Hi, how you doin'? Justin back with you for a chat about your
friend, the metronome. It's quite possible that you already know Mr. Metronome
or it's quite possible you've never heard of it.
A metronome is a little wind up tic toc thing
that you often see on piano's in classical music filmsets.
Like a little pendulum thing that crosses
like this: tic toc tic toc tic toc.
And it's to help you keep in time,
so you're playing at a consistent speed.
You talk about speed measurement in B.P.M.
which stands for "Beats Per Minute". So,
when you're practicing strumming or you're
or you're practicing scales or chord changes or lots of other things
you could use a BPM or a metronome
to help you keep track of what tempo
you can do things at. Particularly for
things like strumming it can be really
helpful because you'll find that if you
play on your own that you're maybe not as
consistent with the time as you should be.
And timing, I've talked about it a few
times already, is a real key thing in music.
Rhythm is the thing that people feel in
the music, so you can get away with some
sloppy chords but you can't really get
away with your rhythm being sloppy.
So there are many different types of metronomes available.
You might find that you've actually already got one of those
little old tic toc ones, which are kind of
stylish and sound cool, but they don't have
very many features. You can buy digital
metronomes but most commonly these days
people use an app. I actually have one,
surprise, surprise, the "Justin Guitar Time
Trainer Metronome" it's called, available
for Android and iOS. Looks like this little
metronome tic toc icon and you'll see there
when the screen loads, it's got a big
number in the middle, which is the number
of BPM. Ok, 60 beats per minute would be
one click a second, so at 80 (BPM) we're
slightly further ahead than that. As I
mentioned, this has got a lot of features
that will be handy later in your guitar
journey but for now, all we want to do, is
just be able to strum a down strum with the
click of the metronome. That's it. 80 is
a really good starting speed. If you can,
you can tap your foot along at
exactly the same time as the
metronome and the down strum. But
really, that is the first step, to just
press play, listen to it, trying to get
your finger, your hand rather, moving
down, just covering all of the strings
with your fingers there. So you just get
a click and then, just going one, two...
Just really trying to get it exactly at the
same time as the metronome, not a
little bit early, not a little bit late.
Most beginners tend to rush a little bit
so you want to really feel like you're
kind of sitting on it. Should feel comfortable.
Shouldn't feel rushed, ok? Don't rush
against it, don't wait for it or
anticipate it. You want to be right along
with it.
Now, this might seem like a real simple
exercise, but this idea of just playing
real simple things along with the
metronome is the kind of exercise
that you might be doing for the whole
time you play guitar. I still do it.
That having a really good relationship
with time, and being really in time is a
really really important factor. Not just
for beginners, but all levels of musicians,
right. So, learning to play along with
the metronome, and really make it
feel nice, is a really really really good skill.
Now, you're going to use that particularly
when you're playing any strumming patterns.
It's a really good idea to practice along
with the metronome as well. You don't
have to at this stage, but you want to be
at least thinking about it or having a bit
of a go every now and again, playing with
a metronome. It really is a big deal. It's
the kind of thing that separates people
a bit. The guys that have played with a
metronome and really worked on their
time keeping are generally a lot better
than those who haven't. And this kind of
real focussed energy, where you're just
doing a down strum... it'll seem real simple
at first, like you'll be going like "Yeah,
I can do this, what's he talking about,
this isn't hard". But the more you do it,
the more you'll realise the subtle things
and the more extra effort that you'll find
that you can put into it. And so as I said,
for today and the next couple of weeks
it'll be mostly used for strumming along
with a strumming pattern, ok? So it's a
really really valuable part of it. But
just as a little exercise for yourself,
grab yourself a metronome and the Justin
Guitar one is - of course - the best one,
but there are many available. And just
have a little go, it's not part of your practice
schedule to play along with the metronome
other than in the strumming section, but
just have a little go at it and see how
you are at strumming along. Is it easy?
Is it hard? If you find it really hard, it
might be the kind of thing that you
might want to add on to your practice as well.