10 Reasons why You need a Metronome (part 2)

Right, so it turns out that my “10 Reasons” why you should get a metronome fills two whole (pretty long) blog posts! I can’t say I’m surprised, if you don’t already own or use a metronome you really are missing out on something that will improve your playing no end.

If you’re not already convinced that using a metronome can change your life (…or at least your playing…), then here are yet another five reasons to use one.

5 More Reasons to use a Metronome

6. Getting Creative

I touched on this point in the (popular) post “How to Solo“, and I do believe that using a metronome can increase your creativity. How? Well, if you put the metronome on- any speed will do- you can start to “jam” or improvise to the beat that the metronome provides. Yes, OK, it’s not quite as good as a real drummer but you really can start to “groove” to a metronome beat.

The best part about this is that you have the freedom to chose the style, and rhythm that you want to play- which is a great way to learn to just “play what’s in your head”.

I discuss these exercises in more detail in the above article. For me, one of the main things a metronome does is force you to keep going at the same pace- no matter what. It’s just this sort of “go with the flow” attitude that you need for improvisation, as opposed to making every note count (that can come later on…).

7. Rhythm Playing

Linking in to reason four earlier (in the previous article) which was about different divisions of the beat; using a metronome will really help improve your “rhythm guitar” playing. I’m writing “rhythm guitar” in quotation marks because I don’t believe in separating “lead” and “rhythm” guitar playing- to me it’s all just guitar playing. However, what I’m referring to is chord playing.

Obviously, even though I disagree with the label, it’s called “rhythm guitar” for a reason! It means you need to have good timing in order to play it (don’t go thinking that playing chords is always easier than solos). So, once you’re comfortable with the various ways of dividing the beat you need to work on turning those notes into chords- and, eventually, a song.

8. Transcribing Songs

I realise we’re now getting into the benefits of having good timing, rather than what you can do with a metronome- but the whole reason you’re using a metronome is so that your timing improves, right?

One of the things that using a metronome has helped me with (and I’m sure you’ll find the same with practice) is tabbing out songs. Once I hear a rhythm, I can almost replay it in my head (at a slower speed), imagining a metronome tick to it and from there I can work out how the beat is divided. Which is how I’m able to tab out the rhythm to songs- something I’m constantly doing for my private tuition students. All of this is made possible by hours of practice with a metronome.

9. Track Your Progress

One of the main motivational factors out there (other than sticking your favourite DVD or record on, of course) is the metronome. This ties right in with the very first three reasons why you need a metronome (from the previous article). A metronome allows you to actually measure how well you can play something (technique-wise, feeling is another article…) by giving you a number in bpm of how fast you’re playing.

This is a very powerful tool, because it allows you to say things like “I’m going to aim to be able to play this at 150bpm”, or “Last week I could only play this lick at 50bpm, but today I can play it at 75bpm!”, and gives you a direct measure of improvement. Measuring your technical improvement like this will help you in the times when it feels like you are getting nowhere, you’ll always have the metronome speed to look back on and know that you’re “10bpm faster” than before

10. You’re not online forever

You’re not going to be online forever to take advantage of the metronome at the top of my site. Anyway, a dedicated metronome is going to be more reliable than your browser (which has many other things to do). So go! Get your own metronome! Then you can take it everywhere with you…at least, everywhere you’re likely to practice guitar!

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Rob.
Still practicing with a metronome

February 9, 2010 at 1:56 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

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