Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Am I using my metronome correctly?

I have a Yamaha digital piano I just purchased and it has a metronome button on it. I've never used a metronome.
I can set it to 0, 2, 3, 4, or 6.
If my time signature is 4/4, do I set it to 4? When I set it to 4, the metronome does this: ding, click, click, click, ding, click, click, click, and so on.

That would be correct. 3/4 would be |ding, click, click,| ding, click, click,| etc

The purpose of the "ding" is to let you know the start of each new measure. I find that less helpful than it sounds initially, though, because it only works if you're playing a piece that doesn't change time signatures.

Here's two pieces of unsolicited advice that would've saved me much frustration and fuming had I known them when I started working with the metronome: (a) Set it for a pace noticeably slower than what you're used to playing the piece at now (it's a lot harder to play to a metronome than it seems); and (b) don't try to play an entire piece from start to finish to the metronome (at least not at the beginning)-- use it instead as a spot-check for tricky passages etc.

I find the ding click to be very helpful.

If you play through a piece, and the ding always lands on beat one, you have probably read the rhythms correctly. (Can't rule out that you've made two errors that cancelled each other out)

On the other hand if at some point the ding lands on beat 2, you have definitely screwed up.

If you really hate the ding, you can can turn it off by using the 0 setting - then you'll just get clicks. But it's usually more helpful to leave it on when you're just starting to work on a new piece.

I second Monica's advice to set the metronome to a much lower speed than you think you need. When I first started using one it made me feel like a complete klutz. But it can be invaluable for helping you to sort out tricky passages.

I didn't know you could do this!! Must go home and try. The ding bugs me because if I miss a beat but want to continue, the ding is in the wrong beat!! Thanks!

Just a quick thought about metronomes. Although they are a great tool a professional painist does not use one when playing - why?
Its a case of learn the rules then break them. A pro paino player can use a metronome and sometimes in recording studios they use a "click track", but real human music when played by the pros, has a breathing quality, where their are almost imperceptible changes in speed, say for example at the end of a piece where a player might slow down, or when a climax comes he/she might speed up just a little - to add effect. A metronome is a device that can make you a slave and rob the peice of expressiveness.
However, one must be able to identify the beat of a song and when one changes tempo, its done in a controlled way, which is a world of difference to the fumblings of a beginner painist, who might change tempo in an uncontrolled way.
So by all means use the metronome to get your playing so that your fingers are 'doing what they are told to do' but when you have achieved this, turn it off and play the piece using expression, give your timing room to breathe.
Some beginner painists think that playing the peice in absolutely strict time is the way that the pro's play, but this is not the case - their is a 'feel' element which metronome playing can strangle if used too much

Zero

That's why you need it! Don't turn it off until you stop doing that.

ZeroZero wrote: I agree. If I'm playing something that's completely unknown to me I start off with the metronome, because I've got no idea how it's supposed to sound and using the metronome helps me to develop a sense of the rhythm while I'm still fumbling around getting the notes and phrasing right. But I turn it off as soon as I have a good sense of the timing. When I'm learning a piece that's familiar sometimes I don't use the metronome at all, unless I have a passage I'm having trouble with where it helps to slow it right down and use strict time to get it right. But I always use the metronome for sightreading practice. There's something about those clicks that makes me keep my eyes on the page and my brain focused on getting the right finger onto the right note in time for the next one!