Metronome Practice Options

[DenisN]

Hello!

I am searching for some advice regarding metronome practice. A practice regime, when to push the tempo, how much, how many repetitions of a difficult lick/part etc. Perhaps there is an old post?
BR,

Denis

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[Pedja Simovic]

It depends from tempo. The higher the tempo you should move in smaller amounts of bpm (2 or 4 max). If you are starting in at low tempos (40-80bpm) you can move from 6-8bpm, that seems to be very good way to monitor your improvement. Regarding repetitions, I would say do it until you reach absolute perfection for that lick/phrase/solo/song at that tempo. After this it will be much easier to move up by 4-6bpm and do it all over again. I would also suggest when working on songs or sections to isolate trouble spots and just work on them. Important thing to remember is to always have an extra bar before and after problematic part! That way you make sure that you can enter and exit problematic spots in time.
Hope that helps Denis.

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

Check out this lesson mate:

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/how-to-use-a-metronome.htm


Let me know if you have any more questions about is, I'll be glad to help.

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[DenisN]

Hey guys!

Thanks for the input. I had to ask this because I did something wrong - now I know what it is. I would play something in slower tempo then go immediately to higher tempos , trying to see what my max. tempo is. I would play at that tempo but could never clean up the problematic parts. So I would spend my time trying to play at this high tempo, then go back to the lower- back and forth, never setting it at one tempo. It sound stupid but I believed that if I play it slow I would be stuck at that tempo and would not reach higher tempos. I misunderstood the term 'push yourselfe'.
Well now I'm gonna spend time cleaning things up...but sometimes it gets so discouraging although I know it takes time.

BR,
Denis

PS: Momci, hvala na trudu!

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

The whole thing about practice is to repeat everything to the point that the muscle action gets engraved in your muscle memory. The reason we are doing it slow is something else tho - we are keeping it slow because we need to maintain precision. So precision is what matters the most in fact. It doesn't matter evenif you start and stay slow, and don't keep it precise, this will still be cosnidered as uneffecient training. So the best way to go is to start slow, keep it precise, and build up speed gradually, while maintaining precision all the time. As soon as you notice the drop in precision, stop, rest, and continue, or give yourself couple of days to settle the stuff you rehearsed a bit.

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[Rain]

Great feedback as always Ivan

I don't know if this will help, but what I've done to stick to the metronome is divide the max BPM by say 15 and that will show you how many times you will need to increase speed (starting at say 100 bpm or something) before you will have mastered the song.

Write down the amount of times you'll need to increase and record what your maximum control BPM is with the particular piece. This way, when you move up to another 15 BPM you can say that you have accomplished a new level of difficulty. Essentially, you have rewarded yourself and can PROVE that you have accomplished something becasue you will have complete control at that specific BPM.

And, honestly - I have a whiteboard that sits right next to my guitar that reminds me of my progress and where I need to head in order to complete two songs I'm working on.

I don't know if this helps - but it's worked out great for me and hopefully it will keep you using that metronome.


One other tip: If you have something like TuxGuitar or Guitar Pro, bracket an area (so that it will repeat a segment) and set it to repeat 7 or so times. This essentially turns your song into your metronome and you have to play each note in perfect timing in order to progress. If you need additional timing help, turn the metronome on in the application. Reduce the tempo to what you are comfortable with and play through it until it's spotless. Then increase the tempo 15 and work on that until it's perfect. etc etc etc.

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

I would say that starting with 60 bpm tempo and half notes is generally something that I consider a slow tempo, slow enough to keep an eye on multiple things at the same time. As soon as you go up the speed, there isn't just enough time for a brain to process info from both hands and try to organize the movements properly, so if you keep it slow for some time, this will be much better then starting with 100bpm for example.
One more thing to consider is that with the slow tempos, increasing tempo can be done within 10-15 tempo limit, but when you push the tempo up, this increase rate should be much less. In fact when you reach the very limit, the tempo increase should not be done in more than 5bpm increments. When I reach the limit, I usually end up taking it step by step, with only 2-by-2 bpm increments at the time.

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[Vasilije Vukmiro...]

it is best to increase the bps rate by 2-3, that way it doesn't seem there is difference, but you are progressing.
1-2 hours daily is the maximum I think. If you practice correctly, regularly, you will improve very fast!

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[Joruus]

One other tip: If you have something like TuxGuitar or Guitar Pro, bracket an area (so that it will repeat a segment) and set it to repeat 7 or so times. This essentially turns your song into your metronome and you have to play each note in perfect timing in order to progress. If you need additional timing help, turn the metronome on in the application. Reduce the tempo to what you are comfortable with and play through it until it's spotless. Then increase the tempo 15 and work on that until it's perfect. etc etc etc.

And another great thing in GuitarPro i found out this week is the build in Speedtrainer!
You can set it to go from something like 50% speed to 100% going up 1 or 2 bpm per run.
when you loose controll check what bpm you are at and take a step back..
Helped me alot with a lick im working on!

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This post has been edited by Joruus: Oct 23 2009, 12:40 PM