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playing with a metronome can be so
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frustrating so challenging especially
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when you keep trying and trying and
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trying and you just can't seem to stay
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with it in this video I am going to walk
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you through a process that I like to use
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with my students to help them learn to
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play with a metronome confidently so go
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ahead click the like button down below
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because that really helps me out and
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stick with me to the end of this video
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because once we've walked through this
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process hopefully you will feel much
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more confident playing with
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metronome chances are that if you
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clicked on this video then you already
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know what a metronome is but just so
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we're all on the same page a metronome
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can be either mechanical or it can be
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digital mechanical metronomes have the
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literal metronome and it has a pendulum
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that swings back and forth and then we
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have digital metronomes I use a digital
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metronome I use an app on my phone there
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are a whole bunch of different free
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Metronome apps that you can use I will
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link the one that I use down below so
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that you can check it out but basically
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what a metronome is is it is a tool that
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musicians use to measure how fast or how
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slow the beat of a song is metronomes
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are super important and you definitely
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should be practicing with the metronome
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for multiple reasons one of those being
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if we look at or if you listen to some
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of the top musicians some of the top
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mandolin players octave mandolin players
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guitar players whoever you want to look
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at chances are that they've spent a lot
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of time with the metronome and so when
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you listen to their playing their notes
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are very equal very solid very steady
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and that's what we want to achieve
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because as you grow in your musical
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journey and as you begin playing with
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other musicians as you begin recording
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yourself you're going to find out how
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important it is that you have a steady
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tempo and what a lot of us don't realize
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is that as we're playing we naturally
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tend to either speed up or slow down in
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certain areas depending on the
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difficulty of the song and other factors
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so so we want to make sure that we're
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practicing with the metronome so that
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then we can play with other musicians
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and stay with them it sounds it sounds
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together we can stick with them no
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matter if they're playing fast if
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they're playing slow we all gel together
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and we're able to keep a steady tempo
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that is very pleasing to the ears it's
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also a very great discipline to practice
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with the metronome as many of you
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probably know and I will say I don't
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love practicing with the metronome I
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never have it's not something that I
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just love doing in my practice if it
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were up to me I would sit down and I
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would play and I would not ever turn on
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a metronome but you know what as I have
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started recording myself more I've
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started to notice that I have a very bad
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tendency to speed up in certain areas
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and sometimes I notice if I'm playing
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triplets then I tend to slow down a
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little bit which is not good and so I
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have started incorporating the metronome
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into my practice much
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more okay so now on to the point of this
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video how can we practice with a
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metronome so that we can feel that beat
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so that we can stay with it I do think
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that some people have a little bit more
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of a natural tendency to be able to feel
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the beat to feel the rhythm a little bit
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better they just have it's naturally
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within them the Lord has given them a a
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musical gift of being able to feel that
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metronome and for some people it just
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doesn't come as naturally but I have
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good news for you whether you feel it or
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not it can be learned it is something
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that just like anything else the more
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you practice it the better you're going
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to get at it so the first thing that
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we're going to do is actually work on
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moving our body to the metronome without
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even an instrument in hand I think this
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is where people get into trouble is that
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they first start trying to play with a
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metronome with an instrument maybe
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they're trying to play a scale or an
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arpeggio or a song with a metronome and
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and the the the hard thing about that is
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not only are you trying to feel the
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rhythm stay with the beat stay with that
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metronome but you're also having to
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worry about left hand fingerings and the
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pick hand and so you just have so much
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going on in your brain and it's really
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hard just to focus in on staying with
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that metronome so we're going to put all
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instruments down and we are going to
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grab our metronomes and we're going to
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clap with the bead so I'm going to go
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ahead and start my metronome at
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[Music]
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60
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okay this is my metronome at 60 so what
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we're going to do is we're just simp
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going to clap with every single one of
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these beads and I have a metronome where
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I hear it but then I I can also look at
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it my metronome is over here if you
