You’re going to hate me
I’ve been (and am) a member of several musician forums and have even braved the tuition fees of one or more musician learning sites during my journey as an aspiring guitarist. One of the main themes I’ve heard on every board, everywhere, is that you need to practice to a metronome. I think I’m going to be the first out-of-the-closet nay sayer, and will likely take a little heat as a result – but if Charlie Sheen can get away with being contrary, then I figure what the hay, I might be able to make money making an ass of myself… and no, I’m not going to say Winning! (*snicker)
I know I know I know – it sounds obvious that you can’t go wrong with a metronome – after all, you can’t deny that it forces to you hit that note at the expected time, which IS GOOD. So I’m not going to write an article that simply poopoos metronomes altogether, however I DO want to sweep away a misconception that I think is inherent in hearing the masses bow to the metronome altar without getting a little context to and understanding of the ultimate purpose of this handy little ticker.
A Little Background – and a Little Context
I would not be exaggerating when I say that I’ve practiced for at least one year straight, every night from 10:00 p.m. til 1:30 to 2:00 a.m., learning scales, sweeps, alternate picking patterns, hammeron/pulloff tricks, Yngvie style pedal note licks, and a host of other very well timed routines.
When it comes to pursuing goals that I have a passion for, you can call me disciplined because I realize at the outset there will be ups and downs for every practice night, and learning is not an overnight accomplishment. Instead it’s like chipping away at a large block of stone – whether you think you’re making progress or not doesn’t matter because if you simply strike the stone, you’ve gotten closer to your goal than if you hadn’t. Okay, I’m your guinea pig – I did a years worth of mundane metronome work and at my expense, here is what you can learn from my experience.
TELL US! TELL US!
One year later, I put on a backing track, and I sucked. You know what came out? Scales, sweeps, licks that were sometimes in key and sometimes not in key. They were in key sometimes up to a full measure, once, every time the backing track chord progression made its way back around to the root note. Haha – I’m exaggerating a little here, but I’m hoping it will help drive home an important point. The metronome taught me how to be in time, but not how to adjust to a chord progression.
There, I said it. You probably knew it! Your intuition is golden, but everyone has told you to use a metronome, so who are you to say otherwise? But here I am to tell you, after having invested a year of MY time to maximize the metronome effect, a metronome can be a trap if you expect that using one will also teach you how to play alongside a backing track or other band members.
SirJamsalot! How Can I Avoid Being as Disciplined In Stupidity as YOU?!
haha! I’m glad you asked, because it is my pleasure to save you from your folly! And, I get to help you become more proficient as an all-around musician! Two birds, one stone! Here we go! We all love lists, don’t we?!
- Get set up with a home recording studio. It’s an investment, but you know what?! You want to be a musician right? I can think of no REAL musicians (my Scotsman fallacy of the day!) who don’t have at least a bare minimum recording studio. Visit this link to get yourself informed on what that’s all about! Go…. now…. before I change my mind….!
- Create a simple 16 bar backing track – use MIDI controlled instruments such as a piano VST plugin to simulate a bass, and to create a simple drum pattern – start with 4/4 and pick a comfortable BPM – say 90. Record a simple chord progression over the space of those 16 bars – say one chord change per 4 bars.Okay – why MIDI you ask? Because once you lay down that track, you can change the BPM without affecting the chord progression – everything stays in tune and you can gradually increase the BPM as you learn your licks, etc.
- LOOP IT and Practice your scales over that! Better yet, practice everything you would normally otherwise practice to an evil metronome.
OR, you could go get yourself some backing tracks off the internetz for free. Nothing wrong with that especially if theres a song you’ve been drooling to learn and you happen to find a backing track to that song – go for it. But c’mon folks! You’re aspiring musicians! You NEED to learn how to do this stuff if you want to be REAL musicians! And, you want to show off your handiwork some day, so learn how to record at the same time and whala! You’ve killed two birds with a single stone. Not only can you practice being musical (as opposed to scalesicle), but now you can mix down and make an .MP3 so your parents can be annoyed at work as well as at home!
Aren’t Metrinomes Good For Anything?
oh come now – of course they are! They make great conversation, especially if you have one of those iPhone metronome apps, and you set it to tick in your pocket while standing in line at the airport. No, seriously though.
Let me put it this way – a metronome is better than nothing, and a backing-track is better than a metronome. If you live in the 1900′s, then a metronome is all you have, and if you’re poor in the 1900′s, that metronome is a leaking roof. But we live in the new millennium! We survived Y2K, so our computers are still functioning! Why settle for anything less? I could understand using a metronome if you’re away from home, practicing somewhere other than home sweet home – but c’mon folks!
Ask yourself this – do you think you would learn to play faster and more creatively if you were in a band, with real band-practices? I think your golden intuition would say yes! Why? Because bands practice in relationship to the other members – it’s real-life ear training to chord progressions that you have to adjust to. Metronomes just don’t do that. It will work for piano since you can create your own bass lines, but for single-note instruments, don’t bother if you can avoid it.
What other advice do you have for us, oh slayer of Metronomes?!
Well, I think I’ve said all I have to say about that. Just remember that learning to be a musician is like eating a box of chocolates. Avoid the ones with peanuts – they suck.
Wanna discuss? Join me in the forum!
