How to Use a Metronome

by Kyle Coughlin

Educational Tools > MetronomeBot Home > Metronome Info and Help

Besides your instrument, your metronome is probably the most important practice tool available to you. Many students are not sure how to use a metronome, though. Here are some helpful guidelines and suggestions for using a metronome.

Listen to your metronome! Many students turn their metronome on, but play at a completely different tempo without realizing it. When practicing a section of music with the metronome, listen to several beats before you start. That way you will get a better feel for the tempo. It is also very helpful to count a full measure before you start.

Make sure that your metronome is loud enough so that you can hear it. There are many metronomes on the market that are just not loud enough to hear while you are playing. Some of them have outputs allowing you to plug them into an amplifier. The MetronomeBot tracks were all recorded at the loudest level possible without distorting the sound. You can download the MP3 files and play them on your iPod or MP3 player.

Set your metronome at tempos which allow you to play your music effortlessly. Avoid trying to play too fast too soon. To learn a piece of music successfully, it is best to start at an easy tempo and gradually speed up.

Tap your foot to the beat. Lightly tapping your foot is an easy way to feel the beat while playing music, and it helps us make the transition from playing with the metronome to not playing with the metronome.

If you are playing through a section of music with a metronome and make many errors, then you need to slow down the metronome. If you only make a few errors in that piece of music, then isolate the hard sections and work on them with the metronome set to a slower tempo. Gradually speed up the tempo of those sections to the tempo of the rest of the piece. Once you can play those isolated sections accurately and effortlessly, then try playing the entire section again.

If you need to play a piece of music faster, then speed up gradually -- one metronome notch at a time. Some metronomes increase by single digits. In the beginning and intermediate stages of learning music, that is not necessary. MetronomeBot’s tempos change proportionally and move in increments of 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8. These tempo changes are fine for gradually speeding up any music that you are practicing.

Practice with a talking metronome. Metronomes that speak each beat are easier for many students to follow. Also, by playing with a metronome that counts every beat, you can make sure that you are in the right place at the right time. For example, if you are playing beat four of a section of music and the metronome is saying “one,” then you have made a rhythm error. MetronomeBot has several talking metronomes.

Use your metronome to subdivide rhythms. In the beginning stages, subdividing is very helpful for learning eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes. This technique is also great for working on more difficult rhythms like dotted quarter notes, syncopations, and dotted eighth - sixteenth note patterns. MetronomeBot has several different subdividing metronomes.

Use your metronome for everything: scales, exercises, musical pieces, and even improvising. Practice creating your own melodies while the metronome is clicking.