Can you use a metronome too much ;)

Can you use a metronome too much :rofl: :rofl:

13 Likes

Better than ā€˜tik tokā€™ :laughing:

8 Likes

:rofl:

Probably less repetitive too

1 Like

Not in my house you canā€™t!!! I have a stand alone digital metronome but that sucker is getting a workout lately. . :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

1 Like

I donā€™t think so.

Kinda like asking if itā€™s better to play with a drummer or play w/o one. The drummer keeps everyone in time, together.
I guess. Unless your Ginger Baker, or Keith Moon. They were way out there good, but still kept the time, just with much frills outside of 1,2,3,4. 1,2,3,4.

Kinda cool that you got a record of how much you use your metronome too. This is good imho.
My windup taktell piccolo donā€™t keep record of how much I use it. Which I would guess would be, not enough.

1 Like

Maybe you should try turning it off when you are asleep?

3 Likes

The question is in the same category as:
Can I be too good looking or
Can I have too much money.

For me all three have the same answer.
Cheers,
Glen

1 Like

Good for you!

1 Like

Never too much! Isnā€™t it our best friend? :heart_eyes::wink:

1 Like

Iā€™d say it depends on your situation. Playing to a click is great until you find yourself in a band, or open mic situations where you need to keep time with the song and not rely on a click!

2 Likes

Agreed. If I did a similar screenshot it would show I play 0% of the time to a metronome. I play along to songs and thatā€™s how I practice keeping in time. If your band mates speed up or slow down then you need to match them not tell them how you were the only one who kept perfect time!

Sorry, the question was rhetorical! Although Iā€™ve been using a metronome a lot recently as Iā€™ve been working on timing very heavily.
Iā€™m in the Blues Immersion world and Iā€™ve been looking at a couple of things over there that really need a metronome ā€¦

  1. Playing a 4 note repeated lick as 16th notes over a couple of bars then playing the same 4 notes as triplets for two bars.
  2. Setting a metronome very slow (30 bpm) and playing a slow unaccompanied blues solo using the clicks on beats 2 and 4 while trying to highlight the chord changes.

Personally I quite like the challenge of playing to a click, but I certainly donā€™t do it all the time.

I think a lot of bands will play to click tracks in IEMs these days.

5 Likes

Yes and donā€™t you wonder why? Similarly some famous singers use vocal pitch correction or even vocal over dub (mimeing) during live performances!

1 Like

Itā€™s not the same at all.

Major bands have been playing live to click tracks for decades for good reasons. Often thereā€™s backing tracks, sound effects, video or lighting that they need to synchronise with as part of the show.

Or, in some cases, thereā€™s rhythmic effects, such as vibrato or keyboard arpeggiator sequences that need to be in time, and cannot easily be adjusted to match on the fly.

The ability to playing in time with a band also has very little to do with whether they are synchronized to a click or not.

When bands play to a click, it tends (in my experience of being the sound engineer for some local bands) to be only the drummer that has the click. The rest of the band are keeping time with the drummer and would be able to regardless of whether the drummerā€™s tempo was drifting or locked to a click.

Cheers,

Keith

6 Likes

Great practice items Paul. I do different permutations of these types of drills often. Some with a metronome; some with BT. Many benefits I reckon.

Cheers, Shane

2 Likes

I think you can. Itā€™s a necessary learning tool, particularly to get the rhythm and timing of a piece and increase speed. After you have that at the target tempo, you should turn it off. The metronome has served its purpose. Use your internal clock, move to a backing track, or better yet play with others.

Sorry but what is not the same?

The drummer using a click isnā€™t the same as using pitch correction or miming.

If you went to a ā€œliveā€ performance and found out that the main singer had been miming through most of the performance, most people would, justifiably, feel they had been cheated.

Similarly, if you found out that a singer had been using pitch correction, then you may well be disappointed (depending on who the singer was).

But I doubt anyone has ever been remotely bothered that the drummer in the band they went to see used a metronome or click.

Because itā€™s very common practice and playing along to a click doesnā€™t mean the drummer (or the rest of the band) canā€™t play without it. In fact, being able to drum to a click is a skill, and something a lot of drummers struggle to do.

Cheers,

Keith

3 Likes