Metronome

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:20 am

I picked up a couple of days ago a digital metronome--
cost about 19 dollars, with battery. I've been using it
to practice jigs. I think it's already proving helpful.
I find that staying on the beat, at a low rate, is a good
way to master jigs. I notice now that before there
were passages which I played fast and others
slow, because I had mastered the fast ones.
Playing too fast is a common problem, I think,
especially in learning tunes.

Seems a good way to improve.

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:47 am

In addition to playing along with good recordings, I find the little box a great way to improve playing. I do not know which model you have, but mine can also play a tone. I find that if a tune has a lot of D,E,F in it that by setting the tone to D helps me stay in tune.

It does make me wonder, are there songs that are suppose to change tempo during the song the way that some change keys? I know some songs that are repeated and each time the tempo gets faster, but the tempo is the same through the section.

Father Emmet · Post by **Father Emmet** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:47 am

I have one of those pyramid swing-arm metronomes . It looks nice but I don't use it. I'm still getting over the trauma of playing along with a tuner. Machines telling me I'm both out of tune and time would be to much for me I'm afraid.

lixnaw · Post by **lixnaw** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:12 pm

i tried a few in the shop and found non of them loud enough.
so i bought a chromatic metronome with a line out, with headphones it's sure loud enough!

ChrisA · Post by **ChrisA** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:30 pm

/me counts the seconds until MurphyStout tells us to all throw out our metronomes...

I agree that they are definitely helpful. It's easy to develop a catch where you slow down for a difficult phrase and then speed up again, or to play one section at a slightly different tempo than another section. The metronome will iron that out right away. And keep you from playing faster and faster until your fingers tangle. I brought mine out for the first time in months to hammer out some timing issues.

Mine is a fairly cheap one, but it's plenty loud. I can't set the noises to a particular pitch though.
It does have multiple tones, so you can set it to 2-beat, 3-beat, etc. and every Nth beat will be the other tone. This is kinda useful in setting slipjigs apart from doublejigs, and in being a little less, err, monotonous. Mostly it helps keep my foot-tapping at a fixed pace.

(Technically, then, it isn't monotonous at all, it's ditonous... or something.

)

Jon C. · Post by **Jon C.** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:13 pm

Try the metronome on line. It also has a A=440 htz tone, handy for doing a quick tuning up.
www.metronomeonline.com

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:45 pm

I live in the inner core of this city does that make a metro gnome

Back on track, I have a metrnome with an earjack that I can slip into my ear that I use when I get to the point when knowing a tune and I have to work on the rhythm.

MarkB

MurphyStout · Post by **MurphyStout** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:06 pm

ChrisA wrote:/me counts the seconds until MurphyStout tells us to all throw out our metronomes...

You can stop counting now Chris. I wonder what kind of metronome Paddy Canny had :roll:

Wormdiet · Post by **Wormdiet** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:47 pm

MurphyStout wrote:
ChrisA wrote:/me counts the seconds until MurphyStout tells us to all throw out our metronomes...
You can stop counting now Chris. I wonder what kind of metronome Paddy Canny had :roll:

TO which one could reply. . ."Who gives a d@mn?"

The point is that technology per se is neither good or bad - if people are helped by it, so much the better.

Gotta go hitch up the horses to hit the session guys, later.

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:35 pm

I hate metronomes. Despise them. Refuse to use 'em. THAT said, I have been privileged to play with various brilliant conductors, teachers, directors, and now some rock-solid session musicians -- so after 30+ years with such folks, by now I'm inclined to think I've got pretty good tempo sense pounded into my head.

(Plus of course, there were those nasty years in high school and college locked in a practice room with one of the aforementioned Accursed Instruments of Torture).

BUT, for people who don't have the opportunity to play with others (especially, say, a really, really solid accordion player -- check out Paddy O'Brien (RIP) to see what I mean) and have the general "group beat" to either drag or push them through the sticky stuff, I don't see anything wrong with a metronome.

And of course, if you're going to play for dancers, esp. at a feis, you're very, very wise to have one.

Finally, I suspect even a few great players suffered the metronome under the watchful aegis of various and sundry nuns -- at least in their formative years!

So maybe Paddy Canny didn't need one. But then again, Paddy Canny had some pretty solid players around him more than once in a blue moon.

Just a few thoughts from the hinterlands .....

fluter_d · Post by **fluter_d** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:38 pm

MurphyStout wrote:
ChrisA wrote:/me counts the seconds until MurphyStout tells us to all throw out our metronomes...
You can stop counting now Chris. I wonder what kind of metronome Paddy Canny had :roll:

Ever listened to a good dancer? Well... There's an answer there!

D