Practicing with a metronome?

[sickman]

I've been practicing lately with one and just running through mainly the major scale and the pentatonic scale using triplets and sixteenth notes.

 

-Sometimes straight through the scale

-Sometimes in a pattern such as A, B, C# then B, C#, D, then D, E, F#, etc, etc in A major... Is there a technical term for this?

-And sometimes what I call trill/repetive rock licks ala Jimmy Page, Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Freddie King, etc

 

How do you guys practice with a metronome and how does it influence your playing with a band? Do you work on more chordal stuff with the metronome?

[gennation]

While it's great to create exercises and such to use with the metronome I just keep the metronome going the whole time I play or practice, and I play what I would normally play, just constantly against the metronome.

 

This locks in you internal clock to the things you naturally play when you play or practice.

 

I always have it on when I'm working on a difficult phrase I'm learning...like if I'm learning a line I have to play in unison with our horn players.

 

The other thing I do is to play marching drum cadences or rudiments on one string only. And, I'll do this while I'm reading a forum or listening to other music. Or I even play it too a drum chart, or just the rhythm of some other chart. These one string rhythm things REALLY wakes your right hand up!

[Poparad]

-Sometimes in a pattern such as A, B, C# then B, C#, D, then D, E, F#, etc, etc in A major... Is there a technical term for this?

 

 

When you take a pattern and move it up or down through a scale, it's called a 'sequence.'

[Jeff1979]

95% of the time i play to a click or one of the various druim beats on my multitrack, i also record what im practicing so i can listen back on what needs work..

[girevik]

I use the metronome to practice jazz etudes, jazz lines, classical lines (mostly Bach), songs, etc.

 

meganutt's Youtube videos demonstrate (along with other things) playing grooves (reggae, bossa nova, etc.) against a metronome.

[meganutt7]

I use the metronome to practice jazz etudes, jazz lines, classical lines (mostly Bach), songs, etc. meganutt's Youtube videos demonstrate (along with other things) playing grooves (reggae, bossa nova, etc.) against a metronome.

 

 

Girevik, thanks for the metronome approved endorsement...

 

Though I do show many examples with a metronome, I also practice with it in different ways.... I won't get into all of them, but suffice it to say I practice playing 1/8 notes, 1/16 notes, Triplets, etc. all against the same pulse and alternating groupings, to get a good flow of rhythmic variety... I also try to play against the metronome, shifting my perception of what each click is actually falling on... I may switch to think it's the 2 + 4 ass in the jazz tradition, I may think of it as being on the offbeats of each beat... I may think of the click as playing triplets.... Etc. etc.

 

I also play ALOT without a metronome... practicing ballads and other things that require a more rubato/free time feel.... Also, after grooving wit ha metronome for a while , you want to put your own timekeeping skills to the test, sans metronome.

 

I think the best thing about a metronome is that it keeps you honest (if you're not lying to yourself...) Record yourself playing a 16th note sequence to a click and then listen back to it... either it lays right in the center of the beat, or it's rushing, or dragging... If you critique yourself intelligently and honestly, you can achieve alot by playing to a click....

[gennation]

Here's a question...

 

How many of us have actually had to change the battery in our digital metronomes????

 

Me for one.

 

(not the wind up up, or the internet digital metronomes but again the battery operated ones)

 

This is handy in certain situations too: http://www.metronomeonline.com/ I ofter point students to it if they don't have a metronome 'yet'. I have even recorded tempos from it into my PC studio SW where I wanted a click track.

[Weekend_Warrior]

I play almost everything to a metronome when practicing. I usually have it set so that it clicks on the 2 & 4 (ie the snare hits) and away I go with whatever I am working on. When I am feeling adventurous or I am happy with my rhythm, I play to a click on the 4th. Fixes any good feelings I had about my 'locked in rhythm'....

[girevik]

 

Girevik, thanks for the metronome approved endorsement... Though I do show many examples with a metronome, I also practice with it in different ways.... I won't get into all of them, but suffice it to say I practice playing 1/8 notes, 1/16 notes, Triplets, etc. all against the same pulse and alternating groupings, to get a good flow of rhythmic variety... I also try to play against the metronome, shifting my perception of what each click is actually falling on... I may switch to think it's the 2 + 4 ass in the jazz tradition, I may think of it as being on the offbeats of each beat... I may think of the click as playing triplets.... Etc. etc.

 

 

Love your solo guitar instructionals, man!

 

Here you posted some great examples of why I actually find it harder to practice to a canned drum track than a plain old metronome. The drum track has too much going on for me to place the pulse, and harder to imagine rhythmic feels that are different from the currently playing drum track. Also, it is much harder for me to try playing slightly behind the beat and/or vary my personal "swing amount" (thinking here of modern drum machines/software that have "swing amount" settings).

[Neehan]

While I do think playing with a metronome is extremely important, I also think playing without one is extremely important.

 

You should be able to record yourself playing with and without a metronome and the recordings should sound equal. If your rhythm lacks without a metronome then you need to work on your internal clock. If you ALWAYS use a metronome then it can become a crutch and your true sense of time will suffer.

 

I always advise my students to practice both with and without a metronome. My above explanation is pretty bad but you get what I'm saying.

[girevik]

Here's a question... How many of us have actually had to change the battery in our digital metronomes????

