Hey everybody! Today we're going to talk about metronomes. Now the traditional way
would be just to simply turn it on and start practicing.
But people will say 'that's rather boring' and they're not sure how exactly it helps them. My
name is Jazer, in this video I want to share with you three metronome tips that you may not have
considered before. These tips will help you use your metronome effectively. And if you're someone
that really dislikes metronome practice, make sure you stick to the end of the video because I might
just have an idea you want to try. This channel is filled with awesome piano tutorials and lessons,
so consider subscribing down here. Our first metronome tip today is to practice in double time.
One of the common complaints I get from students is it's hard to stay
in time with a metronome beat and also think about what notes you want to play.
You might start off normally but as you're a few bars into the music you start to lose it.
You can help to solve this problem if you simply raised the metronome to double time. in our
example, instead of practicing at 60 bpm beats per minute, you can also practice it at 120 bpm.
Now some of you thinking, 'Wait! 120 bpm - isn't that twice as fast as 60 bpm? Yes it is. But from
another perspective, it's also not. Think about this. Imagine these dots represent the beats.
120 bpm is actually the same thing, but just with an extra beat
in between each of the beats. You can see there's 4 here and there's 8 here. It's actually the same
4 but with an extra beat in between each. It's interesting to talk about this because
if 60 bpm feels hard to keep in time with, 120 bpm might be better for you because it just has that
extra guide in the middle of each beat to help you stay in time a little better.
Just one more time to show you how this can be helpful for you. This is 60 bpm...
If that feels difficult to keep in time with, try moving it to double time which is 120 bpm.
You can see I'm not actually playing it twice as fast. I'm playing it the exact same speed as I had
before. But this time, with 120 bpm, I just had an extra little guide in between each of those beats
to help me stay in time. Better give it a try -Double Time. Just before we get into tip number
two, I just want to share with you an awesome tool I've been using for a few months now. If
you're like me and you find the metronome a little bit too loud or not very musical to practice with,
this could be something you're interested in. This is the Sound Brenner metronome watch. I
simply tap the beat I want. And it gives me straight away a very strong vibration on my
wrist so I can practice my pieces without hearing the loud clicking or the ticking of my metronome.
It's also a tuner and a smart watch. Just something I've been wearing in my daily
life. Check out the link in the description box for a discount code to this watch. Metronome
tip number 2 is to swing your parts. Swinging your parts basically means turning from this...
...to this.
What was happening there was instead of playing straight rhythms,
i was playing dotted rhythms which are: long, short, long, short.
This one's a super helpful one to do if you have any technically challenging parts.
When you swing your parts, the technical accuracy that's needed to execute that well
is harder than if it was in straight rhythm. And this practice of doing this
passage in the harder way helps you to play that part better when you eventually come
back to just a straight rhythm. So try this one out guys - swing your parts!
Practice tip number 3 is something a lot of students tell me they love doing. It's
especially good for people who just simply don't like using the metronome because they find it too
mechanical or just noisy. Metronome tip number 3 is to practice with a drum groove instead.
This one's a great way to practice. I have a lot of fun with this. It adds a bit of this live and
groove that just makes it sound really good. Where do you find these drum beats or drum grooves?
Very simple. Just go to YouTube and search up "drum beat" "drum groove" Let's say 120 bpm.
There are YouTube channels that upload a whole bunch of different speeds.
I usually just pick whatever speed i want to practice. For example - drum beat 95 bpm.
I turn it on and I just start practicing. If you've done this before let me know in
the comments. What is your experience with using metronomes? Let me know in
the comments below. Happy practicing piano and i will catch you in the next tutorial! 🤓