Why Practice Drums With a METRONOME?

A Metronome, made in West Germany. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Practicing with a metronome will improve your time keeping dramatically! What... you say you can already keep time? Try to keep time with a metronome for about twenty seconds. It will show you how good you really can keep time. If you have never tried it...try it! You will see there is room for improvement.

In order to be an outstanding drummer you'll need to keep good time, and practicing with a metronome can help you do that. A metronome can improve your time keeping almost by magic. And, we know how important timekeeping is, particularly for a drummer.

You may wonder what the big deal is and think, "No one is gonna be able to distinguish any small changes in tempo in the middle of a song." Well, that may be true, but the major importance of keeping good time is at three different places in a song...

1) The times when you break away for a fill and come back to the original rhythm.
2) If the song contains pauses and later returns to the original rhythm.
3) If the song contains different tempos and returns to the original rhythm.

A metronome is such a vital tool in music education that most teachers of guitar, piano, and violin all utilize the power of metronomes within their lessons. How then, even more, important for the timekeeper of a band to practice with a metronome.

I can't stress enough the importance of practicing with a metronome. Once you go out and invest in one, start out by setting it at 80 beats per minute and play along with a standard 4/4 disco beat. This is a good place to begin. It will give you enough time between beats to concentrate and land your beat in sync with the beat of the metronome.

You will see that when you first start practicing with a metronome it can become very discouraging, but then you will eventually get the hang of it and keep pretty good time. Then it may become a little boring. It's at that point where you must challenging yourself a little bit more.

Adjust your metronome to a few more beats and increase your speed. Not so much where you will sacrifice your form, though. You don't want to become sloppy. Once you feel like you are really getting good at staying in sync with the metronome using a 4/4 beat and at various speeds you should begin to practice a variety of different rhythms, also at various speeds.

Practicing with a metronome will improve your drumming dramatically, so if you don't have one, get one. You will be amazed at how much it will increase your level of playing.

Copyright 2006 Daniel N Brown

The Author Dan Brown - ArticleSource: ArticleCity

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The Different Types of METRONOMES

Spring driven pendulum metronome
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Metronomes are musical devices that produce regulated aural, visual or tactile sound beats or ticks. Popular among music composers, the use of metronomes enables them to get a consistent tempo for their musical compositions. They are very helpful to subdivide sound notes to create distinctive and unique musical sounds. They also give a musician the option to make musical time signatures as well. Because of their simplicity and accuracy, metronomes are much in demand among music composers today.

Metronomes can be broadly classified into three types and they are as follows:

Mechanical Metronomes: They are the most common types of metronomes that are available. This device comprises of an inverted pendulum rod that has an adjustable weight attached to its end. When the weight is slid up the pendulum the tempo increases and when it is slid down the tempo decreases. A second pendulum is hidden in the case of the metronome and this helps the production of a clicking sound with each oscillation. Mechanical metronomes are also commonly known as double weighted pendulums.

Electronic Metronomes: These metronomes are modern and upgraded versions and they use a quartz crystal that is very similar to that used in wristwatches. The simple metronomes that are available in the market have buttons that can be pressed in order to produce the tuning notes. The sophisticated metronomes are advanced and they can produce two or three distinctive sounds. The tones and the pitch differ and hence diverse beats can be composed. The electronic musical keyboards that are available in the market have built-in metronomes in them for the purpose of producing signature sounds and beats.

Software Metronomes or Online Metronomes: With the advancement in technology software metronomes have entered the market and they produce multi-track audio sounds. They help in creating stand-alone music signatures and create enhanced music sequencing. They are very popular as film scoring applications in recording studios and they are of immense benefit in synchronizing musicians to the sound beats. These metronomes are the most used ones today and they can be easily downloaded online.

An online metronome is a quick and easy music tool that is very popular for practicing music. It is a type of software metronome that musicians can access online. They help in tempo selections and in creating music rhythm with ease. This device helps musicians to produce accurate pulses and beats. They help in understanding the time signatures of the music and help the musicians to play accurately in accordance with the notes. These online metronomes are easily available on the net and they can be used for music tuning and compositions. They are of extreme benefit to those who need to make signature music with the diversity of unique sounds and beats.

In conclusion, it can be said that metronomes have a vital role to play behind the successes of signature music beats. Musicians rely and depend on them for the composition of original and unique music scores as they provide accurate and synchronized pulse beats with ease.

By Drake Wildman - Article Source: EzineArticles

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