Master Your Metronome - PHH 013

Welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness, the Harp Mastery Podcast. My name is Ann Sullivan and I'm a harpist, teacher, and founder of Harp Mastery. I'm all about creating more harp happiness in the world by helping harp players like you play the music they want the way they want. But as a harpist who nearly flunked out of one of the most prestigious music schools in the world, I, although later not only graduated, but I went on to teach there. I know from personal experience that learning the harp is way harder than it looks. Here, each week on the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast, I show you how to solve the challenges of practicing and playing the harp. Whether it's about making your fingers behave or learning music faster, or getting your piece's performance ready, or just learning to enjoy your playing every day. Sounds great, doesn't it? Let's get started.

Welcome to today's show. Are you a metronome lover or a metronome hater? Are you one of the people who just has your metronome on all the time and you feel it's your trusted best friend and your most valued musical tool? Or are you one of those? And there are a lot of us that put off working with the metronome and only use it when we feel we absolutely have to, and maybe not even then. I know. I've heard a lot of students complain about the difficulty in using the metronome. They say they can't stay with it, or they can't listen to it and play at the same time, or it makes them go too fast and they can't keep up with it. Or maybe they just can't stand the sound of it. Well, the metronome does not have to be an instrument of torture. That's not what it's for. And if you've ever wondered exactly what it is for, we'll be talking about that on today's show. But most importantly, what I would like you to get from the show today is what probably no one has ever told you. I want to teach you how to work with the metronome. I want to show you how to begin the very first steps in working with the metronome. And we're going to do it. Not with any music you're playing or trying to speed up or trying to make even. We're going to work with the metronome in a way that teaches you how to do it, shows you how to do it, and begins to train you to use it properly so that it can be a very valuable tool for you. The metronome can do all kinds of wonderful things besides make your music more even or make it faster. It can teach you to practice more efficiently. It can help you learn your music better and quick more quickly. It can help you straighten out coordination difficulties in your music. Yes, your metronome can even help you put hands together. And it's a wonderful musicianship tool as well in that it will help you learn to listen at a different dimension. The metronome is a wonderful thing, but we have to show you exactly how to use it first. So Instrument of Torture no longer. Today we're going to teach you to master your metronome. But before we get into that, let me remind you that you still have an opportunity. As of when this show goes live, you still have an opportunity to join us for our free free Back to School event. This is a virtual event. It's a webinar of sorts and it's for learners of all ages. You do not have to be a youngster to do this, but we've themed this webinar sort of like an old fashioned PTA Back to School Night. So I, along with my certified coaches will each be giving very short but pithy workshops on topics of importance ranging from how to prepare for lessons to to how to develop your unique sound, how to set goals that you can actually achieve, and lots, lots more. These are little mini 10 minute workshops. I've had a lot of comment from people who are registering for the event saying, well, how are you going to fit all this in just one hour? Well, we think it'll probably go a little bit longer than an but we're aiming for six 10 minute workshops so you're going to get a lot out of this. There's a lot of information. And unlike a regular back to school night where you have to trudge from classroom to classroom because it's virtual, all you have to do is sit there, use our study guide and take notes and we will whisk you effortlessly from classroom to classroom. You'll get a chance to meet all our coaches and hear their unique teaching perspectives and we'll have some new opportunities, opportunities at Heart Mastery to talk about with you at that event as well. So one more important thing. This event is free and if you can't attend, it is Thursday. This coming Thursday, August 19th at 8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific and everything in between. If you can't attend live, there will be a replay recording, but you have to register to get the recording, so please do sign up. You will find the link in the show notes or you will Find it on the events page@heartmastery.com as well. So do join us. It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm calling myself the principal for the evening, so it'll be, it'll be kind of. It'll just be a light hearted look, but lots of of information for sure. By the way.

