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Lukas Kyska
www. TheAspiringGuitarist.net
Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is
counting. GOTTFRIED LEIBNIZ
I guess youve been told that in order to become good at guitar, you need to practice with a
metronome.
When I was just starting with guitar Ive heard this advice from everywhere. PRACTICE WITH A
METRONOME.
And so I did. I turned the metronome on and played with a click. Months went by and my rhythm and
timing hadnt improved much. So I stopped doing that because I thought it was a waste of time.
And guess what?
My rhythm and timing still sucked big time.
It was years later when I finally learned how to develop my rhythm and how to use metronome so I
am actually improving my timing.
Practice with a metronome is a useless advice if it is not followed by explanation how to do that.
Turning on metronome and playing with it wont improve your timing. Wayne Krantz said it best:
The worst way that I know how to practice with a metronome is just to turn it on in a room and
think that by the fact that its on somehow your time is getting better. Wayne Krantz
Ive put this guide together to help people learn how to practice with a metronome in a way that
ensures that you are improving your inner sense of time.
Ive spent hours browsing the web to put together the best exercises that actually work. Ive then
tested all of the exercises on myself and my students to see which works and which are just a waste
of time. The exercises that you find below are only the ones that really worked.
The worst advice ever: Practice with a metronome all the time
When I was researching materials for this guide, I spent lots of time on web to find the best advice on
how to improve timing. And everywhere I turned, one advice kept popping out:
If you want to get good at rhythm, you need to practice with a metronome all the time.
And let me tell you something. That kind of advice is one of the reasons why guitar players suck at
rhythm even years after they started practicing with a metronome.
Metronome is a specific tool that we use when we want to improve our rhythm and timing and thats
why we dont need to use it all the time. As with every kind of practice, quality is more important
than quantity. Ten minutes of highly focused rhythm practice will do much more for you than two
hours of mindless playing with a click.
Working on your rhythm is mentally challenging activity that requires lots of focus. Therefore it is not
possible to do it non-stop. You want to do it regularly but in shorter practice sessions. If you dont
pay attention to where the beat is, you can actually also stop.
In many cases using a metronome could be counterproductive. If you are trying to get a new
movement under your fingers then using metronome wont help you much. Quite the contrary.
Trying to make new movements rhythmic too early is not a good way how to approach motor
learning. Focus on making the movement comfortable and fluent first.
One piece of advice I would give to anyone regarding metronome is to use it only when you want to
check or improve your timing. Other times it is really not necessary.
Choosing a metronome
There are hundreds of apps and online metronomes and it can be quite time consuming to choose
the right one. I know that some guitar players would spend hours trying different metronomes and
complaining about the sound of the click, so I thought I would rather recommend you ones that I
personally use. They are stable, easy to use, have nice sounding click and all the functionality that we
need.
http://theaspiringguitarist.net/
In my opinion the best online metronome is BEST METRONOME. It has nice and easy to use interface
and all the basic functionality. If you need more advanced functions like metronome disappearing for
few beats, check out BEST DRUM TRAINER.
If you are using your smartphone or your tablet then I am recommending the app called TIME GURU
developed by Avi Bortnick, guitarist who is known as rhythm guitar player for John Scofield Band. It
has all the functionality that you will ever need and is very intuitive to use. It cost two bucks but I
think it is worth much more. Check out the app page to learn more.
Recording devices
If you work on your time and you dont record it, you are not gonna get any better. Wayne Krantz
The above quote sums it all up: If you want to know how good your timing is, you need to record
yourself and listen back. It is not enough to just play with a metronome and hope that you are
improving. You need to get a very clear picture if you are rushing, slowing down or if you are
completely out. Recording yourself is a must.
Here are my recommendations for recording software.
When I have my computer turned on I use AUDACITY as my go to recording software. If I need to find
out how well do I groove with metronome, I always use Audacity. I use the built-in microphone in my
notebook that sounds just terrible, but it is good enough for me to recognize how well I keep time.
