Wouldn’t it be nice to get twice the benefit of
your practice session with just a little more effort? The cheapest
way to get this added benefit is to incorporate a little gadget
called a metronome into your practicing.
Keeping good time is
essential to playing music.
If you think about it there are really only two general
elements required for playing music. First there is the harmony.
That’s the scales and chords that make up the sound of the music
you are playing. And then there is this thing called time. Developing
good time means playing everything at more or less constant speed. It’s like
a heartbeat, the thing that makes you move your feet and really feel
the music. Most people have a sense of time built in, but keeping
good time in musical situations is something that needs to be
learned and made automatic.
What is the best
metronome for you?
You may have seen the old fashioned metronome
that looks like a tall pyramid with
a little arm that moves back and forth, producing a click each
time the arm sweeps across. Today there are electronic metronomes and drum machines
that come in all shapes and sizes. If you
are starting to learn to play guitar a good choice is a small
inexpensive metronome, that you can buy at any music store. I have
had the same metronome for about twenty years.
Here is a nice one at a good
price:
Most electronic
metronomes also have a built in A 440 pitch that you can tune your
guitar’s A string to and then tune the rest of the guitar from
there. They also have a light you can use instead of the click and a
jack for headphones.
If you want to try an
on-line metronome you can use for free (even just to try out to see
how a metronome works)
Metronome Online:
Using Your
Metronome.
Because you will be practicing chords and
scales while learning the guitar, it just makes sense that you
practice them 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 in time. It only takes a little
extra effort to practice this way but pays huge dividends in your
playing.
Another good way to use 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.
Play everything in
time!
Once you get used to playing in time and using
a metronome you will be amazed at how much better whatever you
play sounds. In a musical performance it easy to overlook a bad note
or two, but being out of time or not being at the right place at
the right time will be noticed by anyone.
