Free Online Metronome & Tips for Building Speed
May 29th, 2007
I have wanted to purchase a digital metronome for quite a while to use while practicing scales and building speed. However, most of the time that I am practicing I am sitting either in front of or within decent range of my computer. It dawned on me, why don’t I just search for a metronome online? There has got to be something flash or Java based somewhere.
Well, I was right, and I actually found a pretty good one too. Metronome Online is a free full featured flash based metronome. It has tempos ranging from 40bpm to 208bpm and also has a feature to play the A440 frequency to give you a reference for guitar tuning. The sound of the tap is pretty pleasing and I’m pretty happy with it. I pretty much have no use for a stand alone metronome now.
Tips on Using a Metronome to Build Speed
The main purpose of using a metronome is to teach you to keep in time when playing your instrument. It will help you learn to play to a beat and keep a consistent tempo. It can also be useful as a speed reference when learning to play faster.
The key to learning to play fast is playing slow. I know it sounds wrong, but many accomplished guitarists swear by it. The idea is if you want to be able to master something fast, you have master slowly first. When building up your speed the hard part isn’t playing quickly, it’s keeping your notes clean and precise while playing quickly.
When trying to build speed on a scale or lick use a metronome and set it to a comfortable speed. By that I mean set it to a speed where you can play the lick, but it is still a little challenging. Play it at this speed until you can do it in your sleep. Then increase the tempo by 8bpm. Practice the lick at this speed and again once you have dominated it increase the tempo by 8bpm again. Rinse and repeat until you are at your desired speed.
This is a long and tedious process, but nobody said learning to shred would be a walk in the park.
tagged metronome and practicing guitar
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June 19th, 2007 07:33
This is a great tool! I will def. share it with my readers as well! Thanks for posting this!
June 19th, 2007 10:19
I dont know why it took me so long to think of finding an online one, it’s not a very complex tool.
Since I found this I have used it every other day in my practicing.