⏱️ You and the metronome — what's the real story?
Speed is the thing everyone wants and almost no one talks about honestly. Most of us have a method — nudge the tempo up, back off, creep forward again — and most of us have also hit the wall where the number climbs but the hands quietly fall apart.
💬 How do you actually build speed?
- What does your process look like when a passage needs to get faster, and where does it usually break down?
- Have you found that speed problems are really tension problems in disguise, or is that not your experience?
- Is the metronome a friend, a tyrant, or something you have learned to walk away from?
Getting faster is one of the few things in music that feels purely mechanical and turns out to be anything but. Let's trade what has actually moved the needle.
15 replies
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I have a love hate relationship with the metronome. However I find it invaluable for consistent rhythm and timing. But I ask the question does it make the musician more of a rhythmic robot rather than a musician who plays beautiful music?
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I hate the metronome because it confuses my mind when in am learning a piece. I prefer to learn a piece first so i can play it automatically and then try and apply the metronome to get the accuracy. But usually by the time i have learnt a piece, i would rather move on to something new, than work on the metronome. It just makes everything so much harder and takes the joy out of playing even if im not strictly playing the score perfectly, i am playing it for my own pleasure and enjoyment...in my opinion!
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so is this topic about SPEED or METRONOME strategies? the latter is so much more than speed, though we mistakenly think it's about speed. The metronome, other the than the camera, is my most valuable tool. use the metronome:
- Slow tempo control - especially when learning a new piece (check Lukas K TB videos)
- yes, Notch up and down are valuable tools, but used too much it's great at building tension. notch up use is very good with deepening memorization. One TB video I return to and have learned much more than speed training is Vladimir Gobach's Coordination and timing video. It shows Notch up use with a strategy, but what's important to realize is that he can already play that fast. the demo is very good, but you have to take your time with it.
- poly rhythm training!!!
- rush avoidance (record, record, record to find out where you are rushing).
- for fast passages: learn slow and CONTROLLED. combine moderate notch up use with fast burst practice (TB Viloteau videos especially).
Stop using the metronome when you need to close phrases, use rubato however slight or exaggerated, accel or rall/rit. go back to the metronome for control.
FWIW.
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Working on a passage or piece of music is for me a process of initially walking through it to identify and then smooth out the rough spots without a metronome. Once I can play the passage without hesitation at a slower speed, then the metronome is added to practice to achieve 1. timing consistency and 2. eventually incrementally increasing speed. Time is spent also practicing without the metronome to cultivate musicality and the ebb and flow of the piece.
For me, the excitement and anticipation of playing a piece at a fluid and fast speed absolutely increases muscle tension, and results in multiple fingering errors. So, the fastest means of developing speed is to play accurately at a snails pace while staying relaxed as possible (using the least amount of pressure on the fret board and in the right hand) and incrementally increase speed from there.
The metronome is a practice tool when needed and not a performance master.
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I'm 69 years old and have been playing guitar since I was 17 years old. I picked up classical guitar only 2 years ago. Prior to playing classical I never used a metronome. I do understand how there could be a love hate relationship with it for some.
However, I absolutely love it when working on pieces such as Asturias, Recuerdos de la Alhambra or Bachs' Cello Suite BWV 1007. It not only helps my timing, it also helps me monitor my progress on the piece.
Of course I don't see any reason to use it on pieces such as Capricho Arabe. So imho the metronome has its place and, at times, can be a valuable tool
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So the title of the post makes one think it’s about the metronome. The body of the post is about speed and our approach to building the necessary speed to execute whatever we’re torturing ourselves with at the moment. The metronome then provides a metric for measuring our progress, that’s all. Working with a metronome is useful, I might argue necessary, to build technique and to nurture the ability to keep steady time.
Speed, though is complicated. I love the old line, “the only people who say speed isn’t important are the people who can play fast.” There are anatomical factors – the ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle tissue among others. And different techniques require different practice routines. Are we doing free stroke passages or rest stroke passages; are we working on tremolo, or trying to control accents in the first Villa Lobos etude? And anyone who has played/performed for any length of time has come up with ‘workarounds’ for sections that otherwise might keep us from performing the piece. A slur here or there, leaving a note out… we all do it.
There is no substitute for working through all these issues with a teacher, online or in person.
And I’ll close by saying with a wink, speed isn’t important.
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I use the metronome for warm up exercises and for slow practice when learning a new piece (or relearning an old piece) (as per Łukasz Kuropaczewski method)
When I'm comfortable with a piece I often use it to establish my target tempo, but I turn it off when working on phrasing etc. as I feel there is a danger of my playing being too mechanical!
I also find it useful when trying to develop smooth arpeggios for example in Villa Lobos prelude no. 4
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I would say that the metronome and I have become good friends. It hasn't always been like that. It has taken time to reach that stage.
Nowadays, I use the metronome a lot when I am practising technique, especially when doing arpeggios, scales, rhythm studies, and so on.
As for learning repertoire, once I get the mechanics of a passage working the way I want, I may use the metronome to establish a slow practice tempo where I am in control of all of my movements while in a state of little or no tension. If there is a lot of tension, then I am probably trying to play too fast. Sometimes I will also use it to get difficult rhythms correct at this stage.
Once I have the passage encoded into long-term memory and am able to recall it well, I will then return to the metronome to establish a tempo where I feel that I am on the edge of losing control while maintaining a state of as little tension as possible and practice at that tempo for awhile until control with little or no tension is re-established. Once achieved, that then use the metronome to find the next tempo where I am on the edge of losing control and work at that tempo increasing control while maintaining as little tension as possible. This is repeated until I reach my target tempo.
Jim
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I tend to use soundslice (computer audio) instead of a metronome I find it a much better way of getting rhythms accurate. I have published some public videos on YouTube about soundslice if anyone is reading this and wondering what it is and what use it might be. I do use the metronome to build tremolo speed, it is a great help
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I use a metronom for technique practice (scales, Arpeggios). I used a AI chatbot to build me a simple metronom App with some additional functions (E.g. start BPM, increase every X bars by Y BPM, or non linear increase until a specific target Tempo). I Like it to notch up the tempo without having to stop playing. It is also useful to find the exact tempo when i start to Play sloppy.