If you are a teacher, you might want to encourage your students and their parents to attend as well. There will be things that not only will be helpful for them, but speaking as teacher to teacher may be helpful for you as you want to prepare them for the work they're doing this fall. So they might get some very valuable hints that will help you in your your mission to teach them and thank you for the work that you do with that. So I encourage all of you students of all ages, teachers, everybody, come to back to school night. We're going to have a great time. But right now it is time to get down to the TikTok of metronomes. Okay, full disclosure here. I am a metronome fan. Die hard metronome fan. So all my students know that at some point or another, and probably way sooner than later, they are going to need to work with the metronome. I do know from my own experience as a young music student for sure, but certainly from working with lots and lots of students, that the metronome is difficult to get used to and especially if nobody's taught you how to use it, which as I mentioned before, is what we're going to be talking about and what I hope to accomplish today. The metronome is truly a learning aid. It can help you learn your music more quickly. It can help you with difficult passages. You probably already know that, but it can actually help you establish better coordination with your fingers and with hands together. It certainly will help you develop a more precise and reliable sense of rhythm.

It will help you be a better listener and that will help you be a better practicer. It's not there truly to be a martinet. It's not there to as an instrument of torture. It's not there to insist that you do things fast enough or better or whatever it is properly used. The metronome will create time for you when you're using your metronome properly. It will help you sort things out and gain clarity. Yes. It can help you speed things up. And that can be a little chaotic. Absolutely. But that's only part of what the metronome does. And if you've never experienced the other part of using a metronome, you're going to today, and I hope that you take that with you for sure.

The metronome is something that I think you should be using from the very beginning stages of learning a piece. I have encountered harpists and musicians who only use the metronome at the very end of the process.

And almost always they find that when they finally get to using the metronome because they're comfortable enough with the notes that they feel like they can have extra brain cells to spare for the metronome. So when they finally get around to using the metronome, they find that there are things they should have corrected a long time ago and now they're correcting long standing habits instead of learning something right the first time. So if you're a fan of learning something right the first time, one of those German shepherd learners particularly, and if you don't know anything about German shepherd learners, take a look at the first episode of this podcast. But if you're one of those people who just likes to do it right the first time because it makes sense, the metronome will help you do that.

But you do have to know how to use it. So we're going to be looking at three specific things that the metronome can do for you on today's show. We're going to be looking at how the metronome can help you develop your sense of a steady pulse. It's going to be giving you the time you need. It's going to keep you from, you know, hurrying along when you don't mean to. So it's a check that way, but it's also a tool to help you develop your own inner metronome. And so we'll work at that. The metronome can help you solve specific problems, those coordination things, those fingering challenges, those difficult passages, and yes, lining things up, hands together. And the metronome, because it helps you listen outside yourself while you're playing, will make you a better ensemble player and will make your practice more efficient because you'll be listening with that, what I call that outside ear, that third ear that's not just concentrating on what you're doing, but is listening more or less objectively. I think that that external outside ear listening is part of what's difficult about the metronome. And so we're going to start with a very easy way to train that skill. Now, I've set up today's podcast in sort of a, a little list of do's and don'ts. But I'm going to show you the practical steps along the way that allow all these wonderful benefits to accrue for you. So we're going to get started. We're going to dig right in with what I think needs to be your first step in learning how to work with the metronome. The first step involved in using the metronome is learning to match the click. It feels more difficult than I think it truly is, and I'll try to explain the. The way that I'd like you to approach it in a second. First of all, it doesn't matter what kind of metronome you have. If you have an old fashioned clicky thing, if you're using an app on your phone, I have a quartz metronome. One that's. This one is actually a tuner and metronome combined. So it's very convenient. I also have an app on my phone. I have metronomes in various rooms in the house. So I am never without a metronome. That lets you know how much I am a fan of the metronome in any case. So here's my metronome and I have set it to 60 and let me turn it on here and get it started. Okay. Now the idea is that you have to learn.

How to match the click. And it's. If the. If that click is the audible representation of a steady beat, then your job is just to predict where the next beat is. And because the metronome is so steady, it's helping you learn where the next beat is. Right. Beats in music are measured segments of time. And aside from things like retardandos or accelerandos, those segments need to be equal. And that's what makes something have a steady beat or a steady pulse. The metronome is certainly a check to make sure that as you're playing, you're. You're keeping to that steady pulse. So it will, in theory, help you pre. Help you prevent yourself from rushing ahead or from slowing down unintentionally. But matching that click takes work. So if that's the first stumbling block for you with the metronome that you're finding it hard to play with the metronome just because you have trouble matching the pulse matching to the click, then do this. So here's my do. Don't use it with your music. Why am I suggesting not to use it with your music? Because you're trying to play the music and the music is hard. It's got intricacies. And trying to match the metronome at the same time, if you're not already fairly skilled at that is too much of a challenge, no wonder it's going to be frustrating. So let's make sure that you're more or less comfortable with matching the metronome first. So put your metronome on to a nice comfortable pulse. Not something that's. This is 60 something that's fast enough.

