Our Neglected Friend
Thoughts on the Metronome
Written by AC
The metronome is a great device that helps musicians keep the rhythm throughout a piece of music, whether it be for the violin, piano, or our voices. The metronome is often ignored and is most commonly used during a beginner’s musical journey. Or maybe you are special, and you always grew up practicing with the metronome! But for the most of us who don’t use the metronome often, here’s my little story.
During my time as a musician, I experienced many different challenges, whether it be finding a motivation to practice or winning a music competition. But I experienced something completely new for the first time. It was using a metronome! As a kid and even up to now, I never considered that the metronome was important, even though I was told numerous times to practice with a metronome. So, I sympathize with the beginners who don’t like using the metronome. Personally, I did not like using the metronome because it felt restrictive, limiting my own personal interpretation of the piece. It was also really hard to sync in with the metronome because, if you listen carefully, it is painfully obvious to know when you are not playing with the beats, which can frustrate many people regardless of skill level.
It wasn’t until now that I took a good look at my past mistakes. Obviously there were many, though not using the metronome was my biggest mistake. Through my orchestral experience, I finally realized how important it is to use a metronome to practice because, in any ensembles, you are required to sound in unison with your part. Arguably, everyone has their own interpretation of the piece, so it is important to keep the group together by playing to one tempo before exploring different musical phrasings. Playing together in unison is a given in any ensemble; but my point is, everyone practices at home, and it’s always going to be a solo that way, so we might not realize when we speed up or slow down our playing. Therefore, the metronome is essential to any ensemble playing.
Next I would like to talk about my experience with exams and competitions as both arguably give us the most performance pressure. I rarely use a metronome for these special events. It’s just so restrictive; and the one thought I have is just go through passages that I struggle with, and play it more a couple times. I start playing it well, and it finally starts sounding like I expected it to or what I wanted it to sound like. But then I usually forget that it starts speeding up, because I’m so comfortable with the music now. This is when the metronome should help me but no, I still ignore it. If I ever have a future music exam, I would like to prepare with a metronome. Not to mention, at these competitions and exams, you usually feel a lot more pressure maybe your parents are watching, or the feeling of getting judged just feels miserable. But in times like this, we need to just calm down and think of that metronome in our hearts that ticks back and forth. When you play with the momentum, you’ll soon feel the pulse of the beats, and that’s when your performance will impress the audience.
Here are some reasons I came up with and researched that will hopefully offer you more motivation to practice with a metronome.
Playing with a metronome:
- Helps with ear training
- Builds our long-term rhythm sense
- Helps us to subdivide better
- Benefits the coordination of your brain with your two hands
- Builds up confidence, especially when coming in at the right time
- Helps slow down the fast passages as the passages are possibly not as fast as we perceive to be
- Improve rhythm and beat consistency for the long term
Thanks for reading! I hope to help beginners with the fundamentals of music playing, so that they hopefully do not go through the mistakes I went through. The metronome is there on our smart devices; don’t ignore it! Maybe some will find the metronome to be a fun challenge, especially as a test for patience. Good luck everybody, and keep practicing!