The main problem with the average metronome is that the music student has to either listen to it or watch it.
Anybody who is learning music and who's sense of time has got the hick-ups, should not have to concentrate on a ticking or blinking gadget that diverts their attention from reading the dots or producing a nice sound, let alone playing without unnecessary tension in the body.
Why am I saying that?
Because time, rhythm, the beat does not live outside of you. It is an internal, built in ability/feeling that should operate naturally side by side all of the other actions like reading music, pushing down the right buttons, valves or keys, standing or sitting at your full height, breathing and making a nice sound.
Anybody who is learning music and who's sense of time has got the hick-ups, should not have to concentrate on a ticking or blinking gadget that diverts their attention from reading the dots or producing a nice sound, let alone playing without unnecessary tension in the body.
Why am I saying that?
Because time, rhythm, the beat does not live outside of you. It is an internal, built in ability/feeling that should operate naturally side by side all of the other actions like reading music, pushing down the right buttons, valves or keys, standing or sitting at your full height, breathing and making a nice sound.
Why A "Normal" Metronome Is Inadequate:
Music students who struggle with time usually play "outside their body". They haven't quite learned the art of combining the skills necessary to perform a tune simultaneously.
These skills are:
Music students who struggle with time usually play "outside their body". They haven't quite learned the art of combining the skills necessary to perform a tune simultaneously.
These skills are:
- Producing a proper note for wind, brass and string players, including correct breathing. (This step is a bit easier for keyboard players)
- Learning the physical motor movements necessary to push down valves, buttons, keys or strings.
- Combining the correct motor movement with the right note.
- Reading music pitches correctly (knowing that a note on the bottom line of the treble clef is an E)
- Reading music rhythms correctly (interpreting a filled in note with a stem as a quarter note (crotchet) and playing it in the right place and for the proper length of time.)
Most of the time a student who has trouble with skill 5, also is not at ease with 1, 2, 3 and 4.
In my experience only a small percentage of beginning musicians have a natural sense of rhythm.
Learning to play an instrument (voice included) mostly involves all 5 skills at the same time.
Therefore I ask this question:
Why would you distract a learner who needs his full attention to
- manage motor skills,
- listen to the sound he/she produces and
- look at and interpret a sheet of music,
with a gadget that requires them to either watch a flashing light or listen to a click as well?
How To Solve Problems With Musical Time:
SIMPLE: Deliver the click/beat/time where it is naturally supposed to "live" anyway ==> The students body.
HOW? With a clip that can be attached to the torso and creates a silent pulse that can be FELT.
WHY? Because it leaves the auditory (listening) and visual (reading) channels without distraction.
Thanks to technological advances there is now a unique metronome that does just that and much more.
So, if you've got the "time-hick-ups", do yourself a favor and explore what the best metronome can do for you.
Move the groove to the inside!
