Metronome practice on the piano has many benefits, so it is worth learning how to use a metronome if you don’t already.
If you’re not sure what a metronome is - basically it is a tool which beats time. I.e. you set a speed which is a certain number of beats per minute, and then it will tick or beep on every beat at the speed you have chosen. You can get all sorts of different types and designs, and I wouldn’t necessarily say that one type is better than another - it depends on personal preference. The traditional sort of metronome is a triangular shaped mechanical wind up device with a pendulum that beats the time. You can get smaller battery operated and digital ones that beep instead. You can also download metronome apps onto your phone or tablet. All of these types do the job, as long as they are calibrated correctly so that the BPM (beats per minute) is accurate.
Beating the time at a certain number of beats per minute is the basic function of a metronome, and the most important one. You can also get extra features, such as a different tone on the first beat of each bar - this means setting the metronome to whatever time signature you are playing in. It could be two beats in each bar, three beats, four etc. This is a useful feature, but not strictly necessary.
There are three main uses for a metronome when practising the piano:
If you’re not sure what a metronome is - basically it is a tool which beats time. I.e. you set a speed which is a certain number of beats per minute, and then it will tick or beep on every beat at the speed you have chosen. You can get all sorts of different types and designs, and I wouldn’t necessarily say that one type is better than another - it depends on personal preference. The traditional sort of metronome is a triangular shaped mechanical wind up device with a pendulum that beats the time. You can get smaller battery operated and digital ones that beep instead. You can also download metronome apps onto your phone or tablet. All of these types do the job, as long as they are calibrated correctly so that the BPM (beats per minute) is accurate.
Beating the time at a certain number of beats per minute is the basic function of a metronome, and the most important one. You can also get extra features, such as a different tone on the first beat of each bar - this means setting the metronome to whatever time signature you are playing in. It could be two beats in each bar, three beats, four etc. This is a useful feature, but not strictly necessary.
There are three main uses for a metronome when practising the piano:
- To check how fast a piece of music should be.
- To improve your rhythm and learn to keep the tempo steady and consistent throughout a piece of music.
- To gradually increase the speed of a piece of music.
Looking at those three points in a bit more detail:
Check how fast a piece of music should be.
Usually (but not always) a piece of music will have some kind of indication of how fast or slow it should be, somewhere on the sheet music. Sometimes this is an actual metronome speed written just above the score to the left. It might have a small picture of a note, such as a crotchet, then “= 120”. This means that the speed should be 120 crotchet beats per minute. So, if the score consisted entirely of crotchets, you would play one crotchet for every beat. (Of course a piece of music is unlikely to ever contain only one note value, so you have to work out the rhythm and speed accordingly.) With a metronome speed indicated in this way, you can figure out how fast a piece of music is meant to be played.
Sometimes the speed indication is less obvious. Often Italian performance directions are used instead, such as allegro which means fast, or adagio which means slow. In these instances, the performer has to use their discretion to decide how fast “fast” is, and how slow “slow” is. This can depend on many factors such as the mood of the piece, rhythm, time signature etc. As with many things in music, it depends on context.
Sometimes the speed indication is less obvious. Often Italian performance directions are used instead, such as allegro which means fast, or adagio which means slow. In these instances, the performer has to use their discretion to decide how fast “fast” is, and how slow “slow” is. This can depend on many factors such as the mood of the piece, rhythm, time signature etc. As with many things in music, it depends on context.
Improving your rhythm and tempo.
Practising a piece of music whilst having a metronome beating the time, and trying to keep in time with the metronome, is a very valuable practice method. Often when piano students learn to play a piece of music, they don’t realise that they are speeding up and slowing down in places, or adding extra beats where they shouldn’t be etc. Practising with the metronome at a comfortable pace (so not necessarily up to speed) can help to reveal to the piano learner where their speed isn’t quite consistent and what to do about it. It can also reveal rhythms that they didn’t know they were doing wrong, such as holding a one beat note for two beats. Regular metronome practice can really tidy up rhythm and tempo, resulting in a much more polished and proficient sounding performance.
Increasing the speed of a piece of music.
Metronome practice can be very helpful for learning to play a piece of music faster. If you’re learning a piece of music which is supposed to be fast, but you struggle to play it anywhere near the right speed, it helps to practise with the metronome at an incredibly slow and comfortable pace at first. When you are finding it easy to keep in time at this slow pace, increase the metronome speed ever so slightly and practise at this new speed, again until it is easy. Keep doing this, gradually increasing the speed, until you reach the full tempo. The advantage of practising like this is that you get into good habits with correct rhythm and consistent tempo. If you try and play it too fast, too soon and without the metronome, you can end up making more mistakes and hesitations than you would otherwise, and these can become hard to break habits. Also, you can find that your overall tempo becomes inconsistent as you speed up in easier bits, and slow down in harder bits. Metronome practice can prevent this, because you are forced to keep in time and keep going, and if it is too fast for the more difficult sections, then you can keep practising it at a slower metronome speed and working your way up, until it is all the same speed at the higher tempo.
Getting started.
If you’re not used to practising with the metronome, or keeping in time with an outside source of the beat (such as in band and ensemble playing), it can be very difficult and distracting at first. Just be patient with yourself, and with perseverance it will get easier. You may find it useful to concentrate on learning to keep in time with the metronome before using it for the purposes mentioned above. You can do this by choosing a very simple and easy piece of music - one where you don’t have to think too much about what you’re playing. That way you’ll be able to focus on keeping in time with the metronome, and keeping going. When you get the hang of this, you can move on to incorporating some metronome practice into your work on new pieces of music. Because playing along with the metronome is that much harder than playing without (for most people), it is good training, and makes the eventual performance of a piece of music (without the metronome) seem easier.