Re: [Harp-L] Groove vs Swing and those metronomes...

[Tin Lizzie <TrackHarpL@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sep 10, 2013, at 8:43 PM, Steve Shaw wrote:

> 
> From: Steve Shaw <moorcot@xxxxxxx>
> Date: September 10, 2013 5:33:18 PM GMT-04:00
> To: harp-l harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Groove vs Swing and those metronomes...
> 
> 
> I'm with Aongus on this. I'd also add, speaking only as an aficionado and sometime hairyarse practitioner of traditional Irish music, that the only thing a metronome will teach you is how to play along with a metronome. Human beings do not play music metronomically (thank goodness). Far better, if you can, to play along with other human beings. There is not a single nuance of playing music (as opposed to playing your instrument) that a metronome can teach you, and nuance is everything in playing music. If you really can't play with other people, then the next best thing is to record yourself playing, identify your problems ( involve your friends if you don't trust yourself) and work on getting better that way. It's much more fun than relying on a brainless and unmusical  device. 

I do not concur.

Practicing with a metronome develops and exercises the skill of playing and listening at the same time.

There is a difference between tapping your foot to the music and playing the music to your foot-taps.  A metronome displaces your foot-taps out even further.    Being able to synchronize your playing to something outside yourself is a valuable skill.

A metronome (as opposed to a backing track or live band) gives you fewer places to hide.  It’s just you and the click.  And if you’re practicing synchrony and lose the synchrony, you don’t have the momentum of a song (or a band and a song) to take you past it such that you can pretend it didn’t happen or didn’t matter “all that much”.

Yes, there is a difference between the mechanical timing of the metronome and the more organic timing of one or more human beings.  But I claim that the first is easier than the second (because more predictable), and therefore is worth mastering -- or at least working on -- as an adjunct to attempting to play with/to the less predictable timing of another person or a group.  Work on something simpler before tackling something more complex.

And speaking for myself, there is a very particular and satisfying feeling when I play a line with a deliberate rest where a metronome click will fall, and hearing that “click” come in exactly on cue.  There’s nothing quite like it.

Tin Lizzie