That it, you know that you can sort of feel where the next beat is. If it's too slow, it can be really hard, but not so fast that this is going to feel like a challenge. Remember, that number refers to beats per minute, right? So this is a second click click. That's the length of a second. Okay, just a thought. I'm going to put my metronome on my music stand. And what I suggest you do if this is where you are in your metronome study, if you hate matching the metronome because it's hard, play a very simple scale and just put one note for each click.

I'm going to turn around and go back down.

It's not so hard, right? And if it is hard, then you're exactly in the right place doing the right thing, because that's where you need to start. Feel that steady pulse and just play. The easiest exercise you've ever played, a one octave scale is simple. If something's easier for you, like a little arpeggio or something, fine. But one note for every click.

Really not too difficult. Now what you're doing is you and your fingers in a certain sense, are predicting where that next click is going to be. But I don't want you to get wrapped up in the thought process of prediction. This is the same kind of physical prediction that you do when you bounce a ball and catch it or when you jump rope.

It's a coordination that happens below your conscious thought process. You just do it, right? If you bounce a ball and then catch it, your whole body is responding to where the ball is going to be. And if you can bounce a ball and catch it and have a steady beat, a one, a two. This is an exercise you can and possibly should do with a metronome, right? Bounce, catch, bounce catch. I'm at that. Happy 60 beats per minute. Again, to bounce catch. It's just a coordination and it's just lining it up. It's not difficult. And I urge you, if there's something in it that is feeling difficult to you, try to let go of that feeling and just play.

But do not use. Boy, I almost never say this. Do not Use the metronome with your music until you can do an easy drill like this, because this is the skill you need in order to be able to work with the metronome. Well, first you have to be able to match it. So do play scales and arpeggios with the metronome. Now, your first step in that will be exactly what I said to match note per note. And as you get a little bit more comfortable with the metronome, you might extend that beyond a real simple scale like this, and you might do more complicated exercises.

Right? Just something more complicated, an exercise you do every day. Your daily warm up.

Now, already, there's an interesting benefit here that you might get from working with the metronome. By setting the metronome on every note, it's going to keep me slow enough that I can really pay attention to my technique. And that note that I played just a moment ago, that wasn't perfectly lined up with the metronome, I'd go back and fix that. But it's wonderful for technical drill that way. So as you get more comfortable, extend it to other exercises that you are doing. But once again, don't put it with your music until you're comfortable matching it. Now, matching one note per click is step one in this process. Beyond that, we have.

Multiple notes per click. Now, this is where the metronome is especially powerful because it's going to help you make rhythm very precise. Not just your. Your sense of pulse, but the subdivisions, the little notes within each beat, right? So that if, if my happy click is a quarter note, I might want. Not to just play in quarter notes.

But I might want to play in eighth note, I might want to play in triplets.

I might want to play in sixteenths.

And I might want to play a more complicated rhythm, like a dotted 8th 16th.

It's going to help me line up my subdivisions as well. So once you can match one note per click, try matching two notes per click. And extend that scale.

And extend that scale so that you know that your eighth notes are even. So that's another way to use the metronome and to help you work at your subdivisions of the beat, make your sense of. Make your. Not your sense of rhythm, but make your representation of the rhythms that you're playing more exactly and more precise, more correct. Again, start it with exercises, but once you're comfortable matching to the metronome, then we can start putting it together with your music. And let's look at how it can help you there. So how can the metronome Help you solve coordination problems. How can it give you time? Let's look at some examples. Let's imagine that you're playing a piece, and most of the piece is fine, but you get to this one measure, and it's this.