 

 

I may have on my Korg. I lost it several times, and now just use the metronome in the Guitar Toolkit app on my iPhone.

[girevik]

I use the metronome to practice jazz etudes, jazz lines, classical lines (mostly Bach), songs, etc.

 

 

I forgot to mention that I don't use the metronome when I'm learning a totally new piece of music. The metronome is more a "poliishing tool" for me - to tune up my timing and such. There are a number of piece to which I don't practice with a metronome, because I don't consider myself to be in that "ready to polish" state for those pieces.

 

Our band does not use a metronome in rehearsal, though we have attempted to play along with a drum machine at times.

[gennation]

I forgot to mention that I don't use the metronome when I'm learning a totally new piece of music. The metronome is more a "poliishing tool" for me - to tune up my timing and such. There are a number of piece to which I don't practice with a metronome, because I don't consider myself to be in that "ready to polish" state for those pieces. Our band does not use a metronome in rehearsal, though we have attempted to play along with a drum machine at times.

 

 

I use it as a refining tool more than anything too.

 

A band I was in used a click track live for about 2.5 years! We had midi bass as well as a midi light show! It was a full blow RnR show too. My timing has been pretty much flawless from that little venture to say the least.

[1001gear]

Here's a question... How many of us have actually had to change the battery in our digital metronomes???? Me for one. (not the wind up up, or the internet digital metronomes but again the battery operated ones) This is handy in certain situations too: http://www.metronomeonline.com/ I ofter point students to it if they don't have a metronome 'yet'. I have even recorded tempos from it into my PC studio SW where I wanted a click track.

 

 

Here's another point. Put that annoying beep on a waveform editor. You'll notice that little blip takes up quite a lot of time.

 

So where's the beat?

 

 

Just a thought...

[jeremy_green]

Here's a question... How many of us have actually had to change the battery in our digital metronomes????

 

 

Me too! I have this dirty old Seiko battery powered one that I have had for almost 20 years. Its been everywhere with me and gone from the washing machine to soaked in beer and most places in between - but it still runs!

 

I use it a LOT. Scale drills, rhythmic comping, sequences the lot

[sickman]

http://www.metronomeonline.com is what I have been using. I like the idea of rhythm with it and will start to incorporate that into my practicing. The last couple of months I have been trying to improve my singing so the only times I have played electric guitar has been at practice and at gigs. I'm trying to clean up my right hand technique some and have already noticed a slight improvement. I'll start using the metronome when I am playing songs on the acoustic and signing along.

 

Thanks for the pointers.

[meganutt7]

http://webmetronome.com

 

I like this one better, just because you can set the amount of beats per bar and set where you want the accented beats to be... Very handy if you're working on ethnic music, odd times, different feels, etc.

 

I recommend this and metronomeonline to students, but I do explain that this one is more "idiot proof"...

[Li Shenron]

How do you guys practice with a metronome and how does it influence your playing with a band? Do you work on more chordal stuff with the metronome?

 

 

I use it everywhere, from the simplest exercises to full songs. But I use it only in the second phase.

 

In the first phase of practicing something, I work without tempo to find the most comfortable positions and movements, and to get used to the exercise itself so that my fingers memorize what to do. Only then I work with the metronome to gain precision. If I jump on the metronome too quickly, I cannot check anymore if I'm using a suboptimal fingering or picking choice.

 

For a typical technique exercise this no-tempo phase is a matter of 5-10 minutes. For an etude of full song, you have to break it down in small sections.

 

There are also a few special cases where I don't use the metronome:

 

- bursts of speed: maybe it's an outdated practice habit nowadays, but sometimes (typically just after practicing it with the metronome) I like taking a very short, repetitive exercise and speed it up to the maximum, usually for not more than 20sec.

 

- when practicing solo songs with the classical guitar: for a while you can use it, but at some point you just have to practice them also without tempo because the songs actually require accelerations and decelerations all the time as a form of expression

[Lou Lombardi]

Metronome...VERY important tool. While I use it to keep time while I practice, scales, riff, solos, and even songs, I also like to use it to challange myself. Ever notice that sometimes when you're working on speed you tend to get to a certain BPM where you plateau? Let's say that you have line or scale that seems to be stuck at a certain bpm...say, at 120bpm. No matter what you do you just can't get past that number. You could frustrate yourself for a long time trying to inch your way to 122 or 123. Instead crank the metronome way up to 135 or 140 and do your best to play along. Make sure that you are warmed up. You won't be able to keep up, but don't sweat it. It will sound bad but keep trying to play along. Do this for a for several minutes. Then, return the mentronome to 122 or 123. If you aren't able to play it at that speed you will be VERY close. If you don't have it today you will have it down tomorrow. It's a good idea to make "plateau busting" a regular part of your practice.

Rock on!
www.yourguitarist.com
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[Virgman]

My metronome broke.

 

I have to buy a new one. One feature I want is volume control.

[1001gear]

If it has a headphone out you can by a cheap inline vol. control from Radio Shack or just run it into your stereo or PA.

[adrian07]

hardly ever practice with metronome, just in case if i want to improve my fingering lol..

just try to practice it along chordal tones, then you get 2 benefits : improved your chordal soloing and of course your fingering technic