By Just Rijna of StringKick
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What pops into your mind when you hear the word “metronome?”
Maybe you use it all the time and love to practice with it — but for many musicians a “click” can feel a bit like a strict school teacher pointing out their mistakes. It doesn’t have to be that way though. Metronome practice can also be a fun and musical way to improve your timing.
So in this article, I want to give you three different playful ways to practice that make your metronome feel more like a “friendly drummer” than a “strict school teacher.”
1. Keep the Tempo
We’ll start with big-picture timing. This is your ability to maintain the overall tempo: to not speed up or slow down. To improve this skill, you need to make yourself responsible for the time.
A great way to practice this is to have the metronome play fewer clicks. For example, instead of having the metronome play on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4), let’s start by setting it to tick on the 2 and 4. As you might know, the snare drum is usually played on these beats, while the bass drum is played on the 1 and 3. Because the sound of a metronome click sounds more like a snare drum, this makes the exercise feel more natural, as it makes the metronome feel more like a drummer.
Now, pick something to play. This can be as simple as playing up and down the major scale, but you can also pick a riff, a strum pattern or part of a song. Play along to the metronome. Really take your time to get comfortable with the click on the 2 and the 4. As you get more tuned in, you’ll start to feel that the metronome falls naturally into your playing and you don’t have to work for it.
Once you want a bit more challenge, try playing with the metronome only on the 4. Next, only play a click on the 4 every two bars, every three bars, every four bars and so on. You can make this into a game where you try to beat your “high scores” by increasing the time between metronome clicks.
Another way to make this exercise more challenging is by not playing an existing song, but by playing something by ear. A riff or strum pattern tends to be easier, because you’re repeating the same thing. But when you play something from your imagination, maintaining the tempo becomes even more challenging!
+ Learn more on Flypaper: “How Kiefer Finds New Melodies Using Speech Patterns (Video).”
2. Subdivision Groove
Now that we’ve taken a look at our big-picture timing, let’s zoom in and explore micro timing. This involves exploring the subdivisions of a quarter note: eighth notes, eighth notes triplets, sixteenth notes and so on. Many metronomes have these subdivisions, so you could practice playing along to them to get their sound into your system. But let’s try a different approach, a game that challenges you to create a groove.
Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll let the metronome play the subdivision, while we play the beat. For example, try to feel the metronome as the third note in an eighth note triplet. This will get us a nice shuffle feel or a 12/8 African vibe.
The blue notes are played by the metronome.
For a musical example of how this would sound, take a quick listen to this version of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy.”
Listen to how he plays a bunch of open guitar strings on the third note of the eighth note triplet — that’s where we want to have the note metronome play as well. What makes this tricky is that you need to imagine in your mind where the beats (the 1, 2, 3 and 4) should be placed, and not feel the metronome click as the beat. You might find it helpful to count between the metronome clicks like this: THREE, one, two, THREE, one, two…
Try clapping on the beat (so the ‘1’ of the triplets). Can you feel a shuffle coming up? It might take a while before this starts to feel comfortable and steady, so give yourself the time to ease into the groove. Next, try to play a chord or a note instead of clapping. See if you can keep it consistent.
Again, this will take a while to get comfortable.
Think of this exercise as a game of synchronization. If two dancers perform the same dance, it only works if they’re synchronized. If one falls out of line, the other one looks bad too. In the case of this exercise, it means that if you’re not on it, the metronome stops grooving too.
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3. The Moving Click
So far we’ve practiced with the metronome in a fixed spot. But why not move it around around?
For example, you can make the metronome click every three beats while you play something in 4/4. This means the metronome changes place in each bar. It starts on the 1, then it plays the 4, in the next bar it’s on 3 and so on until you’re back on the 1 again after three bars.
The blue notes are played by the metronome.
This is a fun way of learning to deal with rhythmic complexity in the rhythm section and to feel so-called cross rhythms. Of course you can do this with any cross rhythm you like. You can set the metronome to every 3 eighths, 5 sixteenths or 8 eighth-note triplets. This involves working with the precision of the metronome, while keeping a sense of where you are in the bar, which makes it a great exercise for processing multiple things at the same time in your mind.
So it’s not only a “time game” but also a “mind game.”
Next Steps
These are just a few examples of how you can use a metronome in your practice time. Create variations on these ideas or come up with your own exercises too. The main take away is: keep it fun!
By creating little games for yourself, you can get into the mindset of trying to beat a video game. Focus on challenges aren’t always easy but are still doable. That’s how you keep things light and enjoyable. In short, play your own metronome games to have a better time and get a better time!
Play Your Heart Out!
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Just Rijna is the founder of StringKick: an online academy for guitarists. StringKick is focused on helping you boost your overall confidence and musicianship through music theory, ear training and improvisation. All with the goal of making your musical journey more enjoyable and rewarding.
