After 1 ½ years I finally took the advice of many here and purchased a metronome. For the last two weeks I have been working on G to C to D to C changes at the lowest setting, 40 bpm, about ten minutes a day. I had learned to do these at tempo, but real sloppily.
Anyway, even at this tempo, I am not seeing any improvement day to day. It almost seems that this tempo is so slow and unlike any even in the slow stuff I play that I can't get a groove going.
Any thought on a reasonable place to start as far as bpm ?
That's go to be the most unmotivatory method on the planet, methinks.
Take a song, any song, and practice the chord changes at tempo. 40 bpm is very slow, so start at 60 bpm and start building the speed up once can nail the changes on time at the slower speed. You'll probably improve a lot quicker than by just doing random chord changes.
Best,
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Thanks Alan. You are right, it is drudgery.
Just thinking, "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" in G gives me the changes I want except for D into C. can you think of anyting off hand that gives me G into C and D into C. ?
can you think of anyting off hand that gives me G into C and D into C. ?
Wild Thing
||G---C---D---C---||
I learned by playing along with songs on a CD.
WatchTower...Am G F
Gloria...E D A
Louie Louie ... A D E
Waitin On A Friend .... Am F G C G C
Wild Horses....Bm G Bm G Am C D G D repeat
struggling along with a song is less tedious than metronome.
you can pause a CD and repeat parts.
your motivation is increased.
I learned by playing along with songs on a CD.
WatchTower...Am G F
Gloria...E D A
Louie Louie ... A D E
Waitin On A Friend .... Am F G C G C
Wild Horses....Bm G Bm G Am C D G D repeat
struggling along with a song is less tedious than metronome.
you can pause a CD and repeat parts.
your motivation is increased.
I made the same thing. At the beginning it is easier to play along with a cd because there you can be guided by both the rhythm and the melody (maybe you know that a certain chord changes happens when the singer start a certain verse or word if you have a chord-sheet in front of you). Then I recently bought a metronome and I've found out that it has bettered my rhythm in the sense that it force me to play at a steady speed, something that is not so easy when you play alone (without drums or music in teh background). Anyway I follow these steps:
a) learn to play a song without tempo
b) learn to play a song along cd
c) learn to play a song with metronome
Matteo
Another good thing about playing along with the CD is you can leave out strums "extra" before the chord so that you keep the timing going. As you get better then you can add those missing strums back. As an example, just strum on the 1st beat then you've quadrupled (assuming common time) the amount of time you have to make the change. Then on 1 and 3, etc. Then you still have the pleasure of playing a song while training your fretting fingers and keeping time.
____
Steve
Thanks Alan. You are right, it is drudgery.
Just thinking, "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" in G gives me the changes I want except for D into C. can you think of anyting off hand that gives me G into C and D into C. ?
12-bar blues in G
Then make up some words as you go along. Phrases like
"Woke up this morning"
"My woman left me"
"got an empty whiskey bottle"
are all good blues lyrics. Anything about misery in any form will do. In fact, I posted a humourous guide to the blues a while back.
Clickety click
http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?t=19983&highlight=humour
Best,
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
i forgot to add that if you follow the steps (learn with no tempo, play along with cd then paly with metronome) you could play the song at the metronome quite near the real speed! I mean if the song is around 120 bpm maybe I'll try it at 100, then when i feel confident I'll play it at 110 and finally at 120...I'll never ever try to play anything at 40 bpm because it will not have any resemblance with the real song.
Matteo
Thing is - if you can play along to the CD, you probably don't need to practice changing chords in time.
Best,
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
to practice with a metronome there is nothing that says that you need to start at 40. set it at 60 and see if you can do the changes--if you can then increase the speed. Keep increasing the speed until you get to the point where you start making mistakes. that, or slightly lower should be your start point.
so say you begin to make mistakes at 80bpm. you then need to make a goal. an example would be to go from G to C 100 times at 80 without making a mistake by the end of two days. another goal would be to go from G to D 100 times at 80 without making a mistake by the end of two days. when you can do those then you can have a new goal of 90 bpm. or your new goal could be to go from G to D to C at 80 or 90 or whatever you decide. the thing is your goal should be realistic.
that's how i think you should practice with a metronome. find your start point, set a realistic goal that has a duration of time and try to meet the goal. when you've met the goal make a new realistic goal.
that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn by CD or any other way also. it's just one more way that may work for you.
IMO it's actually harder to play 40 than 60, too slow can be really hard to feel the beat.
Also IMO you should spend some time practicing against a metronome as well as backing tracks or drum beats. Enough practice with a metronome really helps you feel the beat against the quarter note which can be very beneficial especially if you don't practice with a foot tapping regular quarter notes.
Lee