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can't tell um where I can also look at
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it so that the the light I can see the
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flashing light and that actually really
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helps me to be able to see it and hear
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it at the same time
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so this is
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60 we're going to clap with each
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beat and our
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goal is to be right with that metronome
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as much as
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possible not to be behind it not to be
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ahead of
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it okay do actually honestly it's not
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super simple it's not super easy to do
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it is simple it's not easy to do so I
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recommend just starting with this I know
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it's it's simple and it doesn't seem
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like you're going to make much progress
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doing this but this is a great starting
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place and even just for me doing that
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especially doing that while trying to
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talk it was kind of hard it really made
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me think so go ahead put your metronomes
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on start here and once you feel like
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you've got that under control what we're
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going to do is we're going to continue
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to clap and we're going to count the
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beats with our mouth verbally so we're
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going to do 1 2 3 three four and we're
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going to do this with our menr
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no so here we go one 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
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cool awesome so now we're going to make
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it a little bit more complicated so what
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we're going to do is we are going to
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keep our claps on the Beats so one 2 3
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four like we just did but with our mouth
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we're going to count in eighth notes so
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we're going to divide each one of these
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beats into
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two equal parts so we're going to count
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one and two and three and four and okay
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but we're going to keep clapping on the
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Beats so our mouth and our claps are
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going to be doing two separate rhythms
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this is where it it gets a little bit
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more complicated and it might take you a
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little bit of time to get this under
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your belt
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but this is something to work up towards
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so I'm going to keep my metronome at
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60 here we go one and two and three and
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four and one and two and three and four
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and 1 and two and three and four and
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perfect okay so now what we're doing is
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we're keeping the beat with our clap but
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our mouth is doing a separate Rhythm now
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this is super beneficial because when
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we're playing a song especially if we
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just take you know a simple Bluegrass
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tune the beat is going to stay the same
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we're going to have one 2 three four but
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we're going to be changing up the rhym
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that we're playing but we still have to
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be able to feel that beat and do all the
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extra Rhythm changes on top of that
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steady beat if that makes sense
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sometimes you might be playing eighth
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notes sometimes you might be playing
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triplets sometimes you might be playing
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16th notes but that beat is always going
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to stay the same so I like doing this
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exercise because it trains you to keep
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the beat with your clap but to say other
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rhythms with your
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mouth so once you've got what we just
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did down the eighth notes down we're
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going to go ahead and we're going to do
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triplets so triplets are very
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tricky um because they're not an even
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subdivision so we're going to divide
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Every Beat Now into three SE separate
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parts okay so and the way that we're
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going to count this is I like to just
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say triplet so triplet triple it triple
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it triple it so we're going to keep our
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claps on the beat and we're going to say
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triple it with our metronome at 60
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still
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okay triple it triple it trip it triple
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it triple it triple it triple it triple
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it good okay this one is a little bit
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trickier so go ahead and practice that
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do that with your metronome until it
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feels really comfortable and if you have
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trouble with this then just keep
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practicing it for a little bit and then
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take a break from it come back to it
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tomorrow and try it again and the more
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that you do it and the more that you
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practice you know just clapping with
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that beat and then adding on the eighth
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notes and then adding on the triplets
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the easier it's going to get okay so now
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we're going to go ahead and go to 16th
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notes so 16th notes are a division of
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the Beats into four separate parts and
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the way that we're going to count this
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is going to be 1 E and A 2 E and A 3 e
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and a four e
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and here we go 1 E and A 2 E and A 3 E
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and A 4 e and a one E and A 2 E and A 3
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e and a four E and A okay so that's the
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last subdivision that we're going to do
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with our metronome okay so now now is
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the time when we're actually going to
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grab our mandolins or guitars or
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whatever instrument you were
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[Music]
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on so now we're adding another level of
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difficulty right now we have to worry
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about our pick and our technique a
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little bit so what we're going to do is
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we're going to pick one open string so
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I'm going to choose my open G string my
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lowest string here and what we're going
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to do is we're going to walk through
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that same rhythmic process of starting