And you fall off the strings. It's just way too fast to get that done. And all the rest of everything is kind of okay, but this isn't. And you can do it if you.

And that's kind of how you get through the measure. Well, let's look at what the metronome can do to help ease that. For one thing, of course, you can work with the metronome hands separately. So what we're going to do is we're going to make sure that each of the two hands can do their job at the right tempo. Let's find the right tempo. We'll kind of have to guess a little bit. See.

We'Re not going to put it on every note.

We'll put it on sort of the big pulse. Let's try it right about there and see what we get. It's a little bit slower, and the right hand would be.

Okay. So we found a good tempo for the hand separately.

And the right hand works at that tempo. And how about the left hand?

Not so well. That might be a fingering thing for me.

Okay. All right. So we've got the hands going at their individual tempos. Now we're going to check and see if they can go hand separately at the tempo of the rest of the piece. And so now this is all sort of imagining, but let's say the tempo of the piece is here.

So I need my right hand to go at that speed.

All right. And it might take a little bit of work. It's okay at the moment in my left hand.

My left hand isn't having the best day. There we go. Okay, so that's going to work. So now we know each hand will work at the proper tempo separately, but we still have to put them hands together. So we're going to put them hands together, but much slower. Now, because of the coordination difficulty that we're imagining this excerpt, instead of having the metronome on the main beat, which is really the preferred way to practice, we're going to use the metronome to give us every single note. So I'm going to turn it faster. Oh, that's too fast.

That's still too fast.

As a matter of fact, going to go back to my friendly 100 again, and I'm going to use that as the click for every single note.

Now, it doesn't matter that this is now three times as slow as the rest of the piece. It's giving us the time to sort everything out and to get it clear, to get it correct, and to eliminate any hesitations. Because if we keep doing this with.

With a hesitation in the middle, that hesitation is going to become part of our playing habit for the piece, and we don't want that. We want to eliminate the hesitation. So we're going to use the metronome at that super slow speed for right now again.

Until we know that we can do it. Now, the key here is adjust the metronome until you find a tempo at which you can do it. You need to build in correct, and at this point, you don't need to build in speed. Now, after you've got it correct at whatever tempo you get it correct at, then you can start upping that speed a little bit. Okay, Now, I've put my metronome on pretty fast. It's actually 160 right now, and I'm still going to use that for every note.

Okay, that's not bad. But at that tempo now I can start getting away from having the metronome click every note. You really don't want that. It's a great way to practice when you need clarity, when you need absolute, you know, I'm going to get this right. It's going to be correct. It's not going to have any hesitations. Then that's the perfect way to practice, but only for a limited amount of time, because we want to get back to those bigger beats that make musical sense as quickly as possible. So my metronome is at 160. I'm going to take that way, way back, and I'm going to take it back to, oh, let's say, well, 56, which is just a tad faster than 160 because I'm doing three notes to the beat. But this is going to be. Yep.

Now, in this pattern, if, with these two measures, if I wasn't sure what that particular beat was going to feel like, because my left hand has a continual base pattern here, I would probably make sure that I knew what that pulse was. You heard me talk it through before I started to play.

But I might even go the next step and make sure. Okay, that's how my left hand goes. Now, I can do it together.

And that's. Those are the first couple steps in speeding something up. But what about this hands together thing? What if hands together is really the issue? Well, let's look at an imaginary chord pattern.

And we want to play that nice and cleanly. Hands together.

Maybe it's even just an exercise, but we're having difficulty lining up the two hands and getting them placed at the same time. Well, let's use our metronome. I'm going to go back to 60 again. It's a nice tempo.

And if this is where we want to be, eventually.

That'S a good. A good tempo. But let's do it alternating the hands. So left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right. It gives us a little bit more opportunity to see where each hand goes. And now let's do the same thing, but starting with your right hand. Right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left. And now let's do them hands together. But we'll do two beats for every note instead of just the one. Place.

Place.

Place. There you go. Now we can try. If we want to go twice, that's speed. We can do the drill at twice that speed as well, or anything in between. All we have to do is adjust the metronome. So, for instance, we could do left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, and again and again until we're done. And then right, left, right. Oh, right, left. I have to look right, left, right, left. There you go. All right. So it was this, that we'll do it in that pattern until it becomes smooth. Then we'll do it hands together.

