How to Practice with a Metronome Video Lecture - Guitar Become a Pro (English)

metronome aside from being the universal
abbreviation of metrosexual gnome it is
also a very valuable musical tool to
help us to stay in time and work on your
rhythm so we're going to talk a little
bit about metronomes and different
alternatives today right so if you don't
know most metronomes work in the exact
same way a lot of them have different
features this is a Korg ma one you
basically turn it on and then it clicks
right it's going to default click and it
clicks a four one two three four and
many times the accent is going to be on
the one so if you listen to it one two
three four one two three four you can
adjust the BPM the beats per minute as
it were and a lot of them have a tap
tempo feature what tap tempo means if
you hit it twice that's like what your
your temples gonna be so like one two
like lon - that's 150 250 beats a minute
so you can really manipulate these - no
and a lot of them have a ton of
different features you can get one on
your phones different apps and stuff
like that - but how do you practice what
the metronome is a question that I get a
lot and should you be practicing with
the metronome at awful so my thoughts on
metronomes are the good for certain
situations but I almost always prefer
playing with a drum loop instead right
so base what we're going to start doing
is going to kind of go over just a real
quick practice session depending on what
your goals are this could be totally
different we're just going to go through
scales and chords real quick right so
I'm gonna start out with a regular beat
ad let's go 140 beats a minute right so
it's gonna sound like this one two three
four that's our beat now if we wanted to
practice the scale let's just take the G
major scale right which would be here
let me stop this while I explain it so G
major scale and this position would be a
3 e 5 e
3 + 5 8 2 d 4 D 5 D right definitely
know the major scale if you don't find
out so if you want to practice with a
metronome at 140 beats a minute 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 back alright and then
that you can just slow that down if you
need to speed it up if you need to but
the other way you can do it is to
practice chords right so we'll just
stick with the g core now if you want to
strum if we want to go down up we do the
same thing so 1 2 3 4 down down down
down and this is a really good way to
kinda get yourself on point rhythm wise
now sometimes it can be hard to hear the
metronome over you're playing in which
case you might want to amplify the
metronome somehow also another cool
thing to do is to palm mute it because
if you palm unicorn it'll be down more
and volumizing to kind of help you lock
into that metronome better now we're
going to talk about the drum loop thing
in a minute but my number one favorite
use of a metronome is just to kind of
keep track of your progress over time I
think hit guitar is one of those things
where it's really cool because when
you're first starting out you can get
better really quickly and you almost
feel like you're twice as good one week
and then you just keep going and going
improving but a lot of people hit a
plateau and there might be even like
years where you feel like you're not
getting any better right but if you're
practicing you are getting better what's
happening is you're just not noticing it
as much as maybe did in the early days
so what a metronome was really great for
is to give yourself a solid number that
you can reference for future practice
sessions right like if you're just kind
of like if you want to shred stuff right
and you're working on like a a minor
scale or any kind of minor scale or
whatever do it to a metronome and keep
track of a number right and if you're
doing it at whatever 210 beats a minute
and that's your goal and you can do it
cleanly that's great then the next time
try it at 211 right because I think if
you're practicing without a metronome
it's really hard to tell the difference
between 210 beats a minute and 213 beats
a minute whatever so I think having
those numbers and having a way to chart
your progress especially when it comes
to speed stuff is a great way to do it
now rhythmically
I'm not a huge fan of metronomes because
there's better ways to do it right like
some people will maybe just if they're
having a hard time really getting into
the groove of something they'll just
slow the metronome way way down right
like maybe something like 62 beats a
minute or something like that right so
if we're trying to hit every downbeat
like just a sequel to be like one two
three four and there's so much space and
it's easy to get lost in that space
right like you're just kind of snapping
at what you think a downbeat is and
you're not really teaching yourself good
rhythm that way and also do another
thing about like slower tempos like if
you're practicing it like 30 beats a
minute
that's the same thing as if you were to
double that if you're practicing it 60
beats a minute 120 beats a minute that
is essentially the same tempo you're
just being reminded by the click more
often which is just another reason why
faster tempos might actually not be a
faster thing that you're doing
especially when it comes to strumming
right so that's why I want to talk a
little bit about my favorite way to
practice rhythm especially strumming
taught stuff is a drum loop so I just
kind of set up this drum loop at 140
beats a minute and there are a lot of
apps out there they're even like guitar
pedals you can just make your own drum
loops and stuff like that I'll link you
to this one if you want to just do like
a quick kind of easy 140 BPM drum loop
but basically it can sound like this
okay so if we were to do this with a
metronome you like one two three four
that's the pulse of 140 beats per minute
but what's happening the construction of
this loop is that the hi-hat is actually
kind of playing twice that so for so if
the metronome is at 140 it's playing the
click and one in between so there's more
to kind of remind you what's going on
and also there is a kick on the one the
first measure and the one in the two the
second measure and then the snare is on
the three right so because we have a
little bit of a dynamic it's almost
really just like a dynamic metronome
that is reminding you of the beat more
and because it's a little busier even
though this is like a really really
simple drum loop it's kind of getting
you into the groove of some
more like that so if you have this beat
going right 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 so we're just
gonna play this at court right there's
the downbeat of every measure see I'm
locking into it in a way where I'm still
practicing my rhythm but I'm practicing
more than just my rhythm I'm practicing
my dynamics - I'm kind of like hitting
the lower parts of the string on that
kick drum one and two and three and four
and on the three where the snare is I'm
hitting the higher part of the chord
right so for the kick I'm getting the
lower percussive part of the guitar
string set for the snare I'm getting the
higher part so this drum loop is kind of
causing me to lock in and play more
dynamically which is what you want to do
anyways you can be have the greatest
timing in the world but if you just
playing like 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
even if you're rock solid it's not
interesting so I think using drum loops
and having a way to kind of make your
own drum loops and stuff - it's a really
helpful way that you can incorporate
different parts of dynamic playing so
you're not just practicing your rhythm
you're also practicing your tonality
you're practicing your dynamic playing
so on and so forth right so here's that
loop again so add 1 2 2 2 3 & 1 & 2 & 3
1
and one and then I go to like a g3
temple and one empty which is kind of
having that is more of a real-life
situation they could prepare you to play
maybe in a band with a drummer even if
they don't have a drummer the nice thing
about the busyness of having a kit with
different things happening where you're
being reminded of the beat more is a
really great way to practice and to
really solidify your rhythm along with
your dynamic playing and other things
too