Practising against a metronome, is one of the best and most efficient ways of improving your fluency, sense of rhythm and speed on any instrument, not just the guitar. Pretty much any guitarist of note, in every style will incorporate this into their practice regime, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t too!
These are my 10 tips for getting the most out of this valuable part of your practice schedule.
1. Start slowly and make tiny increments
Start at a pace that you can comfortably handle. You’ll soon be pushing your limits, but first take it easy, allow your motor skills to develop good form and don’t overstretch. Then gradually increase the rate, one notch at a time. Make tiny increments that you barely notice. This will translate to big increases over the course of a practice session.
2. Concentrate on Articulation, Keep the notes clear and smooth
Your goal may be to increase your speed, but keep your focus on articulation. The motor skills you build now, may stay with you for ever, so don’t build bad habits that will take years of effort to lose.
3. Change your Key and Position Frequently
In any type of physical training, there is a phenomenon known as SAID. Which stands for “Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands”. This basically means that you will get better at the specific thing you practice. If all you ever do is play a specific pattern in a specific position for a specific key. Then that’s all you’ll ever improve with.
Plan your practice sessions. There are 12 keys, and about 7 positions per key, depending on the scale or arpeggio. Make a plan so that you cycle around all possible combinations.
4. Use Different Rhythms.
Don’t just play straight eighths. Try emphasising one note in 3 or one note in 4 through your picking technique. Also, try other rhythms say a shuffle rhythm. Remember your goal is to make music, not to sound like a sewing machine, so experiment with your musical expression.
5. Use 3, 4, 6, 8 and even 5 and 7 notes per click
Use different numbers of notes per beat. The SAID principle applies here too, so don’t allow yourself to be locked into only being able to play triplets or straight 4’s.
6. Practice starting and stopping.
It’s very easy to start grinding out scales and arpeggios for minutes on end, without starting or stopping them cleanly. Change your start note, and play a burst of notes and stop on a precise note too. Also, don’t just start and stop on a metronome click, get used to starting and stopping on the off beats.
7. Experiment with Melodic Patterns.
Don’t just whiz up and down the scale, change the order of the notes that you play. Try playing in groups of 3 or 4 notes. There’s an infinity of note combinations that you can experiment with – give them a go.
8. Practice Picking every note and also slurring (Legato).
Again, it’s very easy to just work on one technique and abandon the other. Don’t neglect either. They both have their own unique sound. Try switching between one and the other, concentrating on articulation and smoothness. This is a great way of changing the texture of what you play, bringing some musicality to your playing.
9. When you reach your current limits, try “Wave Loading”.
Sooner or later you’ll reach the limit of your current technique. My favourite mechanism to progress is to introduce Wave Loading to my session.
I approach these sessions in a series of waves. Firstly, back off the speed to a rate that you can comfortably achieve. Then slowly reintroduce it, pushing to a speed that you can no longer achieve, then back right off again and reintroduce the speed. Each wave allows me to reach a little further making small improvements that add up to a huge improvement over time.
10. Give it time
Almost nothing of real value is acquired over night. Give your body and your motor skills time to adapt. Every one of those guitarists having blistering technique and speed worked on it for hours a day over many months and years. They did it and so can you, if you give yourself the opportunity.
My favourite metronome is the classic clockwork metronome, found here.
While there are many electronic ones and even software programs available. I much prefer the sound and quality of one of these classic devices. See what you think.
Enjoy!
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