Working With a Metronome

All musicians are responsible for generating time regardless of what instrument they play. Working with a metronome (also called a click) will help to improve your own sense of time. Include it with everything you practice. Here are some suggestions that will help.

FOR STARTERS

The two fundamental aspects to playing time are tempo (beats per minute) and subdivisions (8th notes, 16th notes, etc). It is important to understand this when practicing and playing. If you have trouble playing to the click, having it play the subdivisions will help you to play in time. For example, if you are playing an 8th note beat, set the metronome to play 16th notes. When you are comfortable with the metronome playing 16th notes in general, set it to play 8th notes, then quarter notes. Make sure that your playing lines up with the metronome clicks. Record yourself and listen back to make sure.

It may help to think of the metronome as an instrument being played by another musician in perfect time. The more you practice with a metronome, the more you will internalize the time that it generates.

TAKE IT EASY

It's important to start slowly and gradually make your way through a variety of speeds. Make sure you feel comfortable playing the current tempo before you speed up. You want to be able to play with the metronome well fast, slow, and anywhere in between.

I recommend you move the tempo in increments of five. This helps you to feel the differences in slight variations in speed. For example, if you are used to playing a song at a certain tempo and the singer asks you to play it a little slower, you want to be sure you can keep the tempo steady at the slower pace.

MUTING THE CLICK

Most modern metronomes have both an auditory and visual cue where you can hear and/or see the time. After you have a good grasp of playing with a metronome, mute it and try to play along to the visual cue while periodically looking away to see if you are still in time when you look back. If you have a drum machine, you can program it to mute itself for a certain amount of measures. The point of doing this is to start to rely less on the metronome and more on your inner sense to generate the time. But do this only after you feel comfortable playing with the metronome as explained in the paragraphs above.

You can do something similar when you are just listening to music in general. Count along to the music and turn down the sound to where you can't hear it, but keep counting. Then turn the volume back up to see if you stay in time. I recommend doing this when you are by yourself, as I'm sure others will not appreciate you messing with the music.

MOVING THE CLICK

The metronome usually marks the beginning of a measure and starts on beat 1. After you feel comfortable playing with it, have the metronome play on different parts of the beat. For example count the metronome marking on the 2 instead of on the 1, or double the tempo and have it play on the 2 and 4. Also, try the 16th note off beats. Have the metronome play the "e" or the "a" of the beat. This will no doubt be difficult at first because we are so used to the metronome on the 1, but this will help strengthen your time at various parts of the measure.

CONCENTRATE

It's usually a good idea to avoid distractions when practicing but it's also good to train yourself to follow the click with other things going on. Put on some music and try to play to the metronome with the music playing. Chances are the music is in a different tempo than the metronome and you may find that your mind will try to follow the music instead of the metronome. This exercise really focuses your concentration and also helps you stick to the click when you use it playing with a band.

IN CLOSING

If you are serious about playing music, a good sense of time is essential and something to continually strive to improve. Mastering your time takes time to master. (Clever, huh? I just thought of that). Don't get frustrated if it doesn't happen right away. The more you work on it, the easier it will become.