Who uses a metronome for practicing?

[go12_3]

Ever since I joined this forum, I have read several posts.  Last night I read Bernhard's post on the use of a metronome or *pulse*.   He explains that a metronome gives a "regular pulse"  and the *pulse* is to "bring music to life"  and "where it accelerates, where it slows down, where it is regular.  Then the rhythm will follow this pulse."   After reading that, I don't feel so bad about not using the metronome.  I can understand how pulse come from within as I play a piece.  I just feel the rhythm.  I think when using a metronome most of the time, then the music isn't as open or free for interpretation; therefore, being more mechanical instead of musical.  To play a strict rhythm on each piece would lose the artistic ability that is being found in a piece.

I wonder if any member here do use the metronome and or the *pulse* as Bernhard mentioned in his post. 

best wishes,

go12_3

[fenz]

I use metronome sometimes in my practice because I can't control my speed well. I use it until I get the speed and then I don't use metronome again so I can play it a little rubato. From the recordings I've heard, many great musician don't play piece at the exact time like metronome.

But some people say that they don't need metronome. My teacher for example. She use metronome to know how fast the speed. She can feel the pulse and the rhythm and playing without metronome. But sometimes she doesn't know that I play more slowly in some bars and just know when I play some later bars.

There are some plus and minus in using metronome, I think.

[ramseytheii]

As far as I am concerned, the only way to use a metronome is to have it click on the off-beats. 

Having it click on the strong-beats, will typically encourage rushing.

Walter Ramsey

[giannalinda]

I use a metronome like all the time. I have a vibrating one, which i think is better than the ticking ones because with the ticking ones, when you want to play fortissimo or triple forte, etc, sometimes u play so loud it drowns out the sound of the ticking, and when i am looking at the keys, its hard to look at the light on the metronome also. Best Wishes, Abbey 

[timothy42b]

I use a metronome every day, but not for every piece.  It helps calibrate your pulse.

Pianists on forums in general preach against metronome use.  The claim is that it will make your playing mechanical. 

But in fact, the real reason for many if not most people is simply that playing with a metronome is uncomfortably difficult and we don't like to to it.  It remains an essential skill particularly if you will ever have to play with anybody else or in an ensemble. 

[ramseytheii]

I use a metronome every day, but not for every piece.  It helps calibrate your pulse.

Pianists on forums in general preach against metronome use.  The claim is that it will make your playing mechanical. 

But in fact, the real reason for many if not most people is simply that playing with a metronome is uncomfortably difficult and we don't like to to it.  It remains an essential skill particularly if you will ever have to play with anybody else or in an ensemble. 

I agree with your points.  I think that, if you use the metronome on the off-beats instead of the on-beats, there is not even a risk of mechanical playing.  It's a more natural rhythm to feel the pulses that come off the strong beats, not just the strong beats themselves. 

Mechanical playing does come out of metronome practice, but that's a fault of the person practicing, not the entire method.  If they use a natural rhythm, that is metronome on the off-beats, it is impossible to play mechanically.

Walter Ramsey

[pianisten1989]

None says one should use metromone until death. Just simply play a piece with metronome, to see if you can handle it. If you can, you don't have to keep practising with it. but if you can't, you will get a better musical view of the piece, once you know how it's accually written.

[omar_roy]

My opinion is that if you do not have a piece under such control that you can play it in strict tempo, then you are not ready to take liberties with tempo (depending on the piece of course).  Why? Because many amateur pianists tend to slow down or speed up through difficult parts because they can't play it at tempo yet and they don't want to miss notes, or they just want to be done with that section.  I think that the use of a metronome is imperative until you have built up a very confident and steady internal pulse by which to go by until you start making music out of those notes.  Even once you have your internal metronome working steadily, I still think it is important to pull out that annoying ticker just to keep things in check.

