Using a Metronome

  During the first couple of years of my playing Jazz Guitar, I  adopted a rather smug attitude towards various kinds of popular music. I felt that in comparison to Jazz with it's extended chords, exotic scales, and complex rhythms, Pop Music seemed.......well, simple. "Why should I bother with songs that only have three chords in in them - what can I learn from that?",  I would often say. For a number of years that was my view and I rarely partook in anything musically other than Jazz or Classic Rock.

  However, one day while in college, I heard another Guitar Player playing a pop tune while I waited for our class to begin. He sounded great and the worst part of it was......HE WAS ONLY PLAYING THREE CHORDS! What was going on here? Analytically, I knew he was only strumming the chords G, C, and D, but I still couldn't account for how or why he was able to make it all sound so good. What was going on here?

  What I began to realize shortly after this experience, is how important timing is. A person with a good sense of timing and feel can almost make anything sound good. This isn't to say that you should play the right notes, but without a good sense of timing, it's very hard to make anything sound very good. And, if you're timing isn't good, you can forget about being able to play with anyone else. Not good.

  What I found was playing with a Metronome or drum machine, was the best way to practice my timing. Playing along with recordings is great too, but it can still allow you to "hide out" in the music, whereas when playing with a metronome, you're much more exposed and have to deal with the time more directly. Ok great - but how do I use a Metronome?

  What I do with my Students, is first have them be able to just play on beat. I'll set the Metronome to around 50-60 beats per minute and have them play Quarter Notes (one note for every click of the metronome).The idea here is not to be able to play fast, it's to be able to play WITH the beat (or simulateously with the beat). And be able to do it for a long period of time. This is the key to playing in time ; you have to be consistent.

  The next thing I usually have people do is work with Eighth Notes, Triplets, and Sixteenth Notes - all at the same initial tempo of 50-60 BPM. This step usually takes longer as the notes seem faster and more is required musically to evenly play the rhythms over each beat. However, these are really the most common, core rhythms used in most music and are more fun! In fact, you can really spend a long time working on these three rhythms and not feel stale.

  Hopefully this sheds some light onto what a metronome is and how important it is to use. In fact, I always remind my Students that the little green quartz metronome in my room is mine and I'm just using it for our class. My point is not to be stingy ; I want them to realize that I too use this thing and it's important to me! I think if you start to use a metronome you'll begin to feel the same way after a short while. Have fun!

Tune in next week for the next installement of Have Guitar Will Travel.