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Posts: 20
Joined: Jun. 12 2007
From: Los Angeles, CA
Metronome usage?
Lately I've been learning pieces, falsetas, etc. and I generally wait until I kind of "know" the piece a little bit before breaking out the metronome.
For those of you that use metronomes, do you wait also or do you generally always break out the metronome even when seeing the first note of a new composition for the first time? Just curious -- I don't want to think I'm handicapping myself by not starting from the beginning.
I usually start with the metronome once I have the notes in my head. It's not only to keep you in rhythm but to help you understand the rhythm of what your playing - sight reading with a metronome doesn't make much sense in that case.
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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things
Start with metronome/foot tap right off the bat. Don't waste time learning notes with no rhythms because your ear starts internalizing rhythm right after you hear just a few notes in sequence. Once your brain as applied some rhythm to it, it can be a pain in the butt to get the CORRECT rhythm for the notes if the ones you first internalized are not the same. In other words, you must ERASE what you learned already (shame if it is an ENTIRE PIECE) and learn it proper from the start anyway. So try to save a step and some time. Just go one note to the next with the right timing. After a while you will be able to do it faster and longer phrases.
What I do is just a few notes at a time and loop it with my foot or metronome until it is internalize, then I add some more notes to it. And I try to do it AT the tempo or just a little under it from the get go. But just small chunks, not even a full compas or whatever. Then as it adds up, you already have practiced it a lot.
Some folks learn an entire piece but at say half speed. Problem is it takes just as long or longer to get it up to speed later, but it depends on the specific thing you are learning. Sometimes the proper tempo is just not even technically possible at whatever level you are at.
Flamenco is a bit easier than some other styles in the sense you can work towards mastering just ONE falseta at a time, and really have something worthy under your belt in a short time. IMO.
Well said Ricardo! Correcting a wrong rhythm is difficult. I have found your advice to be correct. I believe the most important factor in playing flamenco is getting the rhythm perfect before moving on ... thinking you can correct it later is a recipe for disaster. I have crashed and burned more than once. I have decided that to play simple and have a perfect rhythm is better than to play a complicated flashy piece that is void of a flamenco rhythm. I see it on u tube all the time ... technicians playing at lightening speed and losing the flamenco rhythm and ending up with a jazz sound. Awesome guitars players, just not flamenco even though they label it Bulerias, etc.
Excellent reply and I advise beginners to heed your advice and save the frustration of learning a composition only to find they play it void of a flamenco rhythm. Thanks, Sam
Yeah, my advice was badly put, I don't learn a whole piece or falseta by notes then turn on the metronome, bad idea. I do it line by line, even writing in the beats if I need to, understanding how it works with the metronome, then turn on the metronome and practise the line.
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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things
Yeah, my advice was badly put, I don't learn a whole piece or falseta by notes then turn on the metronome, bad idea. I do it line by line, even writing in the beats if I need to, understanding how it works with the metronome, then turn on the metronome and practise the line.
One could use the foot to learn, even if is a bit unsteady at first, but only if one understands it MUST be metronomic later, and in fact you can put the metronome on after you have is worked out with the foot. But this all assumes the student understands EXACTLY where the foot is supposed to go relative to the notes.
Ideally you just start out with the metronome and foot together.
Guys, thanks VERY much for the responses. Huge thanks to John O. and Ricardo for your advice. From here on out, I'll start out learning with a metronome.
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