who often posts here) has a series of videos where he talks about practicing with a metronome, and setting it on beats 2 and 4. I got the impression he does this a lot, maybe almost all the time he is practicing. His playing is in no way mechanical.

[rick-slo]

https://www.adamrafferty.com/2008/02...e-a-metronome/

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

https://www.adamrafferty.com/2008/02...e-a-metronome/

An interesting read but misses the point of a metronome, because, as he says, he never uses one.

For me, a metronome is all about listening in real time, and lifting myself above the instrument to hear everything. Far more so than it is about click track timing. Although I can play to a click track if I need to (such as multi tracking Elzics Farewell below).

Regarding phrasing: when I was running dulcimer workshops I would switch on a metronome at around 60 bps and play Danny Boy, moving the phrasing around as you would sing it but always coming back to the beat (back to the band) at key points.

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Eric Skye (who often posts here) has a series of videos where he talks about practicing with a metronome, and setting it on beats 2 and 4. I got the impression he does this a lot, maybe almost all the time he is practicing. His playing is in no way mechanical.

2 and 4 is a great way of using a metronome.

[Merak]

The metronome is a great way to find out if you really know the music. You don’t know it if you have to think about it, and with the metronome you can’t think about the music AND the metronome. Powerful tool.

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by Joe Beamish

2 and 4 is a great way of using a metronome.

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Working on the 2 and 4 beat takes a bit of practice but is a pretty cool way to use a metronome because as Eric explains it gives you a bit of space to work within. I also like how Eric for the most part does not focus on just using a metronome but using a metronome to develop your “groove”.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by rllink

I struggle with the metronome for the reason that I can't listen to the beep beep and concentrate on my plying, but perhaps that is what it is all about. I'm working at it.

In Josh Turknett's book, the Laws of Brainjo, he talks about this. Josh is a neuroscientist who plays banjo. The book's all about how we learn, how to practice effectively etc. Lots of interesting ideas. He talks a lot about how learning is building neuro pathways in the brain. Once the paths are there, built correctly, you can play something easily. The question is "how do you know when the pathways are built?". He says the metronome is a good test. If you can play correctly while paying attention to the metronome, then you have truly learned the piece. I imagine other distractions would work as well - like if you play a piece while watching TV or carrying on a conversation.

[rick-slo]

Being a classical music lover are a couple of examples of living breathing playing that moves me.