So just for the fun of it, let me give each level a descriptive name as well. In a way, we can consider them as “levels”, as in mission difficulties, in arcade or action games. With that in mind, I have found several ways to apply this idea of metronomic displacement, sorted by difficulty to comprehend and to execute. Therefore by altering the placement of the click, or the starting position of the music/exercise, we can discover new ways to use the metronome as a reference of time. However, there is no rule whatsoever to specify where a click has to land. The metronome is simply a machinery that generates (percussive) sounds periodically, used to give the user a reference of a fixed time interval, much like a clock with adjustable ticking speed. SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO USING THE METRONOME # The experimentation evolved into a system, which I will explain below with its rationale and graphical demonstration. I realized that I can use the metronome as a hint of the tempo, rather than a notification of beat positions. So I need to have a faster tempo reference.

But referring to a static tempo over the entire practice session does not allow me to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the exercise, since the only way to confirm growth of technique is to play at higher speed with the same effort.

It was better than nothing, but it also meant that the rest of the practice session had to run under the default tempo of the metronome across the room, 60 BPM.ĭon’t get me wrong, 60 BPM is a good tempo to start with, especially for a beginner like me, slower tempo allows me to focus on physical behavior of the body rather than the musical demand of the exercise. Why? I’m not too sure, perhaps to reduce the time spent dialing the metronome for different materials - all major seventh chord inversions in 12 keys for example with some very familiar and some not so much. Rather than putting down my instrument, I was too lethargic to change the tempo of the metronome. The compulsion to procrastinate surfaced with some creativity this time. It normally results in hours of amusement watching educational entertainment videos on Youtube, but not this time - not yet at least.

You know, the desire to withdraw from the current activity when it’s becoming repetitive and dull, or the urge to dawdle away upon facing difficult tasks. I use software counterpart such as Bounce Metronome, so it doesn’t really collect dust when I never open it) - when lethargy struck. I was practicing keyboard one day with a metronome - the click-sounding machinery that’s been collecting dust on my shelf since purchase (I jest.

Flat io metronome speed change