2. Using a metronome

I once had a student who told me he took a metronome back to the shop because it kept going out of time. This draws attention to how we might feel when using a metronome for the first time and are forced to adhere to a predetermined timeframe. The pure accuracy of a metronome is in a sense, unmusical by definition – who wants to hear the Bach cello suites performed in perfect metronomic time? I suspect just as many people would find an out of time performance every bit as objectionable.

 As with so many things, the answer lies somewhere in between. It’s important to work towards a more carefully defined goal than simply playing in time as there is more to know and more to learn about how to make best use of a metronome in your practice. While it’s definitely worth discussing options with your teacher, here are three different ways of using a metronome that encourage you to employ your metronome in a supportive role to achieve specific tasks. 

1.  Work to the prescribed tempo

A metronome provides a very specific beat speed, which is useful, particularly if you are following the tempo marking provided by a composer or arranger. When you are looking at a piece of sheet music for the first time, it makes sense to play or sing through the piece at the tempo set out at the beginning. It’s fine to work without a metronome of course but definitely worth checking in just to make sure you don’t drift too far from the prescribed tempo. It’s also worth setting your metronome to articulate the subdivisions of each beat, this helps you to establish an internal pulse, count out longer notes more evenly and play rhythmic figures more accurately.

2. Learn to play fast(er)

When you are learning to play something technically complicated or unfamiliar, it is best to start slow, or even very slow. Through practicing under the target tempo, you can work out how to play a phrase very accurately, then, once the essential component parts are under the fingers, you can gradually increase the tempo. This helps maintain the integrity of the musical phrase. Fortunately, it’s easy to find a metronome app that will allow you to program in a gradual increase in tempo over a set number of bars. Employing this valuable technique will help you practice efficiently.

3. Making time

Typically, we look at the tempo marking, set our metronome to that figure, then play to that. In the examples already given, this makes perfect sense. However, it also means the metronome is doing all the work and in essence you are tagging along to an existing timeframe – following the time as it were. Let’s say you are practicing a walking Bass line and the tempo is 80 BPM. If you set your metronome to 40 BPM and think of the click as beats 2 and 4, then it becomes your job to make beats 1 and 3. This feels very different to “playing along” and is much closer to the feeling of working with other musicians.

There are many other ways to use a metronome effectively in your practice and playing with good time is a more subtle art than simply keeping time. Get yourself a metronome – of all the tools you need to improve your playing, this is one you really can’t do without. Through continued practice, a metronome will enable you to develop a steady sense of time, fit into a shared timeframe, subdivide accurately and help you to establish the feeling of an internal pulse that is fundamental to all music making.

Music Literacy - who needs it?

Music literacy is not a part of the UK school Music curriculum and consequently, is no longer taught in schools and if you are thinking of doing an Advanced Higher in Music, you can certainly get by without it. There will of course be teachers who take literacy seriously and engage learners in some level of music reading and writing, but on the whole, Music education has been eroded to such an extent that for most, you have to pay for private lessons if you want to make meaningful progress and include literacy in your Music learning.

Even at a rudimentary level, being musically literate can unlock the inner workings of a subject that might otherwise seem overwhelming. Under the supervision of an experienced teacher, you can learn to read simple rhythm and melody very quickly and develop this ability over time. From the outset, reading notation provides a way to visualise rhythm and pitch, develop ear–eye awareness and gain an appreciation of structure in Music. It becomes possible to and make sense of music in a way that cannot be achieved without Music literacy.

The physical act of writing music notation naturally follows on from reading, and typically, this may begin with copying down rhythmic or melodic ideas. Next, a student might be encouraged to compose a response to a given phrase or attempt a simple transcription. When music literacy is taught in a progressive, creative way, questions come up as a matter of course that ultimately, enable the student to learn what is required to communicate in a coherent musical way. This is particularly true where an element of spontaneity is integral to the process.

For many, the real magic begins when, in combination with a fundamental ability to read and write, access to a musical instrument becomes an option. Any hands-on instrumental experience brings a new physical dimension where action translates into sound in an immediate and undeniably primitive way. This not only brings about a deeper understanding of how the practical aspects of Music work, but also opens the door to Music–making that can take place in a variety of contexts, perhaps through exploratory play with friends or in a more formal group setting.

Crucially, group music–making requires participants to adapt to a specific role that requires a balance of performing and listening if the group is to function successfully. Where Music reading is a central part of the process, the shared ability to work with notation brings about a common sense of purpose and understanding. Like any other language, this long–established method of communication allows for an increasingly nuanced message to be delivered and understood as the user develops their level of proficiency through experience.

On the question of whether or not you need Music literacy, it’s definitely a personal choice dependent upon what you are aiming to achieve. Being Music–literate means you can look at a piece of sheet music and tap out the rhythm, maybe play it on an instrument, or even hear it in your head and this will certainly be useful if you take an active role in practical Music–making. More importantly, whether you learn to play an instrumental or not, learning to read and write music can be a transformational experience and offer a way into music, musical thinking and understanding.