- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,939
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
I've got a few minutes, so I want to tell my metronome story. What better place to do it 
. For those who might be interested...
I started out on guitar, not bass. My first serious band was a progressive type punk band that jammed - a lot. That taught me a great deal about harmony, notes, melodies, scales, what works and what doesn't. I got some excellent training there, and learned a lot, by ear and a few basics the bassist would point out. Future cover bands and learning tunes to back up other original artists added to that, but yeah... the metronome...
Somewhere around 1990 I was asked to join an alternative group some friends had formed. But they wanted me to play bass. I liked the guys and the music, so I was up for the challenge. The guitarist in that band was an educated musician, and HUGE Rush fan. I was a punk. We clashed, a lot. But we felt some sort of magic between us, so we started having these flash and smash weekly meetings. He would teach me some theory and technique, I'd teach him about playing with emotion. Strangely enough, HE was the one who suggested using a metronome to me. We jammed a lot in this band, too, and I wasn't the tightest bass player at that time. I took the suggestion. I started doing a variety of exercises with a metronome.
I think part of the reason I feel so strongly about this has to do with coincidence. When I started practicing with the clicks, we also had a bit of a band hiatus. I got to work with this for about a month before hitting the studio again, and when we did, I was blown away. I had a very clear sense of my fingers now being on auto pilot. We were fortunate to have a drummer who had excellent timing, and now everything I did was locking in perfectly with him. I was able to jam, do what I wanted, and have it fit in effortlessly! That made me a fan. I spent the next several months doing lots of different metronome exercises, and I feel it's had an enormous effect on my playing. Especially on my improvising. It seems to have trained my brain to function more accurately under pressure. I believe completely that it helped me to think faster, as well as improve my timing and listening.
And then there's this. Prior to working with a metronome I couldn't count off the seconds to a minute. Tried and failed. When I was actively practicing with a metronome I had little problem doing that. Perhaps that could be a test for people who are on the fence about what to believe here. See how well you can count off a minute without using a clock (you can use it to get the tempo, but then look away), and then practice consistently for a month with a metronome and give it a go again. That might supply the "scientific proof" some people need in order to believe something is true.
I don't use a metronome any more for the above purposes, though I do still use one from time to time. Gonna guess that keeps me in tune. But I think there is another great use for metronomes that hasn't been brought up. I am often confronted with bass lines that are out of my playing ability. Once I learn the notes, VERY MUCH OUT OF TIME, I practice them super slowly to a click. I raise the click a notch every few minutes, do it until I start flubbing, and then give it a rest. When I return I repeat the process. What happens by doing that is my muscle memory kicks and then suddenly I wake up one morning playing whatever it was I was struggling with as though I was playing it my entire life. While there are probably other methods of achieving the same goal, I don't know of any that are more efficient.
Back to the real world.
. For those who might be interested...I started out on guitar, not bass. My first serious band was a progressive type punk band that jammed - a lot. That taught me a great deal about harmony, notes, melodies, scales, what works and what doesn't. I got some excellent training there, and learned a lot, by ear and a few basics the bassist would point out. Future cover bands and learning tunes to back up other original artists added to that, but yeah... the metronome...
Somewhere around 1990 I was asked to join an alternative group some friends had formed. But they wanted me to play bass. I liked the guys and the music, so I was up for the challenge. The guitarist in that band was an educated musician, and HUGE Rush fan. I was a punk. We clashed, a lot. But we felt some sort of magic between us, so we started having these flash and smash weekly meetings. He would teach me some theory and technique, I'd teach him about playing with emotion. Strangely enough, HE was the one who suggested using a metronome to me. We jammed a lot in this band, too, and I wasn't the tightest bass player at that time. I took the suggestion. I started doing a variety of exercises with a metronome.
I think part of the reason I feel so strongly about this has to do with coincidence. When I started practicing with the clicks, we also had a bit of a band hiatus. I got to work with this for about a month before hitting the studio again, and when we did, I was blown away. I had a very clear sense of my fingers now being on auto pilot. We were fortunate to have a drummer who had excellent timing, and now everything I did was locking in perfectly with him. I was able to jam, do what I wanted, and have it fit in effortlessly! That made me a fan. I spent the next several months doing lots of different metronome exercises, and I feel it's had an enormous effect on my playing. Especially on my improvising. It seems to have trained my brain to function more accurately under pressure. I believe completely that it helped me to think faster, as well as improve my timing and listening.
And then there's this. Prior to working with a metronome I couldn't count off the seconds to a minute. Tried and failed. When I was actively practicing with a metronome I had little problem doing that. Perhaps that could be a test for people who are on the fence about what to believe here. See how well you can count off a minute without using a clock (you can use it to get the tempo, but then look away), and then practice consistently for a month with a metronome and give it a go again. That might supply the "scientific proof" some people need in order to believe something is true.
I don't use a metronome any more for the above purposes, though I do still use one from time to time. Gonna guess that keeps me in tune. But I think there is another great use for metronomes that hasn't been brought up. I am often confronted with bass lines that are out of my playing ability. Once I learn the notes, VERY MUCH OUT OF TIME, I practice them super slowly to a click. I raise the click a notch every few minutes, do it until I start flubbing, and then give it a rest. When I return I repeat the process. What happens by doing that is my muscle memory kicks and then suddenly I wake up one morning playing whatever it was I was struggling with as though I was playing it my entire life. While there are probably other methods of achieving the same goal, I don't know of any that are more efficient.
Back to the real world.
I often refer to Chameleon as an example of how songs on record used to move before clicks became standard - and how it didn't matter as long as it felt musical. Of course, most songs now are not fifteen minutes long and do not contain what basically amounts to three movements... 