Once again. You're going to get a lot of. I keep coming back to the word clarity, but that's what the metronome does. It will give you time to practice without the mental confusion, which is huge. I don't have to tell you that. So that's. Those are a couple different ways that you can use the metronome to help you speed something up, help you slow something down, help you clean it up, help you put it hands together.

I would suggest that you balance your practice when you're doing this. Between having the metronome click every note for you or just click the big beats in general.

I advise you to have the metronome on the bigger beat rather than on every note, because that's the musical sensibility that you want the piece to have. But there are times, like when you're trying to sort things out, when you're trying to get the coordination down, when you're doing technical work, that having the metronome click every single note for you can be very reassuring. It can give you the time you need to check what needs to be checked, to place what needs to be placed and to not have hesitations in there because you're going too fast. Using the metronome to keep yourself slow is a gift. It is such a relief. And once you've learned to work with the metronome, to listen to it, to match the click, then you can go on to use it in these wonderful ways. And that's part of how it's going to help your practice.

But let's talk a little bit about listening with that outside ear.

When we're engaged particularly deeply focused in the act of playing music, whether we're practicing or performing.

Time, in its sort of normal sense.

Gets distorted for us. If you've ever had the experience of getting lost in your music in a good way, or maybe in a bad way, but mostly in a good way, and then you've experienced a little bit of how that happens, and perhaps you've had a practice session where you were just so involved in what you were practicing that you looked up, thinking 10 minutes had gone by and found out that that was. Was an entire hour. Our sense of time gets distorted when we're deeply concentrating or focusing. So there is a certain part of you that when you're so wrapped up in what you're playing that you're trying very hard not to make a mistake or trying to get to these next notes or thinking about what you're doing, and you may not even realize that you're slowing down or speeding up, or even worse, making a hole, a hesitation in the middle of what you're playing. And perhaps you've had that brought home to you when you've made a recording of one of your practice sessions and listened to it and thought, whoa, that wasn't what I thought I did.

We've all had that experience, trust me.

So when you work with the metronome regularly, first of all, it will help you avoid some of those problems, but it will help you learn to listen not just to what your fingers are doing on the strings, but it will give your listening a bigger perspective. You will learn to listen with that third ear, and not just to the pulse of the metronome, although the metronome is part of what's training that. But you'll learn to listen to what's happening around you, not just in your playing bubble, but what is really happening in your soundscape. Now, I'm not advocating that you, you know, learn to listen to somebody who drops their keys in the middle of your concert or something, but the idea that you are not just listening to the next note, but that you have a Bigger perspective, A bigger oral listening perspective in your. In your world, in that moment is what will enable you to create an overall more musical performance, and one that doesn't have those holes or those inconsistencies because you'll hear them quicker in your practice and you won't do them in your performance. You'll be concentrating and listening in a different way. You'll catch your mistakes faster because you'll be listening to them almost in the way that your teacher would listen. You'll be listening not as. Not to what you're playing from a player's perspective, but you'll listen to what you're playing from another person's perspective. It will enable you to listen to harpists around you if you're playing in harp ensemble and match them, rather than just have to be so focused on your own playing that you don't realize that you're not playing with them anymore, but that you're a little bit separated from them.

So that outside listening is critical for any kind of ensemble playing, whether it's harp ensemble or orchestra, or just playing with another instrumentalist or a singer. Listening to something besides what you're playing.

