Importance of Using a Metronome
Adam Smale
Why use a metronome? Well, I can think of many good reasons
to why you
would want to use a metronome when you practice. People are born
with
perfect pitch, but have you ever heard of someone being born with perfect
time? I haven’t. Time, as most people would agree, is something everyone
needs
to develop. This is where the metronome comes in handy.
If you want your musical ideas to be cohesive, things have
to be played
“in time.” You can play the hippest notes you want, but if it’s
phrased poorly
and out of time, frankly, it’ll sound terrible to not only
musicians, but to your
average listener as well. That goes for any style of
music. The human ear
likes to be able to understand organized logic. Playing
music in time is that
organized logic.
Using a metronome for some is a bit put-offing because it
can expose your
weaknesses, and this is a blow to your ego. You might think you
have good
time until you play with someone that does, then you just might feel
inadequate in that department. Well, break out your metronome and get to
work!
You can use a metronome for many things in your practice.
When doing finger
exercises, picking exercises, anything you do to build
technique, scales
(of course) or sight reading (more on this later), you can
use the tempo
markings as a way to gauge how much better we are getting. The
faster we
can cleanly execute something the better we are getting, right? It
can be very
rewarding to see yourself beat your previous record on playing a
certain
passage, or exercise you routinely practice: you see your improvement,
literally! When first starting out it might be a good idea to mark down what you
accomplished today, so you have something to beat tomorrow. This all can
help
motivate you when it’s often hard to see improvement in your abilities. You
now
at least you have something tangible to gauge your progress.
Here are some great tips to utilize a metronome:
- Really
nailing time values. Eighth notes, sixteenth notes, eight note
triplets, quarter note triplets, etc. You get the picture. This could be just
the picking hand, adding in the left hand as well, or just playing slurs
(hammer-ons and pull-offs) in time with just the left hand. - Playing
really slow. Try it. You’ll see that playing really slow is harder
than playing fast in many ways. Play a passage or a whole song at 40
beats per minute (BPM) and see if you can pull it off convincingly, with
passion, all without speeding up. Many people you admire who play with
excellent time I bet have learned to “feel” time at extremely slow tempos
as well as ripping tempos. - I often get my students to use a
metronome to help with their sight
reading. Breaking all the elements down, note recognition, fretboard
and finger placement, note values, etc., while having the metronome
mark out quarter notes, I have them do the following: 1) name aloud
each note in succession treating each note as if it was a quarter note,
2) then play the notes on their guitar again treating each note as a
quarter note disregarding time values, 3) then clap the rhythms while
counting, 4) next play the rhythms on the correct string (open or muted)
that you would play each note, then put it all together and play the song
as it is supposed to be played. The faster BPM that you can do each
step the better you are improving at putting all the elements to sight
reading together. It also helps a person realize what area that is
causing difficulty by eliminating the other elements and boiling it down
to just one at a time.
- Naming
notes on your fretboard. You’d be surprised how much better
you get at knowing your fretboard layout by naming notes up and down
(yes down) on each individual string. The faster the tempo, the faster
you can recall the note, the better you are getting. Again, you get
feedback, witnessing yourself improve. And yet further, you are
exposing weak spots. Are you sensing a theme here? Almost everyone
has a zone they avoid because they aren’t comfortable. Do the
uncomfortable so you can get comfortable. - Instead
of putting the “click” on each beat, try halving your intended
tempo marking and count yourself in hearing the clicks on beats 2 & 4.
This is really good for making you have to “hear”, or feel where beat one
is. This in my opinion helps you develop better time than having the
metronome tell you where each beat is. Plus this concept and the
following suggestions help you create a more elastic time feel,
something not so rigid but still “in time.” - If it’s a fast tune you’re working on,
try dividing the tempo one fourth
an hear the click on beat only on beat 1, or just 2, or just 3, or just 4.
Now you are getting somewhere developing good time. - It 3/4
time hear the click on just beat 2 or 3, only. Or have it click every
second beat so that it click on beats 1 & 3 for the first measure, then
beat 2 in the second measure. You’ll notice how every two measure you
cycle back to beat 1 again. - For a
more advanced move, you jazzers could hear the metronome click
on the “ands” (or up beats) of a swing feel, or the “ands” of 2 & 4, etc.
You get the picture. Try to stay in time only hearing the up beats.
And of course, use a metronome
when you are practicing the new approach to
scales. Treat playing scales as an
Etude, a short practice piece, where you
can measure your improvement. More to
come on that topic next article
(feel free to comment or post your thoughts and ideas)
Drew Engman
Really good point in your post. Slow but playing in time at that tempo is rough. If I just pick up my guitar in passing and noodle, if a difficult combination of stuff comes up as I play, I often slow down just that section, but never get the whole thing together at a performance tempo. Noodling is fun, but I need to incorporate good 'tempo dynamics' in my real playing.
A P.S. to 'no one is born with perfect time.' I believe you are right in regard to music & playing, but there are some who have an inner clock and somehow know the correct clock time in their head without ever having to check. It's more a savant or a unusual autistic special skill. I wonder how that would be: "Your pitch is flat by .05% and your tempo of 120 was only 117 BPM." That would be more a curse than blessing!
Drew