I have a quick quiz for you. Which statement is true? Number 1, using
a metronome will greatly improve your guitar playing?
Number 2, using a metronome will hold back your guitar playing progress?
If you said number 1, you're right. If you said number 2,
you're right. The metronome is a tool and it can be a very valuable tool if
used properly. Now you can also use it or abuse it. I
should say in a way that will hold back your progress. I got this from
a student recently. He says I'm struggling with the
metronome. We are not friends. It seems I over think everything while
trying to use it and it's a distraction. I can practice
with the metronome but I have to slow it way down to play
in time and yet I can tap my foot and play at a
normal speed. Should I keep it in my practice and just
get used to it? So the first thing I told the student is,
you know I think you might be using the metronome too
much. One of the main things about a metronome is you want to use it
for specific uses and not for everything in the practice.
I would find it not only a distraction you try to use it for everything
but it will be counterproductive for some things. The other thing I said
is if you're having a hard time playing with the metronome but you can play
faster with your foot, you have to question if your foot is
actually as accurate as you think it is and I have to say for most students it's
not. You unconsciously slow down and speed up
even slightly to kind of fit what you're working on.
And to tell you the truth, it's not easy to keep a good steady bead
and be concentrating on something that you're having a difficult time with.
The metronome is good for 3 things. Now the most obvious
it's to help you with accurate rhythm and
it does a great job of that. It's a great tool for that purpose.
The second thing it's a great measuring tool and just one of many
possible ways to measure your progress. You can practice some exercises or chord
changes at a slower speed and then track your
progress and make some fun. And the third thing might
not be so obvious but I think it's actually one of the most important
things. It helps my students to slow down
and get it right. It works because when you slow down the metronome we've gotten
a very objective speed on the metronome. You can say I'm playing at this speed
and I still can't quite get it right so I gotta slow it down again.
When you rely on just your own instinct it seems to be a natural for all of us
to just keep speeding up as fast as we can and to kind of smooth over some of
the mistakes and errors that we're making.
I think contrary to some people's beliefs I don't think the metronome
actually helps you play faster. I think it's a measuring tool to
kind of uncover how quickly you can play and play accurately.
And in a way it helps you play faster because by measuring
it encourages. It kind of plays this game to get faster and
try to get better but I don't think in and of itself it actually helps you to
play faster. Here's some ways to use a
metronome. First I love using a metronome to just
practice basic exercises either single notes
like a scale or a single note exercise or a chord exercise where you're
changing chords on a certain beat. By using a metronome, we can track our
progress and again it's certainly one way to track progress. Playing it at
a certain tempo but sloppy with lots of errors doesn't
really work so that's just one way. A tempo is one
measurement. I think it's fun to make a little log
and write down your progress so you start at
60 beats per minute and then the next day up to 66 and
the next day up to 68 and you realized you're kind of fumbling at 68 maybe go
back to 66 for a day or 2 but over time you're likely to play
faster. Your tempo is likely to go up and that's kind of a nice pat on the
back some way of measuring your progress. Now the kind of exercises I'm talking
about could be a scale or an exercise but I think it's a great
way to practice chords also. I'd like students to
play a chord. Let's say 1 per beat and then after 4 beats change to another
chord, very slow. If they're having a hard time
changing to that other chord that means they need to work on the
chords some more but if you can do it at a slow tempo
then little by little keep picking up the tempo until you can
change quicker and quicker. That translates greatly when you play a song
to be able to change smoothly. If you want to up to Andy
try playing 1 chord for 2 beats and then another chord for 2 beats
and then go ahead and up it again by playing one chord on one beat and one
chord on one beat. There's no end to the exercises you can
make up for yourself that'll help you kind of measure your progress
and push you to get the chord changes correctly. I
like to go through a song a few times with the metronome
at the slow pace and it kind of helps me uncover where I'm
kind of making errors or falling down on the rhythm
or on the notes. Once I uncover where the problems are I'll isolate and just work
on that part usually without a metronome. The main key here is to use the
metronome only for a portion of your practice not the
whole practice session. You want to over time develop a sense of
internal rhythm and if you use the metronome all
the time it gets to be a crutch. So I'm talking maybe out of a 20 minute
session, use the metronome for between 2 and
4 minutes for some exercise or or something and then move on to
practicing without the metronome. So I'm gonna stop here for today. I hope
if you're not using a metronome I've inspired you to give it a try and I
think you'll find over time it's a very useful tool. If you're already using
a metronome, let us know how you like to use it. Leave
a comment down below and we'd love to hear from you. This is the
8th day of my 30-day guitar coaching challenge so it's
a challenge for me but for you it's 3 days of guitar
coaching. If you appreciate what I'm doing,
give me a thumbs up and most importantly let me know if you have any questions
that I can include in this video series. I'd love to do that.
I hope to see you again tomorrow. Bye.