Playing with a metronome

[Curt Trisko]

I've been playing for about a year-and-a-half and pedal steel is my first instrument. This weekend, I jammed with a guitar player who is extensively trained in music theory. The experience is motivating me to take the formal aspect of learning pedal steel more seriously.

I have a digital metronome, but am reluctant to spend too much time practicing with it. It's not because I feel too constrained by a precise, immovable rhythm. Instead, I have a few discreet issues with it.

1. I don't like the digital chirping sound it makes. It's not musical and it doesn't stimulate my natural, internal sense of rhythm the way drums or bass do. When I play along to recordings, I don't even have to think about the rhythm because the other instruments do that work for me.

2. With the metronome, I find myself having to count out the beats in my head. Playing pedal steel is complicated enough already. If my attention is focused on counting, it takes away from the detail I can put into other aspects of my playing.

3. I don't think the metronome lends itself well to slides and changes. If all your slides and changes are uniform and even, it takes away much of the point of having pedal steel in a song.

Can I get the same benefit of a metronome just by playing along to recordings?

[Bob Hoffnar]

Can I get the same benefit of a metronome just by playing along to recordings?

In my experience the answer is no. Focused practice is much more productive. Playing along with recordings is great but can mask phrasing weaknesses. Learning how to count along with a metronome while you play gives you a better sense of time and structure. You will be left behind someday soon on the bandstand if you need the drummer and bass player to hold your hand. Practice time is where you improve your mind along with your hands.

Mix it up. Take a lick you learned from a recording and play it super slow along with a metronome until you get it perfect. Then before you play it up to tempo play the lick with different feels and phrasing. Remain accurate ! But make it sound happy or sad or whatever without changing a note or a rhythm. That is phrasing ! Noodling along with recordings is great but if you want to get over the hill you need to walk uphill at some point.

But anyway....any practice is better than no practice. So whatever keeps you in the seat is good.

[Fred Glave]

Using the metronome is the way to go for gaining agility and confidence. I agree with Bob. Take an extended riff you're learning and play it against the metronome at various speeds. I like to record myself playing it that way. You will be pleased at your progress. You can always mix things up and play with tracks too or what ever your other fun things are, but I've benefitted very much from the metronome.
http://www.metronomeonline.com/

[Glenn Taylor]

I often practice with a drum machine, it's more interesting than a metronome, and you can vary tempo and feel. It's somewhere between metronome and recorded music.

[chris ivey]

i was going to suggest the drum machine also. they have more of a musical tone, even if you just put down a simple bass or snare.
curt..you mention slides etc. not fitting a structured rythmn. what you need to realize is that the perfect time should always be there underlying the music bed. your steel can slide and bend to create feel and tension, but it must be 'within' that perfect time. it should not change, sway or alter the time or it is just sloppy or wrong.

[Eric Philippsen]

I used to belong to the school that said "I don't use a metronome. It makes me sound like a robot without feeling." Or something similar to that. And that's right up there with that other belief that says, "I only read enough music to not harm my playing."

Yeah, I used to say those things. I now know I was just fooling myself in a real bad way. I practice playing with a metronome and reading music all the time now

[Gibson Hartwell]

I agree with you on those digital metronome blips, they are obnoxious and distracting to my ears. I like the Matrix MR500 quartz for an electronic metronome. Its click sounds more like a a woodblock than a blip.

[Curt Trisko]

I like the drum machine idea. I don't understand what is so sacred about the "click, click" of a metronome. A beat is a beat, right? Does anyone have a suggestion for a website or app with a drum machine that would work well?

[Lane Gray]

I'll point out that, just for an example, "C Jam Blues" will only have one note of the minimal head figure played on the beat if you swing it good, and that's the LAST one of those 8. But those beats are coming by like clockwork.
I rarely practice with a metronome, but I SHOULD.
If you have problems with practicing with it, that means you need to do it: when you play with others, if they're any good, those beats will come inexorably, implacably on time. Even if you phrase like Frank or Willie, you have to know where the beat is to play with it.

