using a metronome without sounding like a robot

[cocusflute]

Put the f...ing metronome in the drawer if it makes you uncomfortable. You do not need it.
Tap your foot. Unfortunately (maybe) most ITM players speed up as they get into the tune. There are worse things. Get the Amazing Slow Downer. Slow tunes down and play along with them.
Sheila Garry and Brid Cranitch have a great two-CD collection of tunes played slowly and right on the beat: The Blue CD Session Tunes, and The Orange....
Listen to and (if you can) play along with steady, accessible pure drop stuff: Kitty Hayes-Peter Laban's CD: They"ll Be Good Yet. Or listen a lot to somebody with great rhythm and timing, like Catherine McEvoy or Mike Rafferty or Peader O'Loughlin/Ronan Browne's, The South West Wind.
Ignore 95% of the bull sh*t advice offered on this forum. Most comes from people who are immodest chancers, people playing ITM for two or three years, classically trained players, wannabe flute-makers who can't play well but who have all kinds of (irrelevant) advice to offer.
Just play-- play pretty and enjoy playing. Don't make it hard. Make it easy. Learn to love to play.
Have you noticed that fewer accomplished players are contributing these days?
[End of sermon, end of rant]

[eedbjp]

Ignore 95% of the bull sh*t advice offered on this forum. Most comes from people who are immodest chancers, people playing ITM for two or three years, classically trained players, wannabe flute-makers who can't play well but who have all kinds of (irrelevant) advice to offer.
Just play-- play pretty and enjoy playing. Don't make it hard. Make it easy. Learn to love to play.

Is your advice always in the 5%?

[cocusflute]

Is your advice always in the 5%?

Only 5% of the time.

[Ro3b]

Unfortunately (maybe) most ITM players speed up as they get into the tune. There are worse things.

Well, there's one worse thing: slowing down.

I find being unable to play at a steady tempo -- to play in the pocket -- to be pretty much the worst flaw a musician of any style can have. I'd rather play with someone who's constantly out of tune than someone who's constantly speeding up or slowing down.

That being said, I agree that long hours listening to the music played the right way is absolutely essential.

Ignore 95% of the bull sh*t advice offered on this forum.

Also agree. Remember this poll? With 65% of respondants knowing fewer than 100 tunes, this obviously isn't the most authoritative place for advice on ITM.

(But do use a metronome. )

[Aanvil]

...people playing ITM for two or three years, classically trained players...
Have you noticed that fewer accomplished players are contributing these days?
[End of sermon, end of rant]

Also agree. Remember this poll? With 65% of respondants knowing fewer than 100 tunes, this obviously isn't the most authoritative place for advice on ITM.

I guess I had better go back to lurking. I clearly have nothing to offer here.

[Guinness]

I guess I had better go back to lurking. I clearly have nothing to offer here.

Yep, all that’s left now are eBay notifications and show and tell.

[monkey587]

Although I don't believe everyone's advice is equally valid, I'd say that any time people discuss music and the playing of it on this forum rather than (as Guinness points out) just instruments is a good thing... Maybe 95% of the advice people post is sh*t but the other 5% wouldn't get posted if there wasn't the occasional post from someone who actually wants to get better.

[Fred Merch]

I am quite new at playing flute, but I have been playing and at times teaching music with other instruments for 35 years. I don't tell it to show off in any way, but to emphases the validity of this advice:

- If someone sounds like a robot when playing with a metronome, it means this person is in a great need of playing with a metronome, and should make it her/his priority exercise untill he can flutter around the tempo without losing it. Time waits for nobody. Nor even in music does it bend to the will or the flaws of anyone.

[meemtp]

Use amazing slow downer or somesuch. Pay close attention to the tune, its rhythm, pulse, etc. and let that be your metronome. And tap your foot!! After a while it will become an instinctive built-in metronome that you can take anywhere.

If you listen to an album like "Double-barrelled" you can even hear the feet tapping. Feeling the pulse of a tune and a tapping foot is better than any metronome.


If advice from accomplished players falls on deaf ears then it's less likely to be offered...

[jim stone]

The bottom line for me is that I learn a lot from
this board, cocus, for one, is very helpfull to me.
If experienced people are posting less, though, let me
suggest that intemperate posts may have something
to do with that.

It's an irony that sometimes when you get the few
people together who truly love something, who therefore have more in common
with each other than they do with most anybody else, whatever
their differences amount to,
they say mean things about
each other.

Playing slowly is for me something I have to keep reminding
myself to do. For me it's easier to play fast than slow, but
playing slow is the key to playing well.

I don't like metronomes, but that's just me.

I like very much the orange CD cocus mentions above
and Mike R's playing is pure gold. These other CDs
are plainly worth getting if they have the same
relaxed, rhythmic playing. Veryhelpful to listen
to such playing, and inspiring in a way, because there is at least
the illusion that it is attainable.

[meemtp]

Ah, but it IS attainable Jim

If you enjoy listening to those CDs then you're well on the way. It just takes a while, that's all. Most of us need years and years to truly get good at this stuff...except for my friend Chris Stevens, the little b%@$rd.

[rama]

make the metronome your friend. usually those who oppose it have something to hide.

[cocusflute]

Come on make it easy
Come on make it easy.

Take it easy take it easy
Everybody's got something to hide...

[rama]

sssshhhhhh.....you promised not to tell

[billh]

.
If the tick, tick, tick of the metronome bothers you, use a drum machine.
.

!!

No, no no please... a drum machine *is* a robot and will force you to a rhythm that matches, including whatever 'swing' the machine rhythm might have (or not have) - even if it has a "ceili band" setting . Anyhow, even a live rhythm section is considered a liability by many in traditional Irish flute playing.

The original poster had it nearly right IMO - the main thing is to avoid having the metronome ticking on all the crotchets or quavers... downbeats only, please. It may be even better to only tick on alternate downbeats. i.e. either one or two clicks per bar for reels, two per bar for double jigs, and one or two (not four!) per bar for hornpipes.

That allows for the right amount of 'swing' on the upbeats and secondary/weak downbeats, which in any case you are going to have to find yourself by listening and 'feel'.

Personally I don't make much use of metronomes, but think that if used as above, occasionally, they are probably a good thing. That said, practicing with them all the time seems like a bad idea to me - eventually you have to internalize the rhythm yourself, and I think internalizing from a good player whom you admire (recordings for instance) is better than the machine option.

best regards

Bill