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with quarter notes then going to eighth
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notes then going to triplets then going
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to 16th but we're going to keep it just
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on an open string okay
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so here's our beat we're going to do
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quarter notes 1 2 3 4 1
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2 3 4 1 2 okay let's go to eighth notes
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1 and two and three four and 1 and two
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and three and four and one and two and
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all right triplets triple it triple it
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triple it triple it triple it triple it
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triple it triple
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[Music]
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it 16 1 E and A 2 E and A 3 E and A 4 E
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and A 1 E and A 2 E and A 3 E and A 4 E
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and
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[Music]
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A okay so if you are able to go through
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all of those speeds that's awesome good
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for you if not then go ahead and just
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start with the very first one do that
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get it very comfortable and if you're
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even having trouble with that that's
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okay just take it slowly and know that
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it is a process it's not going to happen
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overnight but if you continue to to work
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on it to practice it to practice even
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just counting with the metronome just
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clapping with the metronome you can even
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tap your foot as you're playing all of
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those things are super helpful and even
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if you don't have your instrument in
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hand you can still practice this by
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clapping talking moving your body some
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in some way with the metronome
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okay so now we're going to move to
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actually playing something so I'm just
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going to take a standard G Major scale
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since a lot of people know a G Major
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scale I love to use this exact exercise
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with scales so what we're going to do is
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we're just you know we're going to start
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off with cord notes like we've been
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doing we'll play the G Major scale up
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and down and again our goal is we're
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trying to make our notes match up EX
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exactly with the click of that metronome
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it's actually hard to do and and this is
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something that I'll be honest I don't
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think I'm the I'm the best at playing
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with the metronome and I've noticed that
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recently so this is something that I'm
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still working on trying to get all of my
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notes even especially when I'm playing a
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passage or a tune that has a bunch of
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eighth notes trying to get all of those
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eighth notes equal trying to get them
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all even is difficult and so this is an
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exercise that can help with that
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so okay this is my
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[Music]
00:14:20
metronome Okay
00:14:22
cool so that speed is fair fairly simple
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because every single note that we're
00:14:27
playing is lining up with a beat so now
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when we go to the eighth notes we're
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going to divide each beat into two
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separate parts so what I like to do to
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help me figure out how these notes match
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up with the metronome is I like to
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physically draw lines in my music of
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where the notes line up with the
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Beats so if we're doing an eighth note G
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Major scale I'll draw a line through the
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G and then the B and then the D and then
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the FP so on so forth so that way we can
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see okay this note is supposed to be
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lining up with my first metronome click
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the second note that I drew a line
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through that is the note that is
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supposed to be lining up with my second
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metronome click so that way visually I
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can see where I'm supposed to be and
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then I know if I get off because if I'm
00:15:20
playing a note that has a line drawn
00:15:22
through it but it's not lining up with a
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metronome then that means that I
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probably got off somewhere so we'll go
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ahead and play the eighth note
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speed here we
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[Music]
00:15:43
go okay and then we'll do the exact same
00:15:46
thing with the triplet speed so if I
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have a triplet speed written out here
00:15:51
then I'm going to go ahead and draw a
00:15:53
line at the beginning of every triplet
00:15:56
so every three notes the beginning of
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every three notes is is going to line up
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with our metronome so we'll go ahead
00:16:02
ahead and do that
00:16:04
[Music]
00:16:11
speed very nice that one's a little
00:16:13
tricky it feels a little
00:16:16
bit it feels a little bit weird when
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you're playing it but again it's a great
00:16:21
exercise so go ahead don't skip the hard
00:16:23
speeds just because they're hard if
00:16:26
they're hard that means that they're
00:16:27
good and they're helping you grow grow
00:16:29
so triplets and the last one is 16 we'll
00:16:33
do the same thing as far as you can draw
00:16:36
lines in your music and I'm just using a
00:16:38
G Major scale as an example but in
00:16:41
whatever song you're playing if you're
00:16:43
playing a bunch of eighth notes you can
00:16:45
do this marking which notes line up with
00:16:48
the Beats same thing if you have a
00:16:49
triplet passage or if you have a measure
00:16:52
of triplets then you can draw lines
00:16:54
through to see where the notes line up
00:16:57
with what beats and I find this
00:17:00
incredibly incredibly helpful and I also
00:17:05
recommend that especially if you are a
00:17:08
beginner always print out your music
00:17:11
that you're learning and some of you may
00:17:12
do this already but I think that when
00:17:14
you print it out then you can you can
00:17:17
mark it and draw lines through it and
00:17:19
write stars in your music if there's a
00:17:22
swab that you tend to get off make
00:17:24
visual markers in your music that can
00:17:26
help you as you're learning a song
00:17:31
s so the last speed is
00:17:33
[Music]
00:17:39
16 very nice so that is my process and
00:17:44
you can do this you could take this G
00:17:46
Major scale 2 octaves and do this
00:17:49
sequence of rhythms just doing this
00:17:51
simple exercise will help you hopefully
00:17:54
in your metronome Journey Keep On
00:17:58
keeping on I know it can be frustrating
00:18:01
but the more you do it the better you're
00:18:03
going to get and I have seen people that
00:18:06
literally could not could not stay with
00:18:09
the metronome could not even play eth
00:18:11
notes with the metronome and they keep
00:18:12
working on it they keep getting it and
00:18:14
they learn it and now they're able to
00:18:16
play incredibly difficult rhythms so it
00:18:19
can be achieved it can be done you just
00:18:21
have to keep working on it so thank you
00:18:25
guys so much for watching don't forget
00:18:28
to hit that like button down below and
00:18:30
subscribe if you haven't already that
00:18:32
would I would love to have you join my
00:18:35
channel here go ahead and comment any
00:18:37
questions any observations down below or
00:18:40
any common struggles that you have with
00:18:42
the metronom maybe I could do another
00:18:44
video in the future on other tips on how
00:18:47
to practice with a metronome thank you
00:18:49
guys so much for watching and I will see
00:18:51
you in next week's video
00:18:55
[Music]
