4 Reasons You Avoid The Metronome

I feel like I hear it every week at least once in lessons. “Hey, why do I need a metronome?” Well, maybe you don’t! It could be that you are the one student who never needed one! HAHA, no.

Most of this is coming from fear. If you have to do something you aren’t comfortable doing, there’s always going to be an internal pull to avoid the pain of failure.

In this article I listed the 4 things I think most people would gain by using the metronome, but don’t, because they avoid it.

You Don’t Want to Get Faster

You can play 16th note scale runs across all strings at speeds faster than 170 beats per min (11 notes a second!), so you don’t need a metronome, clearly.

Your biggest goal on the guitar was always speed, but you don’t need to use the one tool that can measure how fast or slow you are at a particular exercise.

You think that simply practicing the same thing over and over is the way to go, but then you are frustrated because you aren’t seeing any progress.

The truth is that you don’t know what to do in the practice room.

You don’t need to use the metronome for every single thing, but if you are interested in measuring your speed, and pushing it, you need to use a metronome now.

Your Internal Clock is Perfect Already

You are already perfect! You have the ability to execute anything you hear or see with total accuracy, confidence, and with minimal effort!

You already know what adagio, allegro, presto, and largo feel like.

You have complete understanding at how to come up with interesting stuff at any speed, and easily!

The reality check for most students is that at extreme speeds (grave or presto), their technique suddenly takes a huge hit, because they are not used to playing at extremes. They are only used to playing what feels good and is comfortable. This is why students would rather noodle around and watch tv over sitting in a quiet room for just one hour and apply total focus to the goal.

If you practice your ability to execute ideas and exercises at various tempos, pushing further in each direction, you are practing effectively.

You Already Have Perfect Control

You are already perfect! You have the ability to execute anything you hear or see with total accuracy, confidence, and with minimal effort!

You are like NEO! In fact, you are even better than Neo, because Neo had to think through his actions, and you don’t even need to do that!

Of course we know that no one is perfect. Playing music is a balancing act of imperfection, and one of the ways to measure this is with the metronome.

Use our left hand exercises, or our strumming patterns ebook if you’re a beginner. First learn the material. Then try to learn it in different keys or chords. Then, use the metronome to see how accurate you are at different tempo.

You Can Swing Like A Champ

You are Art Tatum and Buddy Rich reincarnated. Your swing has so much pocket between 2 and 4, that a rocket ship can land inside it.

Many teachers and students make the argument that a metronome or backing track cannot recreate the ‘shared time’ feeling of playing with a drummer, who is listening and reacting to you. This is true, there is no argument. But, you should still use the metronome.

Using the metronome to only highlight the 2 and 4 of a beats will mean that you have to internalize the other beats, and doing this has an effect on your ability to swing. It’s hard to do at first, but after awhile you never need to even think through it.

The simplest way to explain it is when the metronome clicks, say 2, then 4 on the next click. Then ‘in-between the clicks’, say 1 and 3. If you’re playing straight rock or jazz, the 2 would be a snare drum (if you had a drummer). That’s another way to think about it.

4 Reasons You Need A Metronome

I was totally kidding here. No one on planet earth has perfect time, so lose the ego = fear of failure

Sometimes one of the best things you can do it fail. Knowing where you failed, then you can improve. Sitting in a space, and not challenging yourself is exactly what limits your progress. Read our article Ways to tell you need lessons, and consider joining our Online Streaming Group where I try to talk though issues holding back guitarists from all walks, every saturday.

Thanks for reading!