Guitar Advice

[MuscularTeeth]

I've seen metronomes before but I'm not sure if my tuner has an in built one, but I've got no idea how they work or what they do .. do you just start it, and pluck a string each time it does its thing or?

A metronome is a device that gives off a steady beat. Think of it like a clock with a pendulum, except you can adjust how fast the pendulum swings. Each 'click' or 'swing' of the pendulum is 1 beat. They'll also have a chime or a beep which can be set to play every X number of beats, to signify the start of a bar (ie your time signature).

So if the particular piece of music you were trying to learn was set in a 4/4 time signature with a tempo of 100 beats per minute, you'd just adjust the speed of the metronome to 100bpm and set it to chime every 4 beats. Then if you wanted to slow down to make learning the piece easier, you'd adjust the tempo slower on the metronome.

They're a pretty common thing for people learning to play any instrument.

im pretty sure the free to use digital audio workstation AUDACITY has an inbuilt metronome. so if you are practicing near your pc you could use that...
(i use sony acid, and it definitly has one).

[Mearehear]

Yes, you can generate a "Click Track" in Audacity

[Hawker45]

Not sure of it's been mentioned, but acquire guitar pro. It allows you to slow down the track to play along, and it shows rhythm on tab instead of just notes. Usually I find the gpro tabs much more accurate than the standard tabs. And it has a built in metronome feature.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using Tapatalk 2

[Disco LT]

Not sure of it's been mentioned, but acquire guitar pro. It allows you to slow down the track to play along, and it shows rhythm on tab instead of just notes. Usually I find the gpro tabs much more accurate than the standard tabs. And it has a built in metronome feature.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using Tapatalk 2

Okay I've got to admit I don't quite get the metronome thing, I might ask a friend of mine who plays and see if maybe he can play/demonstrate it a bit better - sometimes things are hard to explain/understand online. I seem to be thinking that you set it to whatever, and just play one note per tick - and then you can set it to different timings, to increase/decrase the speed? And I guess depending on the song you could do two notes, for each tick.. or am I way off here

I've never heard of gpro? Does it actually come with guitar tabs for songs? I also notice you're ingenius use of the word acquire, rather than purchase. I'll look into it

[DarkMellie]

Metronome's just help you play to a beat. Without some form of timing (if you lack the internal clock for it) the song will speed up and slow down randomly. Metronome's make your playing tighter.

Guitar Pro is a PC tab program that will play the song as a MIDI format (so all twangy and annoying). This will help you with unfamiliar music. I don't like Hawker's use of 'acquire', but if you, say, BOUGHT Guitar Pro you'll find that many many many songs have been tabbed into it. You can also write in it as well.

[Disco LT]

Actually, it's not even that expensive - I thought it would be something like Photoshop, but at $60 it's not at all excessive.

TBH I'm not sure whether I have a decent internal clock or not.. but I might buy this and actually give it a go - from what others have said it's a must

[Tera]

I happened to "acquire" Guitar Pro and it's the single most helpful piece of software I've ever used.

Once you've got that up and running head to http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ and search for songs that you want to learn, then play a long with them. It really is fantastic.

[Hawker45]

Okay I've got to admit I don't quite get the metronome thing, I might ask a friend of mine who plays and see if maybe he can play/demonstrate it a bit better - sometimes things are hard to explain/understand online. I seem to be thinking that you set it to whatever, and just play one note per tick - and then you can set it to different timings, to increase/decrase the speed? And I guess depending on the song you could do two notes, for each tick.. or am I way off here

Getting there. Say if you set the metronome for a 4/4 time sig. That means 4 beats per bar. If you play 4 quarter notes you'll be playing 4 notes per bar; a note for each "tick". If you play a constant stream of 1/8th notes, you'll be playing 2 notes per click (one on the beat/click, and one on the "upbeat") or 8 notes per bar. This goes on to 1/16ths etc. So songs are divided into bars, which can be divided into beats, which can be further divided up depending on what's needed.

I don't mean to be overly patronising, and i apologize if i come off that way. Just trying to explain the concept.

[cyclobs]

the best way to really explain it is thinking about when you're listening to a song. You tap your foot to the beat of the drums.

well replace the drum beat with an metronome.

[Mearehear]

I wouldn't get too worked up over understanding a metronome, it is not an essential thing to do. My brother has been a guitar teacher for years and I don't think I have ever seen him deal much with them.

At this early stage you are just going to want to focus on getting your finger placements right on the neck/strings and learning basic chords and such.

It is easy to overwhelm yourself with too much info from peoples well meaning advice. Keep things simple at this stage.

[Agent_Dark]

Okay I've got to admit I don't quite get the metronome thing, I might ask a friend of mine who plays and see if maybe he can play/demonstrate it a bit better - sometimes things are hard to explain/understand online. I seem to be thinking that you set it to whatever, and just play one note per tick - and then you can set it to different timings, to increase/decrase the speed? And I guess depending on the song you could do two notes, for each tick.. or am I way off here

Youtube is good:



also cats and metronomes:

[cyclobs]

indeed. i only use one now for solo practice or trying to learn this quick solos, Always been terribly bad at learning solos yet i can still play reasonably fast

[VitalBlurs]

It's true metronomes aren't important....but good timing is.

Just think of the metronome as a very basic drum beat to play along to. Without a drummer you need a beat of some sort. Some people tap their foot, others have the beat inside their head.

Whether you play on those beats or around them depends on what you're trying to practice. If you're just practing chords or something....then yeah, play them on the beats or every 4th beat or whatever you're comfortable with.

You can play the most gnarly complicated guitar ever...but it won't sound too good if it's not in time with some sort of beat.....and the most basic guitar playing will still sound ok if it's in perfect timing with a beat.

[MuscularTeeth]

all this talk of guitars and instuments has left me feeling dead inside from my own lack of instrument skillz. sure i compose music via a pc, but its different (though i still think its music).
so im gunna steal my cousins cheap and nasty guitar and teach myself.
its got 3 plastic strngs (is that nylon?) and 2 metal ones lol

[Matty]

(is that nylon?)

Yup. But I haven't heard of having nylon and metal strings before.