As for the metronome inducing mechanical playing, I don't quite agree but that is due to my aforementioned opinion.  I think "mechanical" is the wrong word.  Non-Musical playing can result from playing with a metronome, but that is the fault of the student and teacher for not turning those perfectly learned rhythms and notes into musical.  After you know you can play a piece in tempo, then there's no need for the metronome, and that is when you can start taking what liberties you will.

I just think that the metronome has its place in learning music and that place is building up a solid foundation upon which to apply an interpretation.

[ted]

I have never used a metronome because I could never see its purpose. Decades of playing a lot of rhythmic music such as rags, blues and swing have given me a pretty good internal pulse whenever I need it. I am not one of those players prone to speeding up or slowing down and something clicking while I was feeling complicated improvisational rhythms would throw me off altogether. I do own one. It was given to me by a well meaning relative when I was a kid but I tried it a couple of times, found it an interference and stuffed it in a box somewhere.

[omar_roy]

The music you play has a very different feel to it than classical music.  You mentioned improvisational rhythms and such.  A metronome would be, as you said, and interference due to the nature of the music you play.  All that cool jazzy stuff has its own groove and a metronome would kill the feel of it and just make things unnecessarily complicated, and so I understand why you don't use a metronome, and I completely agree with you.

[bro6]

for those of us who are rhythmically inclined, i beleive we neglect the metronome and its value.. one of my piano teachers told me "the metronome cant lie".. in other words, if you ever lose slow down or speed up a passage, the metronome will let you know. I also beleive the metronome helps us listen to our playing closer and more critically in regards to tempo. Btw, I just recently began using a metronome and practicing has become much more challenging and productive..

[artsyalchemist]

So up until a few years ago, I rarely used a metronome because I felt like it required me to be a perfect player.  However, an ex-teacher basically instilled on me using a metronome for EVERYTHING.  Now it seems I can't practice anything without it, which I know is highly detrimental.  Any ideas on how to get myself out of this train of thought?

[ramseytheii]

So up until a few years ago, I rarely used a metronome because I felt like it required me to be a perfect player.  However, an ex-teacher basically instilled on me using a metronome for EVERYTHING.  Now it seems I can't practice anything without it, which I know is highly detrimental.  Any ideas on how to get myself out of this train of thought?

To get out of that predicament, use the metronome to delineate ever larger groups of beats.  Start with doubling the time signature (ie 4 4 becomes 8 , then start cutting in half (8 8 - 4 4 - 2 2 - 1)
until you can play two bars in one beat.  Always practice the metronome with the clicks falling on the off=beats, not the strong beats.  That is the true method to rhythmic freedom.

When you find the metronome leads you to ever larger beat patterns, you can soon dispense with it, because you will realize the truth in rhythmic playing is not coordinating beat after beat, but phrase with phrase.  The body will learn to take on the rhythm of a phrase, not of individual beats, one after the other.

Practicing with the clicks on the off-beats is essential to obtaining balance and poise.

Walter Ramsey

[rc]

I used to use it quite a bit, in a speed-rachetting sort of way. 

It's probably been a year or two since I've turned it on, I don't think I need it anymore.  I guess years of using it has left me with a pretty steady sense of pulse.  If I didn't I'm sure my teacher would point that out to me right away - rather, we had to spend a little time in freeing me from staying too strictly to the pulse.

[ramseytheii]

In my opinion the best use of metronome is not to increase speed.  The best use is to increase your sense of pulse over larger and larger chunks of music.  The speed comes from your general technique, and your ability to connect one point  with another, without getting stuck in between.

Walter Ramsey

[perfect_pitch]

What the hell's a metronome???



(Just kidding) No... I haven't used a metronome in 10 years.

[turayza]

I always use a metronome...at least, until the piece is well learned enough that it's practically memorized. It might just be me, but I tend to change around the tempo if I don't practice enough with a metronome.
I haven't had a problem with mechanical playing before, even with the metronome on. And ramseytheii's suggestion of making the beats only once every few notes (as many as possible, really) allows you enough freedom to add whatever tempo changes you need while not sounding terrible :l And you can always ignore the metronome when you reach a freeer spot.