[Geoff Barnes]

I also have a problem with electronic "beeping" metronomes... annoying for some reason...pitched note as opposed to a percussive click perhaps?
I use a mini Taktell. It's a clockwork metronome and has a small footprint.... by the time it's wound down, I have probably had enough practice on the lick/run I'm trying to master and need to move on or take a short break.

Inexpensive and portable.

http://www.amazon.com/Wittner-Taktell-S ... B000I6KE4S

[Lane Gray]

As for the beats constraining your timing, you only have to hit ONE beat on time, the next downbeat. The rest are guide markers.

[Fred Glave]

There's nothing sacred about a metronome. It just provides a simple singular metered beat that isn't obscured by extraneous beats. If a drum machine or such doesn't affect your ability to follow the beat properly then it's not a big deal. In fact I think a drum machine can add quite a bit to a practice routine.

[James Weigel]

The GarageBand app is great, it has this 'smart drums' feature where you can create different beats and change the tempo. I think it set me back about $12(of course the iPad set me back about $600).

[Sid Hudson]

2013. BIAB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew! If I only had it 45 years ago.

[Bob Hoffnar]

Sid,
BIAB is great and I use it everyday along with focused metronome work.

Actually I'm using similar apps with my Ipad these days. "irealB" is pretty cool and replacing my BIAB practice time for the most part.

[Dustin Rhodes]

Over the last 2 years most of my playing out has been bass and drums. I for one would wish more players would learn with a metronome. Yes especially all you that play keys.

[CrowBear Schmitt]

Bob H's 1st post is right on !
at home, i use a metronome & a rhythm machine w: just a high hat, snare & bass drum
BIAB is good too
the human factor live is also different & enriching as long as the drummer keeps time well & the players pay attention to that
remember it's not what you play - it's what you don't play that permits one to "feel" better & be hip to the time
Gee Whiz is'nt Musik fun ?

[Jim Robbins]

There's a site called Metronome Online that has a click that sounds more like an 'acoustic' metronome than some of the annoying digital ones. It's free.

[Curt Trisko]

Update:

I've been sticking it out with my crappy little digital metronome. In order to train myself to use a metronome while playing songs, I've been playing scales and simple chord progressions along to different rhythm patterns with the metronome. I think it's really helping me.

A problem that I had before is that playing pedal steel even without a metronome takes a lot of focus. The metronome would end up distracting me. Now, using the metronome is training my brain to move aspects of my playing to my sub-conscious (so that it feels like I'm on autopilot) while I focus on being clean with the rhythm. It's a cool feeling and makes me feel like I'm truly going somewhere with this instrument.

[Michael Beasley]

You can work on a riff or new change but to get your timing right you need the metronome or drum machine to get a finish product to take to the show. Drum machine gives more of a band like setting. This is only an opinion.

[Dan Klotz]

You can download some metronome apps on your phone or Ipad. There's one called "tempo" by Frozen Ape that has more of a wood black sound as opposed to the chirp.

[Steve Collins]

I like to set my metronome to just pulse on the one, rather than ticking away on quarter notes. Gives me more space to play around, and really shows me the changes, phrases or parts I am breaking time (badly) in.

[John Alexander]

I like to set my metronome to just pulse on the one, rather than ticking away on quarter notes. Gives me more space to play around, and really shows me the changes, phrases or parts I am breaking time (badly) in.

Along these lines, it is interesting to challenge ones own internal "clock" by slowing the metronome speed down to where it becomes hard to predict when the next click is going to come . . .

[Dave Campbell]

i use a computer driven drum machine some of the time, but most of the time when i'm practicing pedal steel i'll use BIAB. i bought some ray price grooves off the forum, and i set up a static chord over top. doing so helps me work on my bar control and tuning while working up scales and licks.

[Kevin Hatton]

Practicing with a metronome is mandatory for timing. No pain, no gain.