The main thing for me is to keep it really simple. It takes about 5 seconds for Audacity to load and I
am ready to record. This is super important for me because if it would take two more steps to record
something, I would not do it.
Another piece of software that I use for more detailed analysis of my playing is REAPER (but you can
use any other digital audio workstation of your choice). The main reason why I am using this software
is that I can create a 16th note grid over which I can record my track (see the picture in exercise#8).
Being able to see where exactly my notes fell is a great way how to check my timing. We will talk
about that later.
When I dont have my computer turned on I use VOICE RECORDER PRO for Ipad. It costs just 0,99$
and is very easy to use with a good interface. The nice thing is that you can easily share your files on
Dropbox or you can send them as an email attachment.
In instances where I need to do a video recording (checking posture and tension in my body) I use the
built-in camera on my tablet. Before I bought tablet I had used built-in camera on my laptop. Both
are easy to use with a good enough quality of audio and video.
There is probably nothing more damaging to your learning progress than practicing things that you
find uninspiring and boring.
I hope that with this guide you will soon find out that there are many interesting and fun to play
exercises that are highly addictive and very effective. So the only rule I have for you is to always keep
your practice material fresh. If you are looking forward to your next practice session, you are doing
things right.
There is no reason to play mind dumbing exercises. If youve decided to improve your timing, do
yourself a favor and choose exercises that you find enjoyable.
(1)
Exercise #2: Swing 2&4 (hat tip to Sean Driscoll for the name)
This is a great exercise and I know that many jazz guys are using this for developing their swing. But it
also works fine in other genres. The reason why this exercise works so well is that the click of a
metronome is not falling on every beat but only on every other beat. This means that you have to
rely more on your inner sense of time.
Heres how you do that:
1. Find the target tempo of the song (use tap tempo function in Time guru or Best metronome)
http://theaspiringguitarist.net/
2. Set the metronome to the half speed of target tempo (if original tempo is 120, set the
metronome to 60)
3. If you want the beats of metronome to represent beat 2 and 4, so you need to fill in beats 1
and 3. One way how to do that is to start counting in between the beats. This is how you
count yourself in:
Audio example: Count in
4. Press record and start playing
5. Listen back to your recording and evaluate
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b. Now press second number four that has appeared in the second row. Heres what
you should get.
c.
Press play and now your metronome will disappear every other measure.
4. If you want to keep metronome silent for one measure (4 beats), heres how you do that in
Best Drum Trainer:
a. Choose the number of loud bars (1)
b. Choose the number of silent bars (1)
c. Un-check Volume fade out. Heres what you get:
d. Press START and now your metronome will disappear every other measure.
Audio example: Disappearing metronome
Once you feel comfortable with metronome disappearing for one whole bar, increase the challenge.
Make it disappear for two bars or longer and see how well you can keep time on your own. Have fun
with this one!
http://theaspiringguitarist.net/
http://theaspiringguitarist.net/
Exercise #10: Groups of three, five and seven notes against 16th notes
Heres another fun exercise to practice (Thanks to Fareed Haque for inspiration).
This one is all about shifting accents and creating interesting and cool sounding syncopations. Playing
groups of three against 16th notes is not that difficult but it creates very nice rhythmic pattern. Listen
to the famous riff from Claptons version of I shot the sheriff. The first four notes of this riff use this
exact rhythmic pattern (0:41).
http://youtu.be/tRgcwT9X2J8?t=41s
You can use this kind of rhythmic patterns to practice your scales and arpeggios. It sounds way cooler
than quarter notes. Heres a pentatonic scale played in groups of three against 16th notes. On the
way up I am also using muted strings to fill the gaps between notes, on the way down I only play
accented notes.
http://theaspiringguitarist.net/
http://theaspiringguitarist.net/
So, there you have it! The best metronome exercises ever :-)
Now it is your turn to take these exercises and use them. You wont improve your rhythm and timing
overnight but with consistent and focused practice you can get so much better. Have fun!
Thanks for reading!
If you have any exercises that I didnt mention, let me know. Looking forward to hearing from you!
http://theaspiringguitarist.net/