Metronome

Ever heard of the word? Well its a simple device used to produce a steady beat. Simple enough really, but apparently vital to music as the human mind cannot measure time on its own, and music is all about timing the notes.

Initially i was pretty bad at following the metronome due to the extremely slow beat rate of 44 beats per minute. Could barely time one note per beat properly. But today did a little searching around on the internet and found a proper online metronome. Now what i mean by proper is it produces a beat in a sound that my brain can unconsciously pickup and also it is possible to set the beat at any rate i chose.

http://www.seventhstring.com/metronome/metronome.html

Its from the same site as the online tuner. Seventh string.com is definitely a great place to find resources and information regarding guitars and playing them

Anyways this metronome makes a sound similar to the classic mechanical metronome used in the olden days, it doesn't sound irritating to the ears and is extremely easy to catch on to.And now i finally have an easier way to master those arpeggios Ive been having trouble with these past weeks. Now there are complex arpeggios and other sequences that does not follow a simple note per beat system obviously. But luckily the one i was having trouble with does not have a pattern as such, i tested it out playing a note per beat and it sounds just the way it should x]. Also this is by far the easiest metronome Ive ever used, could basically noodle all over the finger board while syncing to the beat, this one just feels comfortable to me. Maybe its just due to my own ability increasing over time but this time, the metronome is actually helping.

Practicing with the metronome really brought out some other flaws i had in my playing, my legato playing (hammer on and pull offs) were badly timed and most of the time i didn't let them ring for too long. By trying to follow the metronome beat my arpeggios finally sound the way they should, all there is left to do is to slowly increase the beat as i improve.

Out of topic it would seem my guitar pickups are not so well suited for legato playing. I have to pull off and hammer rather hard to get a decent sound out and even when i do the sound is quite different from picking the note, different is a good thing, but this, its too different, sounds more like squeaks and thunks with legato.

Oh and for the ppl who want a more advanced metronome shud definitely check out these two

http://bestmetronome.com/

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/metronome.php

Pretty fun to mess around with the metronomes available on these sites besides being a great help to practice sessions x]

Well thats it for now, more practice awaits