The Metronome: A Timekeeping Friend

So just to talk a little bit about our timekeeping friend, the metronome.

A Brief History

• It always used to be the case that we'd have an actual metronome.
• Maybe some of you remember the wooden ones that used to be on a piano with the tick, tock, tick.
• They had a weight at the bottom and they never quite stayed in time.
  • Or maybe that was just me. Maybe I'm blaming the metronome for going out of time.

The weighted ones weren't great for drummers for a couple of reasons:

• They weren't loud enough.
• They didn't really keep consistent time.

Modern Solutions

We are very lucky now that we have super duper digital metronomes, either available on your device or you can definitely buy a metronome and plug in some headphones to it.

My Favorite Metronome

Let me show you the one that I use. There are lots of metronome apps out there:

• Free ones
• Paid ones

I really like Prometronome, mainly because it has a voice counting mode. Check this out:

"1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3."

I can go to eighth notes, or even sixteenth notes.

Okay, maybe that's enough of that. That one drives my students a little crazy when I put it onto sixteenth notes, but it provides a lot of laughter as well.

The Purpose of the Metronome

The primary function of the metronome is to help us develop good timekeeping.

• Each of us has our own natural sense of time that's built into us.
• Some of us are lucky and have a good natural sense of time.
• Others may have a tendency to speed up, especially with the adrenaline of playing or if we're nervous about performing.

Managing Performance Anxiety

If you're doing a drum exam or something similar, it's normal to feel a little nervous or excited. This can cause us to speed up unintentionally, or if we're tired, we might slow down a bit.

It's all variable.

Using one of these and practicing with a metronome is essential for fine-tuning our timekeeping.

Practical Tips for Using the Metronome

I should possibly do this more often, but I'm always very busy working and playing live. I do need to remind myself occasionally to put the metronome on at various tempos, especially those out of our comfort zone—those that feel really slow.

• Our comfortable speed might be about 85 or 90 beats per minute, which is featured a lot in this course.
• There are tempos of 80, 85, and 90 beats per minute.

Understanding the Pulse

• That's the quarter note pulse.
• If we were looking at our watches, 60 beats per minute would be just like watching that second hand go round.

However, that's quite slow for the kind of music we're playing.

Using the Metronome Effectively

So, how do we use the metronome?

1. Adjusting the Dial: You can change the tempo, for example, from 80 to about 90.

   • If you're feeling brave, you can go all the way up to 200 or 300, but let’s stick to around 80 or 85 for now, as some of our exercises are set to that speed.

2. Listening for the Beat: It sounds like this:

"1, 2, 3, 4."

I like to have a different pitch on beat one because, if I'm playing something challenging and might get lost, it's comforting to identify that higher tone as beat one.

• You can also set it to quavers or eighth notes, which would sound like:

"1 and 2 and 3 and 4."

This is particularly helpful if you’ve been playing quarter notes on the hi-hat and want to practice locking in eighth notes.

A Balanced Approach

Now, we don’t want to get too neurotic or specific, chasing the metronome and worrying about not meeting it at the right time.

• Music is about feeling and expression.
• While it’s true that a lot of digitally produced music is very precise, there's something special about humans getting together in a room to play music.

Remember: If you get excited during a performance, it might speed up a little or slow down. That's okay—it's all natural.

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re trying to play exercises and they aren’t exactly in sync with the metronome. We’re all just doing our best, and that’s good enough.