How to get better at playing with a metronome? Why is it hard to practice with a metronome? How do I get better at playing with a metronome? Should a beginner use a metronome? To become a better musician, one important thing for you to do is to spend a lot of time practicing. However, you should be smart with your practice methods, and what better way to do it than to integrate playing with a metronome, whatever musical instrument you are using?
So, if you are serious and interested in how to get better, join us as we are going to tackle some things, especially how helpful playing the metronome will be on your development as a musician.
Why Should A Beginner Use A Metronome?
If you are a beginner at playing musical instruments, such as guitar, drums, piano, and others, these are some of the reasons why you should practice playing with a metronome:
Your Timing Will Improve
When it comes to playing with a metronome, one thing that always comes to mind by many is to improve your timing. Using one is known to greatly help you to develop your sense of rhythm, which is usually lacking, especially when you are still in your early stages as a musician.
If you get used to playing with a metronome, it will also surely improve your sense of where the beat is and how each beat is usually divided. As mentioned earlier, almost all novice musicians have a lack of awareness of the beat; however, this can also be a problem for many intermediate and even advanced musicians, and one of the constant factors with this issue is that they did not try to integrate the metronome in their practice sessions.
Playing with a metronome will also help you understand more about how each beat is subdivided into smaller sections, depending on whether you are playing sixteenth notes, eighth notes, triplets, or others. If you are only consistent in using a metronome every time you practice with your musical instrument, you will surely develop your timing, as it will force you to focus on where the beat is and how every note complements each beat.
Your Playing Speed Will Be Developed
If you are a novice musician who wants to improve your speed, what better way to develop it than to use a metronome every time you practice or even play live if you are already in that situation? If you see professional guitar players shredding very fast on their electric guitars or classical guitarists plucking the strings with grace in a difficult section, one of the many reasons why they were able to do that is because of the metronome.
If you want to be able to play fast in the near future, remember that there is no shortcut for it, so you must gradually build up speed first and for all. You will also need to train physically and mentally to be prepared for the heavy demands on your body when playing fast in any musical instrument.
As you practice using the metronome, you should always play where you are most comfortable with it before you gradually increase to the point that you are already playing very fast. Depending on how hard the piece is that you are practicing, it can take from weeks to months before you’ll get used to the new speed you are trying to aim for.
You’ll Learn The Importance Of Slowing Down
Every time you are practicing with your musical instrument, always remember that there are also some moments when you must slow down rather than always going fast. If you are trying to practice the techniques on how to play your instrument, whether it is a guitar, piano, drums, or others, it would be highly recommended that you take things down slowly and surely, as you will also need to develop the right way of playing the piece.
As you go with the specifics of playing any musical instrument, your hands must be able to develop the memory of the correct movements in playing a certain piece. Many musicians forget this step, even those that are intermediate and advanced, as they immediately try to play as fast as they can without getting acclimated first on how to play it perfectly.
With the metronome, not only can you master the art of slowing down, but you can also prevent yourself from slowing down at higher speeds, and vice versa, especially if you are focusing on the beat that the metronome is giving you. Thankfully, not only can you make the beat fast with the metronome, but you can also make it very slow, which would suit your level as a musician at the moment.
You Can Check Your Improvement As A Musician
Another good reason why a beginner should use a metronome is that they will be able to assess whether they have improved after a number of hours of practicing. With it, you can have a better idea of where you are now as a musician, and you can also make some adjustments to your practice sessions to still be better than before. You can also check at what speed you are comfortable playing a certain piece or song and whether you still need to learn how to play it faster or slower.
As you will be able to see clearly whether you have made some improvements as a musician or not, you will also be able to spend your time practicing efficiently. It will also motivate you to become better in the long run, and if you can see the evidence that you are getting better and better every day with the help of the metronome, it is also a sign that you should keep using it, even if you reached your potential already.
Why Is It Hard To Practice With A Metronome
As we all know that playing with a metronome will help you get in a rhythm and stay with the beat, not all musicians can do it perfectly, especially those novice ones. Not all beginner musicians also use the metronome in their practice sessions, and when the time comes that they will need one, they will have a hard time adjusting to it.
It is highly important that you’d be able to develop the timing that every musician should have, which is why it would be better if you start using the metronome when you are still starting to learn your musical instrument of choice. You will also notice that there are also many intermediate and even advanced-level musicians who are having a hard time using the metronome, as they were not used to it when they were still a beginner.
So, how do I get better at playing to a metronome? When playing with your musical instrument, set your metronome’s speed to where you are comfortable. It is important that you are first comfortable with your playing while being able to follow the beat of the song. If you think you may need to get faster, then adjust the speed until you can play the song perfectly and on-beat before changing it to a quicker speed.
