Using a metronome

[skyblue]

I am curious how to begin incorporating a metronome into my daily practice regimen. Can anyone give me guidance?
I usually do an hour of scales and arpeggios every day. I am trying to improve my timing and evenness of my playing.
I've been playing for about a year and lately I have been concentrating more on techniques than on learning new songs and there has been a great improvement in the tone of my playing....Thanks for any help

[jasona]

Get metronome. There are free ones online for starters.
Set it ticking, and use each tick as a beat. In 4/4 time you would have 4 beats per measure. Play a fiddle tune in 4/4, with 1/8th notes. Each note "on beat" (sounded with a tick) is a down stroke; each between a tick is an upstroke. Have fun!

[The Old Sarge]

Get metronome. There are free ones online for starters.
Set it ticking, and use each tick as a beat. In 4/4 time you would have 4 beats per measure. Play a fiddle tune in 4/4, with 1/8th notes. Each note "on beat" (sounded with a tick) is a down stroke; each between a tick is an upstroke. Have fun!

Noob question: How many beats per minute (I assume they are measured that way)?

[jasona]

As many as you can play cleanly. Then inch your way up to as fast as the music gounds good and you can play cleanly. Different kinds of, say, fiddle tunes, are better played at different speeds as measured by bpm. For Aonzo scales I go with 100 bpm and focus on clean noting and good tone. Its a tool for many purposes.

[Mike Bunting]

Or you could pick up this book/dvd, very useful and very on topic.

JM's book on metronome use

[WJF]

What Mike Bunting said ... go grab yourself a copy of John McGann's Rhythm Tuneup DVD. You'll wonder how / why you ever practiced without a metronome!

[Dan Krhla]

Ok, guess I'll be buying the book today. While I'm at it I might as well get Rhythm Method too!

MBAS strikes again X2!!!

Can't wait John!!!!

[JeffD]

Try to avoid tapping your foot when you practice with a metronome. I find that the pesky clicker keeps speeding up on me.

[jmcgann]

Try to avoid tapping your foot when you practice with a metronome. I find that the pesky clicker keeps speeding up on me.

The first time I tried playing with a metronome, I thought someone spiked my Kool-aid!!!

[skyblue]

Hey John, I ordered your DVD "Rhythm Tune-up" and I hope to begin getting more comfortable with my metronome. For me it has been a bit confusing but I quess the more I use it the more comfortable and smooth I will get. I want to improve my playing and most of the great players suggest breaking out a metronome.

[Mike Bunting]

I give mando lessons and the hardest thing to do is to get students to use a metronome. I met Mike Marshall last year and in the conversation I commented on this. He laughed and says that it's a common problem, saying all his students wanted to play like Thile and don't know that he never practices without his metronome.

[Bertram Henze]

Try to avoid tapping your foot when you practice with a metronome. I find that the pesky clicker keeps speeding up on me.

After some practise, foot-tapping and other self-inflicted forms of rhythm won't be disturbing but in sync.

The main point with the metronome is that it does not try to synchronise with your playing, like a human percussionist would do - it just stubbornly keeps its own pace in the firm knowledge that it is always right. That's why it teaches you and not vice versa.
Once you have acquired the same rightness, you can afford to be just as stubborn when playing with others.

Bertram

[Steve L]

When I give guitar lessons and use a metronome, the thing I most often hear from students is that the metronome is "throwing off my timing".

[Dan Krhla]

Well I ordered Tune-Up and while I was at it, Method from John; got an email that it would ship today Stopped last night and picked up a metronome for the gig bag, can't wait.

[Dan Krhla]

Hey John, I ordered your DVD "Rhythm Tune-up" and I hope to begin getting more comfortable with my metronome. For me it has been a bit confusing but I quess the more I use it the more comfortable and smooth I will get. I want to improve my playing and most of the great players suggest breaking out a metronome.

Hey skyblue,

How is the DVD working out for you? I just got mine in the mail today, and since I am at work still, my mando and my new metronome are just begging me to find a reason to ditch early and pop the disc into my laptop and find a quite place to watch it.