[dora96]

I try to use the metronome for practising but after a couple of pages. The metronome is ticking away, I continue playing ignoring the metronome. At the end I don't even know I am following the metronome or not. The metronome becomes the background noise.

Can count out loud method to replace using metronome? I find that most students hate counting out loud because they can't play and count at the same time. counting really loud help me pin out the notes together and concentrate more with the music. Very often, I will play really well with a piece, but my mind is some where else. I find so annoying the fingers are moving, the mind is day dreaming.

Most classical repertoires require strict rhythm, but in Romantic period is really hard to know what is the right rubato?

[turayza]

Dora96: Counting out loud is great practice and trains the mind to deal with multiple things at the same time, but it can't completely replace the metronome. If you have a strong sense of pulse, maybe. Even for Romantic pieces metronomes are helpful. After all, you have to know how to play it all the way through with the right counting and tempo before you can add flourishes of tempo and such.

[nanabush]

I've never used it to help train rhythm; my teacher was definitely helpful enough to make sure I was on beat.

I have started using a metronome as a motivator though.  Right now, on the side from the stuff I'm working on, I'm doing the right hand for Chopin Op 10 #2 etude.  I'm nowhere near ready to learn this as a piece for a concert, but I can say it's really working my outer fingers!  I started really slow, and I'm challenging myself in a sense to see how close I can get to the tempo marking.  I'm not in a mindset that I have to complete the piece; rather, I'm just using it as an exercise, like I would with hanon, and just slowly bringing it up.  It's working, and I'm not stressed out like I'd be if it had to be performance-ready in 2 weeks haha.

[kind]

Now, I am not an extremely advanced piano player, but I do have my fair share of experience in other fields of music as well, so here is my opinion.

The metronome is an invaluable tool for making sure you aren't being lazy with your time. I've played with several classical musicians* who wanted to put on a more contemporary/modern/poppy/jazzy kind of concert, and they have been absolute hell to play with because of their inability to maintain a consistent pulse.

 The main reason I feel that others find no benefit from using a metronome is because they're using it in the wrong way! In order to use it to it's maximum potential, you have to do what a few others have said here, and keep it from clicking on every single beat. Perhaps let it only click on the 2 and the 4, or maybe the 2 of a 3/4 pattern.

As soon as you've mastered a piece with a metronome, you should get off of it, JUST FOR THAT PIECE. Take what liberties you need with the piece, or not. Once you've really learned a tune like that, you don't have to worry about what you're able to, or not able to do, and you can just focus on what you want to hear.

All in my opinion, of course!

*I say classical musicians here because I find that there is much more of a tendency to dismiss the metronome in a classical setting rather than a jazz or more pop oriented style.

[kitty on the keys]

I agree with Bernard and Walter on 'beat' and pulse. I usually use the metronome for passage work and record myself as well. I play in a trio and an 8-hand  2 piano ensemble, so I want my part pretty strict before we rehearse. I like to use the 'ticker' for sections rather than the whole piece. That way I will know sections are rhythmically correct and can work on the pulse and rubato of the music.
    I do the same thing with my students---work the metronome in sections---then they will use it a little more often.


Kitty on the keys

[gorucan]

metronome is useful thing but inner metronome is accurater.
if you ever practse hands separately, use the other hand to play some easy rhytm, that tunes your inner metronome

[tds]

I use a metronome like all the time.

OMG

[rachfan]

I use the metronome only by exception, not frequently.  It can be useful in certain limited situations.  1) Initially setting a specific metronome marking given by the composer (not an editor); 2) helping to solve a complex rhythmic problem within a particular measure; 3) doing some incremental speed drills to reach a faster tempo; and 4) playing a single run-through of an entire piece at tempo with the metronome to see if there are any stumbles pinpointing needs for more intensive practice.  Those are all very specific uses. 

I would never, however, routinely play along with the pulse of the metronome.  That can only lead to robotic rather than artistic playing.  I believe that the basic pulse must always be within the pianist.