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 metronome troubles
Author: SuzyQ 
Date:   2003-12-18 00:52

I can play rythms fairly well in band, and I can keep beat with some one yelling "1 2 3 4 " ect...but try as I might, as soon as I turn the metronome on, I get all messed up. It is almost like I can't hear if I'm with the metronome or not, and the metronome's beats seem to nothing to me while I'm playing.

This extremly frustrates me in both clarinet and piano. I've have tried majorly slowing it down, but even when I'm playing eighth notes with the quater note set at 66 I get all turned around.

Do you have any idea what I might do to "get with the metronome!" I hoping somebody out there has had this problem with a student, and has a suggestion for me!!

Thanks! and Feliz Navidad,
Suzy

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 Re: metronome troubles
Author: sfalexi 
Date:   2003-12-18 01:42

Start slow. WIth quarter note rhythms. Then get faster with more complex rhythms. Don't start out with triplets, sextuplets, etc. Practice scales with metronomes.

One thing that might be fun is to get progressively faster on a scale each time after you finish it. Start out with whole notes. Then halves. Then halfnote-triplets, quarters, quarter-triplets etc. etc.

Alexi

US Army Japan Band

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 Re: metronome troubles
Author: Jim E. 
Date:   2003-12-18 04:40

Is it that you are having actual physical trouble in hearing the sound?

If so, there are all sorts of sounds made by various models and brands. My son's Seiko clip style sounds like the crickets that get in the house in the fall. Some use 2 alternating pitches.

Would a visual indication help you? Some flash an LED, the above Seiko had a LCD with a visual. Perhaps the best visual is the old Seth Thomas mechanical which has a wand which travels side to side with the beat at the extreme ends of the travel. The effect is a bit like watching a director.

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 Re: metronome troubles
Author: moose6589 
Date:   2003-12-18 09:34

I'm not sure about this, but this is what my teacher says. She claims that you shouldn't try to play in time to the metronome. You should play at the tempo of the metronome but keep your own beat. Then, if you get off the beat, you will know since your beat won't match the metronome beat. If you keep trying to keep in time with the metronome and keep playing catch-up or slow-down, the beat will never be steady. So, perhaps instead of listening for each metronome beat, just try to listen for it every two measures perhaps, just to see if your beat is steady.

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 Re: metronome troubles
Author: lyn 
Date:   2003-12-18 11:08

Why don't you use a really slow tempo along with the book, "Rhythmic Articulation" by Pasquale Bona?? It starts with really easy rhythms, works its' way up.

Some students I've had use this and write the beat number over the correct note, and then make themselves tap their foot with the number without the metronome on. Then they do that with the metronome on. It's kind of like training your foot to do something to get into its' "memory" for lack of a better word. You know how we can have "finger memory" for scales and arpeggios and such? Same with the foot....that idea......

~L



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