Why is this necessary? What are the objectives?
Human beings are not born with "perfect time" or "internal clocks". All musicians must and will spend much time practicing with a metronome to develop a sense of tempo and groove. Musicians have to learn to keep steady beat in spite of fluctuate constantly.
So, daily practice with the metronome will help you master the music pieces you want to play and measure your progress.
Coordination:The metronome forces us to listen to a consistent click and match it.
In ensemble playing we must be able to listen to and match other players. To do this we have to feel when the next beat will come, we can't listen for it then play it. To this end it is necessary to play consistently from beat to beat and measure to measure.
Rhythm is
the spine of music because it will give the drive and in ensemble playing it is one more contributor to ragged groove (I'm even talking about classical here).
The students usualy say they can't hear it.But, the idea is to
split your attention into something besides your own playing, in this case the sound of the
metronome.
You can learn to hear it; firt by singing the rhythm instead of playing it directly on your guitar.
Practicing with the
metronome does not make the music rigid. It helps you to gain control of tempo, learn to play with others and improve one's playing. It is easy to play a loose tempo; you won't forget how when you need to.
For all these reasons it just makes sense that you practice your music pieces in time. This way you will develop the technical ability for your fingers to remember the scale and chord shapes and at the same time learn to play them on the beat. It only takes a little extra effort to practice this way but pays huge dividends in your playing.
A
metronome is as a tool to gauge you progress. By starting on a slow tempo and working your speed up, you can see how much progress you are making, set goals, achieve the goals and move onward!
Hints:
1) Always play slow and clean.
2) Start with quarter notes (1 note per click)
3) Advance to eighth notes (2 notes per click)
4) Do triplets too! (3 notes per click)
5) Keep track of you metronome speed settings and try to improve them.
6) Move your foot up and down with the down matching the click.
Exercises:
Set the
metronome at 60 (that means 60 beats per minute) listen to it and count quarter notes along with the beats: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4. Make sure you can listen to the metronome and then play 1/4 notes on an open string along with the beats. Just be sure you can hear the metronome.When you are comfortable with 1/4 notes, count eight notes and, once you're doing OK, play 1/8 notes on open string.Repeat the same thing with triplets and 1/16.
Let's take a chromatic pattern on frets 5-6-7-8 and repeat excercises.
The goal is not to go fast but accurately play on the beat.
Just play 1/4s to get a feel for the beat and get comfortable.
Once you feel comfortable, increase it to 1/8ths
hold it there for a while, then increase it to triplets
old it there for a while then increase it to 16ths
Do not increase the number of notes per bar until you are totally comfortable with what you're playing.
Now increase the tempo, but only increase it by 10bpm at the most - then start practicing 1/4s at this tempo, and work up to 1/16ths as you did at the previous tempo.
Advanced Metronome Practice Tricks
A helpful trick to strengthen your timing ability is to play around with adding and removing subdivisions of the click.
For example, instead of playing sixteenths over a quarter-note click, try doubling up the click so it is doing eighths. Yet as you play over this, retain the feel of the main pulse only on downbeats (every other click). In this case the "middle" eighth click is there just to help you mark the upbeat more precisely so you can focus on hitting that note (the 3rd sixteenth) precisely on time.
After playing like this a while, then halve the click tempo back to quarter notes and focus on supplying the same articulated feel of the upbeat -- but without that middle click to support you.
Along the same lines, try removing beats entirely. Transform 16th notes into 32nd notes by halving the speed of the click. Or you can think of this as still playing 16ths, except the click only cues you to every other beat. Then let the click hit just every third beat. That's tough! The slower the click goes, the more space you must fill to stay in time.
When playing exercises or pieces containing a constant flow of notes-straight eighths for example-my favorite trick is to move the click to hit different notes of the pattern. The 3:2 ratio (a hemiola) is the best place to start.
So instead of playing eighth notes, for example, change the beat to fall on every 3rd note and play the same sequence in triplets. Wow! That breathes new life into old, stale exercises. The 3:4 (triplets on sixteenths) pattern gives a similar effect. You can also try 4:3 and 5:4 for a little more adventure. After a little practice with this kind of rhythmic interplay, it comes easy yet always feels more interesting. It literally feels brand new, yet your fingers seem to already know the way.
Next try moving the click to a rhythm off of the beaten path. That is, instead of making the click define the pulse, you make it play quarter note triplets for example. Now YOU generate the feel of the pulse and it clicks away somewhat "against" you. On top of that, play your exercise in eighth or sixteenths or whatever. That puts an entirely new spin on things!
OK, now practice on a study or sniplet. It is important to set the metronome clicks to a very comfortable, slow, speed when starting to learn a piece. If used when starting to learn a piece, inaccuracies in note values will not be learned. Repeating a phrase or two at a time, and using the metronome to count the beats between repetitions is a very useful technique. As notes are learned, additional phrases can be added to the loop until an entire section is practiced.
The
metronome can be used as an anchor through long repetition practice. This ensures that note and rhythmic accuracy are maintained. Players can use the metronome to physically settle in to a piece.The metronome can be used to gain familiarity and memorization.
Before a piece is performed, there needs to be complete mastery of the notes, there cannot be any insecurity. Once the notes are mastered, then sing the rhythm and, if it's a really difficult one, play only the rhythm on open string. Then, when you get it down ad the notes at a comfortable tempo. Make sure the phrasing is flowing and not patched. An easy, steady pace encourages the release of tension in the arms and hands. Many technical problems work themselves out by using the metronome wile playing.
How to use the metronome to overcome technical difficultiesLet's say you have to play an arpeggio in 16ths at a fast tempo.
First, start to learn all the notes and play the chords first
One morning I was sipping my coffee in Rio - Brazil - in the house of one of my most beloved Friends, Luis Pinaud.
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