Using a metronone for speed

[Leon Peoples]

There are numerous ways to practice speed training with a metronone would you mind telling me yours, from the simpliest one click one note running scales to ??????
Best/joe

[mandobsessed]

Play the tune very slowly (1 click per quarter note) and quietly until you get it perfect then speed it up until you start to make mistakes then back off a bit until you play it perfectly at a higher speed. Even when you can play fast it is still best to practice at a slower tempo the majority of the time.

Another way is to have the click on each half note or even whole note, this trains your ear and improves your timing within a phrase and will drastically reduce the tendancy to speed up....

[jshane]

I think many (most?) people will follow one of a number of variations on what mandobsessed posted above. It works.

I have found for my personal playing that a different approach makes me a better player. I set a metronome for 1 click per quarter note, but I set the tempo to be very very slow. Painfully slow. Then I work to play the tune as perfectly-timed and cleanly fretted and picked as possible. Then, when I have accomplished this and can do it consistently, I find that I can play the tune very fast, as well.

I dont know WHY this happens, and I dont know if it happens to anyone else, but it happens for me. The payoff for doing it this way is that my technique and tone control really improves, as opposed to only getting faster.

Curious if anyone else finds this to be true.

[Chip Stewart]

Being primarily a bassist, I start every practice with metronome training. I have a 12 bar blues pattern that I run at 80 bpm, 120 bpm, and 160 bpm. After this I work on various parts of songs that are a bit tricky at the three different speeds. When I'm learning a new part, I don't advance to a faster speed until I have mastered the part at the slower speed. This is the best way to learn a new, complicated part.

[mandobsessed]

I think many (most?) people will follow one of a number of variations on what mandobsessed posted above. It works.

I have found for my personal playing that a different approach makes me a better player. I set a metronome for 1 click per quarter note, but I set the tempo to be very very slow. Painfully slow. Then I work to play the tune as perfectly-timed and cleanly fretted and picked as possible. Then, when I have accomplished this and can do it consistently, I find that I can play the tune very fast, as well.

I dont know WHY this happens, and I dont know if it happens to anyone else, but it happens for me. The payoff for doing it this way is that my technique and tone control really improves, as opposed to only getting faster.

Curious if anyone else finds this to be true.

I notice the same thing. I think once you can play a few tunes/scales at a certain speed its easier to scale up as it were a tune that you only play at slow tempos. The slow tempo really forces you to work on even tone because you can't rely on a blur of notes to mask any flubs or uneven tone.

[Bill Stokes]

There are numerous ways to practice speed training with a metronone would you mind telling me yours, from the simpliest one click one note running scales to ??????

I just made some violin videos about this very thing! Not for speed so much as rhythmic feel: quarter notes, then quarter note triplets, then straight eighths, swing eighths, then eighth note triplets. The videos run through all 12 keys, but only 2 per video.

[JeffD]

Regardless if this is your style or not - it shows how much you can really do with a metronome.

[JeffD]

So what I do is one note per beat, starting two clicks below where I am comfortable. I move up a click when I get it perfect a few times in a row. Up and up. At some point I will need to cut the metronome and play two notes per beat. and four and so on. The best practice (doing the most benefit for me) is when the metronome is slow and I have to do four notes per beat. But on some scales and exercises I am not fast enough to even do that.

[mandobsessed]

That Victor Wooten video is one of the most awesome instruction videos on the net. Man he can groove.

[mandobassman]

That Victor Wooten video is one of the most awesome instruction videos on the net. Man he can groove.

I agree. I love the concept of starting out with a faster metronome beat then cutting the beat in half but playing at the same speed, then cutting it in half again but playing at the same speed. This forces you to maintain a beat without relying on the metronome, helping the player into better timing.

[A-board]

That Victor Wooten video is one of the most awesome instruction videos on the net. Man he can groove.

Agreed. I sat 10 feet away from VW at a Flecktones show a couple years ago. He's ultimately awesome playing live. He must do a ton of metronome work for some of the rhythms he employs.

[JeffD]

Victor is an excellent explainer, as well as an awesome musician. Not many that are both. That video inspired me to do more metronome work. I had been slacking off a bit.

[Bill Stokes]

How can he play that bass groove, stay locked with the metronome, and talk at the same time!
Try doing that, even with the simplest thing you know how to play. Start playing, and then try to speak some coherent sentences. Not easy...

[kudzugypsy]

using the metronome to practice your tremolo is also a good investment. i've found most players only have a few tremolo speeds they are comfortable with. try dividing the beat with different tremolo tempos. 4 per beat, 6, 8 etc - hard to do!

[Jesse Harmon]

Usually when you have problems with something it is not that the hands need work, it is that the brain needs to know what to tell the fingers to do. I usually go with the mantra, "Slow saves Time." I set the metronome and work from slow speeds, if necessary marking problem sections for short workouts.

[k0k0peli]

How can he play that bass groove, stay locked with the metronome, and talk at the same time!

Practice, practice, practice...

Yeah, I saw Victor, Moonman, and Bela awhile back. Totally awesome. Stretched the set by an extra hour, playing with joy.

As for metronome... I've been lazy. And I tend to play too fast. And my eyes and ears don't work as well as they used to -- I have a hard time with the app on my tablet. So I'll use something else: I have this old Radio Shack xenon stroboscope. Set the pulse on that and I *KNOW* when each beat happens. Maybe I should shoot a video with the strobe as the only illumination.

[Carl Robin]

I agree with the goal of using the metronome to learn so the rhythm will come from me, not dependent on a device. Victor Wooten is an amazing example to follow. And there is clearly lots for me to learn. I'm fairly inexperienced, but have been using "Drum Beats" app as my metronome. It sounds better to my ears, and there are many choices dependent on taste and the time signature of whatever I'm practicing. I play a lot of jigs, and have found only 2 selections for 6/8 time, but either works fine. Thanks for the interesting thread, and advice.

[Mark Wilson]

I use a metronome to force me to play slower. After a session of slow grooving, playing faster seems easier.

[CES]

How can he play that bass groove, stay locked with the metronome, and talk at the same time!
Try doing that, even with the simplest thing you know how to play. Start playing, and then try to speak some coherent sentences. Not easy...

I totally agree! I have trouble singing and playing at the same time, forget spontaneous conversation. I agree that lots of practice can certainly help develop this skill, but, as with all skills, there are those that just have an innate ability to do it, and the practice makes it easy for them...

[jshane]

I use a metronome to force me to play slower. After a session of slow grooving, playing faster seems easier.

Bingo. My wife and I have been playing Land's End/Chasin' Talon for quite some time now. At first it was tough, particularly the change-passage from 3/4 to 4/4. But we started pretty slow and got so we could play the whole thing precisely. We didn't consciously speed it up, but, more or less naturally, it speeded itself up, and now we play it about on par with the speed Tim O'Brien uses on Fiddler's Green. I find that practicing slow and precise just naturally brings on speed.