[Harp-L] Re: using a metronome

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Frank franze wrote:
> Hi Ken, Great Info....Should I have the metronome going while I have a 
> backtrack playing?

No, that'd drive you nuts trying to synch them.  If the backing track is 
done by pro's, like Steve Baker's great tracks, their time is going to be 
excellent.

Working with a metronome is for solo practice.  (Sometimes for a small, 
very quiet ensemble, but solo is most productive.)  Here was my experience 
with learning it.

At first I thought the metronome was actually speeding up and slowing 
down.  That was my musical brain playing tricks on me.

I got more in synch over a period of a few months, but I would try to hear 
the clicks of the metronome, and that screwed up my timing too because I'd 
delay notes that were supposed to be dead-on a beat, so as to hear the clicks.

Finally I got to where I could set the metronome, listen for a few beats 
and then just blow and not really listen to the clicks.  I'd hear them when 
I heard them, but I didn't care.  I had achieved my inner metronome.

I record myself with the clicks occasionally, and I'm always right on target.

What this allows you to do is be much more part of the music, whether 
you're playing with other people or not.  When you decide to go in front of 
the beat or behind it or right on top of it with any certain phrase, it'll 
always be in reference to the beat and it'll feel right.  If you try to 
play ahead of the beat or behind it without that inner reference it does 
not sound as good and sometimes sounds terrible.

Since varying your reference to the beat is an absolutely vital key to 
bringing your music alive, the inner metronome you develop from practicing 
everyday with your metronome is really, really important.  Musicians with 
solid time sound like pros, even when they don't make their living with 
their axe.

Sometimes I'll play with a group of people who may all have great time, but 
aren't a band, and sometimes that leads to time problems that'd be gone if 
there were more rehearsal time.  In that case, I use the harp to hit hard, 
directly on beats when I hear the ensemble lagging or speeding up.  Because 
harp can cut through, a few metronomic hits of the harp can whip everyone 
else into line just like that.

I did this even before I got my inner metronome - heck, when I was a kid 
nobody I knew had particularly good time - but having authoritative time is 
a great advantage for any harp player.  If you develop your time it's 
likely that it'll be better than the other harp players in your neck of the 
woods, which may give you a gig advantage.

By the way, I mentioned Al Jackson, the Stax drummer, in the previous 
post.  Stax music was typically behind-the-beat music, but if everyone 
played behind the beat all the time, the music would've slowed down 
noticeably in the 2:30 of a record.  Jackson solved this problem by playing 
the ONE of every eighth bar dead on on top of the beat.  This kept the beat 
kosher all the way through.  Clever, no?