Why You Should Use A Metronome

A metronome is a useful tool that can help your sense of rhythm and keep the tempo consistent. It gives a constant pulse at a regular interval to help you play in time.

Tips for practice with a metronome

Not everyone likes to practice with a metronome, but there different reasons why you should use the metronome in your practicing routine.

• The metronome is the most accurate measurement, it doesn't make mistakes, so it's good for maintaining your accuracy and develop your internal metronome.
• Useful fo speed building. First, start slow and then pick up speed. A common mistake beginners make is starting with a metronome and set the tempo too fast. Start by playing a small section at half speed and try progressively increasing the tempo with a few bpm at a time. Keep going until you reach the target speed.
• Practice with a metronome will also help you play a click track, so you can properly synchronize your sound recordings.
• Playing along and try hit to a chord or notes with the first beat (or second beat,... ). Ideal to develop your internal rhythm.
• Slower practice builds accuracy. Don't play it fast if you can’t play the part clean.
• Set the metronome to whole-notes, half-notes, quarter-notes or eighth-notes. You will probably notice that each setting makes the tempo feel slightly different.
• The metronome improves your ability to play in time, which is important especially if you want to play with a band, it keeps you from slowing down when you play quiet sections in your song.

BPM

Metronome us BPM (Beats Per Minute) to measure the tempo. 
Example: 60BPM equals one click every second.

Useful resource to determine BPM of song

Find the BPM for any song on, just type a song and you'll get a BPM
songbpm.com

Online and Metronome Apps

GuitarToneMaster metronome

A very useful feature on our metronomes is being able to set an accent. Mostly you will be playing in 4/4 time, the first beat of each bar has a different sound so you will always know where the first beat is. 

There is a countdown timer, that will help you during your work sequences, so you can time your practice sessions and make sure that you are spending the proper amount of time on each exercise.

How metronome works

• Start by selecting a tempo.
• Click circles to make an accent on that beat.
• Use the sliders to change pitches of beats.

The metronome is compatible with your browser. You can find the tool also on scale and mode section and there is a shortcut in the top bar on each page.
GuitarToneMaster.com metronome also works with your smartphone, so you don't need to install a metronome app. However, there are some useful Metronome App for your smartphone. 

Good alternatives

The Soundbrenner app is one of the best metronome apps. They also developed a cool gadget the wearable metronome. A smartwatch to feel the beat when playing. I didn't haddend the change to test it but looks very helpful. 
soundbrenner.com

Practicing without Metronome

First of all, using the metronome should be a part of the guitar practice routine. But don’t always use a metronome. 

Beep, click, click, click, beep, click, click, click,

You don’t want to become dependent on a metronome for rhythm. The metronome is helpful for your technique when learning new guitar exercises, but you should be able to play with both with and without a metronome in time. So you don’t want to sound like a robot and feel the rhythm itself. 
Do you haven't got a metronome or guitar? If you tap along with the rhythm of your songs, it will increase your sense of rhythm.

Alternatives to get a better sense of rhythm

There are a few good alternatives to train your accuracy without the traditional metronome. Here's an overview: 

Drum and rhythm composer

Useful resource for drum machine

A fully recreated web-based TR-808 drum machine
io808.com

Exercising to help your timing

Drum Backing Tracks

Drum machines are more fun to play with. We offer a variety from simple of complex drum backing tracks in different tempos, signatures, and styles: Drum backing tracks

Pros of practicing with metronomes

• You are training to play in-time with a metronome
• The metronomes will keep you focused on accuracy

Questions

Do you use the metronome often in your practice routine? We would love to read your comments.

Conclusion

So, are you ready to improve your sense of timing, try to use the metronome as quite often, it helps you develop your ‘inner metronome',
Play a new piece first slow, because bad habits are easier learned.

It is a useful tool but switch the metronome sometimes off and feel the rhythm. 

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