Lesson Tag: metronome

Now that we’ve played the rhythm with a metronome, let’s put it to a chord progression. For our first example, we’ll use the familiar key of G.

It’s a great idea to play this rhythm with a metronome. To achieve true mastery, it’s best to play it with a metronome that clicks on every 16th note (1-e-&-a-2-e-&-a-3…), AND try it when the metronome is clicking only on the main numbers (i.e., the quarter notes…1-2-3-4).

Now we return to Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water,” and practice playing the main riff with a metronome. Slowly and easy does it at first, and then we can ramp up the tempo as we get more comfortable.

In this third installment, I share additional tips for using a metronome effectively. As ever, one of the main things to remember is to play with a metronome rather than just alongside it. And again, you never want to play any of these exercises faster than you can play them comfortably or cleanly.

Here we discuss a few additional ways to use a metronome effectively, including using it while playing common rhythm patterns and chord progressions.

The metronome is an important tool in your development as a guitarist. The average student tends to increase their tempo over the course of a song, but the metronome helps us to develop solid, consistent time in everything we play.