70 Bpm Has Become Very Difficult! Options

[Fingerspasm]

I have been playing for 4 to 5 years without an instructor. I have taught myself some scales and cool licks and can play pretty fast. Recently I have been in a rut and have been getting discouraged so I found a good instructor because I know I needed someone to make me accountable so I would make myself learn some of the things that I do not typically enjoy when I play.
The first thing my instructor did was make me go back to playing the pentatonic scale which I have avoided for the last couple of years and he made me slow the metronome all the way down to 70 BPM (I have been typically playing at 120 to 150 when playing scales). His instructions were to play quarter notes then eight notes etc. etc. Oh and I have to tap my foot on every beat! I have been very humbled by how difficult this is! I am totally stuck on trying to play 5 notes per beat and beyond... not to mention tapping my foot the whole time. He has proven to me that when you do this and play various patterns at 5 or 7 notes per beat it can sound really cool. When you mute it and make it really staccato it really sounds cool. I have already noticed an improvement in my playing when I speed back up. It is much tighter and clean. Just thought I would share this. Try it if you have not done it before and see how difficult it is to play slow while tapping your foot. People who have had formal lessons have probably been through this long ago. But it might be useful for some people that are like me that have been teaching themselves and have skipped some of the more basic stuff that seemed to boring and easy to try. It will make a big difference.

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