Is crucial to do any of those things successfully, and the metronome is a training device for that, whether you thought of it that way or not. You'll learn to listen outside of what you're doing, and it's an incredibly valuable musical tool and from the learning perspective, from a practicing perspective, from a performing perspective. So learning to listen like that is essential, and the metronome will help you do that. So let's go through some of those do's and don'ts. Do Train yourself to use the metronome by using it with your scales or your exercises and practice by matching every note. Don't just jump into using the metronome with music that you're learning. If you're not comfortable doing the other, first start with your scales, make sure you can match it, and then you can start to use it with your real music. Once you can use the metronome, do use it from the very first moment you start a piece so that you can learn it right the first time. You'll be saving yourself so many headaches later, you. You won't have to be fixing things that you could have just learned correctly the first time. So don't save it for the end. Use it now. It's not too late. Use it now. Do use the metronome not just to speed up, but to help keep you slow enough so that you can correct your Technique. Watch what your fingers are doing when you're doing technical work so that you can have the time you need to play a passage with the right fingering, or to line your hands up, hands together, or to just get something absolutely correct without hesitations so that you know that you're doing it the right way. So use it to keep yourself slow enough to give you time. Don't just use it as. As a finish line to make you have to, you know, put play faster and faster and faster. Don't feel you have to stay at a particular tempo to practice. Remember, the metronome has a dial or some other kind of adjustment. You get to choose the tempo that you practice at. So don't let the metronome ride roughshod over you. There, you be in control of it.

Do use the metronome to help you line up your style subdivisions. Whether it's two notes or three notes or four notes to the beat, use it to help you keep those even. Don't use it only to tap out every note, right? We want to use it for the big beats. Lastly, do find a metronome with a sound that you like. Don't settle for just a click. Don't use one that's going to torture yourself. This metronome, well, you heard it right. It's got, you know, a very simple little beepy kind of a sound.

Doesn't bother me, but it might bother you. A lot of metronomes, whether they're physical metronomes or apps on your phone or your iPad or whatever, come with a variety of sounds. Some have, you know, wooden clave sort of sounds or click sounds or beep sounds, or find a sound that you like. It doesn't have to be torture. Whatever you do, don't throw your metronome against the wall. It can be your best friend, so learn how to use it and that you'll save yourself lots and lots of headaches. Now, to start you on your metronome journey, I urge you to take one other step, and that is if your metronome or your app has instructions, read them. I'd love you to know. Most metronomes do so many more things than we actually do with them. And most metronomes now.

Will allow you to not only choose your tempo and choose your click and all of that stuff, choose the volume of the click, but it will also allow you to add accent beats in a pattern. Like, if you want the first beat of every four, maybe you're playing a piece in four, four, and you want the first Beat accented, it will do that for you. Or maybe you want the metronome to help you divide and subdivide into triplets or sixteenths or eighth notes. The metronome will do that for you, too. So do read the instructions, find out how the metronome can help you explain, experiment with them, and you might find that there's exactly the setting in there that's going to help you solve a particular problem.

Now, I hope that has helped you gain a little bit of understanding at how you can be more comfortable with the metronome and then once you are more comfortable, how you can use the metronome in ways that are going to be so beneficial for any particular piece you're practicing, for your musicianship in general and for your peace of mind, truly. So it's not an instrument of torture. It is the one of the best tools that you could use. So let's learn how to be comfortable with that. And I hope we've, you know, made some strides in that today. Please remember, if you haven't signed up for Back to School night yet, I'll be put that link in the show notes as well as a link to a blog post I did sometime back that talks a little bit more about the metronome and its history. And you might find that a little bit interesting as well. But do check out the, the links in the show notes and there's always something interesting there for you. Register for Back to School Night. I certainly hope to see you. We're going to have so much fun with that. Remember, this is for not just kids. This is for learners of every age. You know, bring your harp friends, invite your harp friends in. Teachers, invite your students. Students, invite your teachers. It's just going to be fun. So do sign up, have a great time, and I look forward to seeing you on that call. Next week, our show will be about taming the terrible thumb. Is your thumb constantly a problem finger for you? And does the, the tone not match? It's either too loud or too soft, it's too tense, or it just won't do anything at all. It doesn't play when you want, it plays when you don't want. It hits other strings. Thumbs are, thumbs are tricky, no question. And on next week's show, I'm going to be sharing with you three secrets to not only a more gentle thumb, but a more musical thumb as well. So we'll be talking about what makes the thumb sound, how you produce the thumb sound, and maybe some, some words that will help you think about how your thumb should be moving and what it should be doing to really play with a beautiful sound, to blend in well with the other fingers and to no longer be your problem finger. So we'll be talking about the thumbs next week. In the meantime, have a wonderful week and I look forward to talking with you on next week's show. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I release a new episode every Monday morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your Harp happiness every day. See you next time.