How do I set my new metronome

[MurphyStout]

Feel free to prove me wrong. I'd like to see the recordings, stats and facts that show me that people can improve better and faster on a metronome than by listening ALOT and playing along to good recordings.

For the record I've been playing now almost 3 years and I feel that my progress to be a pretty good validation for my opinions(as well as the progress of my friends who also have similar approahces).

[MurphyStout]

Hmmm, I see many relevant analogies to stargazing and doing household choirs but are the relevent in the world of ITM. Furthermore, I wonder if you are well versed in ITM and whether or not you have any in-field experience AKA credibility?

And in regards to music teachers- I've heard many music teachers play classical renditions of the irish washerwoman or the pinch of snuf but I've yet to hear one that was any good at all ITM-wise. Just because you know one thing doesn't mean you know another. To mimic one of your poor analogies, just because someone knows how to play ping pong doesn't mean he/she knows how to play tennis.

Irish music is simply cause and effect, if you listen to the music, you'll internalize it. That's why those little 10 year olds in Clare are so good. They've been around the stuff and been immersed in it since they were born. If you wanna catch up to em you gotta put in the hours of listening.

[Eldarion]

I just want to say that I support the idea of practicing diddly music with metronomes, like all my professional music teachers advise me to! It is an essential tool in helping me keep a robotic stiff rhythm and helps make sure my playing is free of pesky things like "rhythmic nuances". I aspire to one day play Irish diddly music with as much musical expression as a midi file, and I'm sure metronome and me will get there eventually!

Oh yeah Jack Murphy's opinion is stupid and wrong. Don't listen to him.

[Cayden]

I can't prove it, but I'll bet the old timers of ITM used them to practice to.

Junior Crehan:

The Housedances were my University

I think it's safe to assume the same for the whole older generation of players. Dancers are much better at keeping your rhythm in check than metrognomes: when you're off they'll slag the arse off you. No prisoners taken.

[Markus]

I daresay that should dancers be unavailable to the aspiring player, a metronome will be of at least some help in creating the foundation of a rock-hard, steady rhythm.

Markus

[Wombat]

It is an essential tool in helping me keep a robotic stiff rhythm and helps make sure my playing is free of pesky things like "rhythmic nuances".

Eld I realise you're joking, but rigidity of tempo and rhythmic rigidity of phrasing have almost nothing to do with each other. Rhythmic nuance is achieved by pushing or dragging the beat, not by varying tempo, and certainly not by varying it in sudden or random ways. I'd venture to suggest that those who display the greatest control over rhythmic nuance could play with metronomic precision if they so chose. If they couldn't, I don't see what their control of phrasing would consist in.

As for the desirability of keeping a fixed tempo, that's something I'm undecided about. For non-dance music I don't much like it, although these days anybody who enters a studio is likely to be confronted with a click track. For dance music I just don't know. By that I mean that if I use a click track and don't like the results, is the problem the rigidity of tempo or my phrasing?

Dancers could be thrown equally by bad phrasing or random and unwanted variations in tempo. It's therefore really hard to do a controlled experiment to see how much constancy of tempo matters to them. My guess is that, with good phrasing, quite a bit of variation would be tolerable so long as it is gradual enough. Hard to prove though.

I don't own a metronome but I simulate one in my home studio for practice if I'm going to have to play a part on a recording with a click track. It would be stupid not to. That's what I'm going to be confronted with when the machines start rolling. Angry sound engineers can be just as demanding as angry dancers.

[Bloomfield]

It is an essential tool in helping me keep a robotic stiff rhythm and helps make sure my playing is free of pesky things like "rhythmic nuances".

Eld I realise you're joking, but rigidity of tempo and rhythmic rigidity of phrasing have almost nothing to do with each other. Rhythmic nuance is achieved by pushing or dragging the beat, not by varying tempo, and certainly not by varying it in sudden or random ways.

I agree with Wombat. The most exciting stuff happens when a good player creates the tension between a steady beat and the rhythmic nuances between (or on top of) the beat.

[Scott McCallister]

Feel free to prove me wrong. I'd like to see the recordings, stats and facts that show me that people can improve better and faster on a metronome than by listening ALOT and playing along to good recordings.

Well, why take my word for it? Or any third party study for that matter.

If you want to know what a metronome can do, and make it applicable to your playing, then go buy one and try it out for yourself. Use it slowly. 60-70bpm. Work up basic fundamentals... you know, the little parts... rolls, cuts, taps, crans, scalar runs.... your triplet figures. It is more difficult than it sounds. Do it for 10 minutes a day for 10 days and then make another recording and see if you hear a difference.

I've stated clearly enough what it can help and what it probably will not.

For the record I've been playing now almost 3 years and I feel that my progress to be a pretty good validation for my opinions(as well as the progress of my friends who also have similar approahces).

Good work. Keep going.

Hmmm, I see many relevant analogies to stargazing and doing household choirs but are the relevent in the world of ITM. Furthermore, I wonder if you are well versed in ITM and whether or not you have any in-field experience AKA credibility?

This seems to be your fall-back position. Someone states a case that is different than what your “almost 3years” of ITM experience have gleaned and you question that person's abilities. It's a little off-putting. You may want to rethink that approach as well.

And in regards to music teachers- I've heard many music teachers play classical renditions of the irish washerwoman or the pinch of snuf but I've yet to hear one that was any good at all ITM-wise. Just because you know one thing doesn't mean you know another. To mimic one of your poor analogies, just because someone knows how to play ping pong doesn't mean he/she knows how to play tennis.

"Just because you know one thing doesn't mean you know another." This has been my point all along. Only one approach will probably not get you the whole distance. At least not as quickly as using multiple strategies.

Your mimic of my analogies is a little off though. All I have referenced is that any one particular tool is best for some things and not for others. Although I agree with your mimic, its more like saying: Just because you can lift a tune off of a record, doesn’t mean that you know how to play music... or even how to learn music. (Which I also happen to agree with.) You might, but there is just more to it than that.

Irish music is simply cause and effect, if you listen to the music, you'll internalize it. That's why those little 10 year olds in Clare are so good. They've been around the stuff and been immersed in it since they were born. If you wanna catch up to em you gotta put in the hours of listening.

Good to see you are interested in catching up. Listening is a powerful tool. Turbo charge your routine. Use many tools, techniques, and strategies.

I just want to say that I support the idea of practicing diddly music with metronomes, like all my professional music teachers advise me to! It is an essential tool in helping me keep a robotic stiff rhythm and helps make sure my playing is free of pesky things like "rhythmic nuances". I aspire to one day play Irish diddly music with as much musical expression as a midi file, and I'm sure metronome and me will get there eventually!

btw... THAT's sarcasm. and pretty funny too.

[MurphyStout]

Scott.... wow

Bloom and Wombat... you know what else is good at ruining rhythmic nuances? The guitar.

[Eldarion]

but rigidity of tempo and rhythmic rigidity of phrasing have almost nothing to do with each other.

Any standard beginner will have enough trouble distinguishing the two and get BOTH rigidity of tempo and rhythmic rigidity of phrasing! Trust me. Thats the beauty of metronomes!