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I have been working on my first set of scales from my second week of lessons.
I have got the scale pretty much memorized. I decided that I should use a metronome to keep track of my progress.
I am having difficulty keeping time to the metronome. It seems I am either playing faster or slower in some parts. I wound back to the speed to under 60 and it seems to make it worse.
Currently I am playing about 63. I am trying really hard to make the notes clear and solid. As I speed up ... I either get sloppy with the fretting and get buzzy notes or I forget interval i-m ... trying to keep up.
RE: Beginner: keeping time-- got no ... (in reply to el.toro)
Get in the habit of tapping your foot for each beat. Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap. Bring it up on the "and" of the beat...ie 1 and 2 and 3 and 1 and 2 and 3...etc. It's hard to do at first, but eventually it becomes second nature, and that becomes your inner metronome. Aim for a stready, consistent tap.
RE: Beginner: keeping time-- got no ... (in reply to el.toro)
Tap your foot, bang your head, chomp your teeth, whatever you gotta do to feel the rhythm. You should be comfortably feeling the pulse before you produce a note. If your making a lot of errors when you speed up it's probably too fast. Your allowed a bad note here and there but not every note. Too slow can be tough sometimes too cus it's hard to feel but it's good practice. Sometimes I'll play things half speed or slower just to really imprint each movement and transition in my head, even things that I can normally play full speed without much issue. Feel the beat!
RE: Beginner: keeping time-- got no ... (in reply to el.toro)
If you can't keep up with the metronome then you have the metronome set too fast. Slow it down to the point where you can do the scale at least 90% correct. That might be ridiculously slow but you have to start there. If you try to go faster than you are able you will simply be learning your mistakes. Once you can get through the scale at the slow speed take it up one notch and practice that speed until you can get through it without mistakes. If this sounds tedious that's because it is tedious, but the connections between the fingers and the brain develop slowly through repetition. Practice your scale for five minutes and then go on to something else for a while and come back to the scale later for another five minutes. If you do this consistently you will see progress every day.
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