Must love the Metronome?

[princessdecadence]

I'm worried because I don't like using the Metronome and most of the time I can't use the metronome.  That ticking drives me crazy.  I have a good sense of rhythm and to be honest I can keep time fine but all these obsessions with the metronome made me worried that I might not be playing all my music in time.  I hope it's not a must.

[rc]

Good god no! I don't know it for a fact, but I'm pretty sure too much of that ticking will damage your brain

For solo piano, being able to bend the pulse is a very useful expressive device. Playing with somebody else might be a little different, ya wouldn't want to suddenly do something odd with the tempo and piss off a violinist... A voilin bow would make a decent weapon, and what have we got, a bench?

A common criticism of someones playing is that it's too metronomic, strictly adhering to a set tempo like a computer. That gets subjective, but the point is that the metronome shouldn't be on all the time. I tend to use it once in a while to test my rhythm for a passage, or to keep track of progress in things like scales and arpeggios. It's beeping maybe 5% of the time.

[princessdecadence]

For solo piano, being able to bend the pulse is a very useful expressive device. Playing with somebody else might be a little different, ya wouldn't want to suddenly do something odd with the tempo and piss off a violinist... A voilin bow would make a decent weapon, and what have we got, a bench?

*Lol* a bench would be a deadlier weapon, just a whack poof violinist dead. (not meaning the violinist in this forum)

[jamie_liszt]

i play alot of chopin so really i dont give a s**t, use a metronome in mozart. etc.. or if you need it. i dont use them much, only to gradually speed things up like scales and stuff.

[gorbee natcase]

It would be pretty funny if in the middle of a concert the entire orchestra started hitting each other with there instuments

[cfortunato]

I use the metronome to help increase my speed, but I do not use it to enforce strict tempo.  If you don't have tempo problems, it isn't needed for that.

[zheer]

I think this is a very important question, it is a good idea to be able to play a composition in strickt time first, then learn to play in a less metronomic way. Think of the metronome as the conducter. You know i say that because i sometime lose the beat and the music starts to sound like a prolonged orgasm.

[kelly_kelly]

The metronome is my worst enemy.

[tac-tics]

Since I'm not that good, I always end up falling behind at some point. Getting back on track to an accompaniment is easy, but to get back on track with a metronome is difficult for me.

Maybe some teachers on this board can answer me this:
At what point in a student's career does one STOP using a metronome? 

[Motrax]

At what point in a student's career does one STOP using a metronome? 

Although I'm not a teacher, I've been playing piano for about fourteen years and I've never stopped using the metronome. I remember hating it for about 11 years of my piano studies ( ), but as I've moved to more and more advanced repertoire, I've found it to be a very valuable device. My main use for it is to play difficult passages at strictly slow tempos (without rubato), after which I begin gradually increasing the tempo in order to play more evenly and fluidly at higher speeds.

However, the metronome is also a good tool to practice one's rubato (as odd as that might sound). Although the metronome beats are very precise, they last a certain (short) amount of time. It is good to practice alternating between playing "behind" and "in front of" the beat, but still staying in time with the metronome. Learning to play an "even rubato" in this manner (which is not always the best rubato, of course) is a very helpful tool for practicing chamber music and other collaborative piano while alone in a practice room.

Hope that was at least slightly clear.

-M

[gruffalo]

i use the metronome to learn technically demanding phrases or passages by starting on a slow speed and going up a notch each time until i reach a fast enough speed, and then i break away from the metronome and play more freely (according to how free its meant to be).

[whynot]

Like many others have said, I only use it to check on my tempo goals. 

I've been told of a study that was done with a number of wonderful pianists.  The aim of the project was, "What constitutes musical playing?" or something like that.  They put electrodes all over the hands of the pianists and told them first, "Play musically," then "Play unmusically."  In being musical according to their own ideas, they did all sorts of different things.  But in being unmusical, they all did the same thing:  they played strictly, exactly in time.  I found this extremely interesting because I really like to play in time, and I don't think I play unmusically.  But when I listen to recordings of myself, there is a subtle give-and-take that sounds natural--so I do "move" a bit without realizing it-- and that's what constant use of a metronome would "sand" off your playing--a natural rhythmic ease.  I rarely have my students use a metronome--when we do, it's for a specific reason and only for a few minutes at a time. 

I was intrigued by the suggestion here of using a metronome to check rubato.  This seems like a really good idea, because rubato is supposed to go both ways, and many people just slow down at frequent points but don't make up the lost time anywhere.  I guess one way to do it would be to enlarge the ticking beat--like every half note instead of quarter, and make sure all the downbeats line up but have the fluctuation in between?  Interesting.


 

[soleil_nuage]

I'm worried because I don't like using the Metronome and most of the time I can't use the metronome.  That ticking drives me crazy.  I have a good sense of rhythm and to be honest I can keep time fine but all these obsessions with the metronome made me worried that I might not be playing all my music in time.  I hope it's not a must.

I have the exact same issue.  I am glad you started this thread.  I have lain awake at night, thinking of all the evil things I could do to my metronome.

[gruffalo]

the metronome hasnt seemed to waver the musicallity of the piece. i eventually drop off the metronome and reinstate the music into it once the general pace and technique for the piece has been acheived.

[pita bread]

I use the metrenome religiously but I can also rubato against the metrenome and catch up with it later.

[g_s_223]

You don't have to love it.

You should use and respect it for what it tells you.

If you hate it, then you have a problem...

[princessdecadence]

I have been trying to play songs avec the metronome I end up stopping in the middle and turning it off (Chopin it was, that's probably why) Metronome for the scales is fine and sometimes, I must admit, it helps.  I see your point Zheer that it should kind of act as a conductor, just without his baton which would not be very useful if the orchestra start to have a fight like gorbee says.

My main problem is that I started to get really worried (for no reason) that I'm out of tempo since I started to use the metronome and I can sort of lose out and my concentration won't be on the music I'm playing anymore- rather, am I perfectly following with the metronome? It's the metronome's fault for making me a tempo worry-wart.  The metronome would be useful for baroque pieces like Bach! You know what? maybe I don't know HOW to use the metronome. Argh!!! *squish a squirrel*

Anyhow, I still do not like the metronome (not quite hating it though....ooo hate is such a strong word, it can't ever be applied to anything that pertains to music) I'll give it another shot and ask my metronome for another date and lets see how we get on...

[pita bread]

Maybe you should try playing hands separately with a metrenome; with hands separately its easier to concentrate on following the metrenome and the music. It's also good to be able to play pieces mechanically hands separately. When you want to put it back together, turn off the metrenome.

And... please,

*squish a squirrel*

leave the squirrels alone!

[princessdecadence]

I'll give that a try most definitely. I've been trying to sing and play and to be honest, I should really love the metronome because I'm not that great at keeping tempo when I'm singing at the same time. Thanks...and I'll try to leave them squirells, my friend found a dead squirell in his garden and apparently it looks as if it jumped off a tree.

"I have lain awake at night, thinking of all the evil things I could do to my metronome." - I quote Soleil Nuage