Can't wait to get home and bust out my mando, metronome, Windows Vista laptop, capo, tone guard, toris pick and get to work

<sorry just some sad humour from a couple other religious posts lately>

[Perry]

while on the subject:

here's a nice loud woody sounding one:

http://www.metronomes.net/SeikoSq70.htm

Also for practicing your chop I find a drum machine very useful (though a plain old metronome works just fine too). With a drum machine you can set it to a two-step country beat and then "cover" the snare with your chops. You know you are spot on when once you stop playing the snare just "pops" out of the mix at you. It's a pretty cool phenomenon.

After you get the hang of it; playing fiddle tunes to your metronome becomes downright addicting and hypnotizing. I often find myself playing a fiddle tune a dozen loops or more to a metronome!

[Flowerpot]

And (for bluegrassers especially) don't forget to alternate between rhythm and lead with the metronome, so you get "calibrated" for the switchoff; like, one time through chopping, the next time lead, next time chop, etc. It's surprising how the perception of tempo can be different whether you're playing a lead line or the rhythm -- at very fast tempos, you'd swear the metronome is speeding up as soon as you start chopping, till you get really used to it.

If you use a drum machine, which is great, and are able to lock in on the snare really good, also try experimenting with slightly leading the snare for a hint of drive. Some guys like Herschel Sizemore don't hit the chop directly at the 50% point of the offbeat, more like 45% if you know what I mean. It's a cool thing to try to control, playing with the lead or lag to get the desired effect for the song (while keeping tempo constant). I have a metronome with 8 LED subdivisions so I can use visual input to try to hit the chop one LED early or late, or right on the money.

[Perry]

don't forget to alternate between rhythm and lead with the metronome, so you get "calibrated" for the switchoff

excellent point!


Often on recordings you can hear the mando player wait a bar or two after his solo to get "back on the train" so to speak.

[farmerjones]

i hate to say it, but i love my metronome.

http://elderly.com/accessories/items/MET18.htm

i used to hate the little #*@%, but as mentioned, you can't fight it. It will always win. Now i think of it as my little rythm section. In other words, we've come to the agreement that the lil' #$%* is working for me, as my employee, not the other way around. And that's precisely the mind set that i had to take.
BTW John Hartford talked me into getting one. He swore by them. That told me i can still be artistic but remain in the groove.

[jasona]

I love playing with my little plastic drummer. Because of it I can even hit 200 bpm too! The best thing is that in the rare event of a missed note or other flub *cough* it teaches you to recover in time and not trainwreck. Its a harsh task master, but dependable!

[staggarlee]

I use a free metronome online a lot since most of my music I play is right on my laptop anyway. The link is http://www.metronomeonline.com/

I've been playing about 2 years now and just started using a metronome after much prodding. It's definitely the best thing I've done lately. Once you get used to it you find that you need it. It's strange how the metronome seems to sound like it's speeding up after you quit playing your instrument.

[Don Christy]

don't forget to alternate between rhythm and lead with the metronome, so you get "calibrated" for the switchoff

excellent point!


Often on recordings you can hear the mando player wait a bar or two after his solo to get "back on the train" so to speak.

At a Mike Compton David Long workshop this weekend they mentioned how important it is to practice "in context." I think this is the same thing. In addition to whatever it is you're working on (maybe a hard passage of a solo) you need to work on getting into and out of it in context.
Don

[Don Christy]

Its a harsh task master, but dependable!

I recently suggested a metronome to a beginning guitarist friend of mine. He got one and said,

"that d@mn thing NEVER stops. It's relentless!"

That's the truth!
Don #

[Dan Krhla]

Its a harsh task master, but dependable!

I recently suggested a metronome to a beginning guitarist friend of mine. He got one and said,

"that d@mn thing NEVER stops. It's relentless!"

That's the truth!
Don

Maybe my wife is part metronome? tick tick tick NAG... tick tick tick NAG... tick tick tick NAG... tick tick tick NAG...