How to level up your metronome practice

Practicing with a metronome is an essential part of mastering rhythm. A metronome can help build timing, consistency, and musicality. Getting used to practicing with a steady pulse can also help prepare you for performances and recording sessions.

While most musicians use metronomes in a straightforward way, there are several techniques you can use to challenge yourself further. Here are five ways to level up your practice with the Metronome by Soundbrenner, the Soundbrenner Pulse, or the Soundbrenner Core.

1. Remove beats to improve your accuracy

As much as metronomes help improve rhythm, some musicians end up relying on them too much and using them as a crutch. This can translate into messy playing whenever a metronome is unavailable, such as during improvisation.

To train your internal clock, try removing beats while still staying in time. For example, remove beats 2 and 4 while keeping beats 1 and 3. This forces you to compensate for the missing pulse and stay in time on your own.

2. Practice identifying rhythms with tap tempo

As musicians, we are often asked to play at specific tempos during sessions or rehearsals. Other times, we may be asked to provide the approximate BPM for a song or section for the rest of the band. That is why it is important to develop your sense of rhythm and tempo so you can estimate the BPM you need.

This is similar to perfect pitch, but for rhythm: being able to identify a song’s BPM after listening for just a few seconds. To practice this, play any rhythm or melody and guess its tempo. Next, open your Soundbrenner app or wearable and tap three or more consecutive times. The app will tell you the tempo you tapped and whether your guess was correct.

If you do this often with different songs, you can develop a strong sense of rhythmic timing and sensitivity. Try practicing this at least a few times a day. If you own a Soundbrenner Core, you can even do this when you are bored or out and about by tapping three times on the watch face.

3. Practice slowly

It is easy to stay in time when you are playing fast. Slower tempos exaggerate each beat and make rhythmic variations much more obvious. Make sure you practice slowly so you can familiarize yourself with every note.

4. Adjust your subdivisions so the click occurs less often

If you want to improve your sense of timing on your instrument, try setting your subdivisions so there is more time between each click. For example, if you are playing eighth notes, try setting your subdivisions to quarter notes or half notes so you have to work harder to stay in time and avoid rushing or dragging.

This trains you to keep the beat even when you do not have a click or vibration to rely on.

5. Practice with drum loops

Practicing with a click works well for scales and exercises, but it is not always very musical. In real performances, you will most likely be playing along with a drummer. Try playing with drum loops instead so you can get used to the feel of playing with a drummer.

If you do not have a hardware drum machine, the Soundbrenner app allows you to customize the sound of each beat so your metronome sounds more like a drummer. Go to App Settings, then Metronome Sounds, and choose from the included samples, such as kick, snare, tom, hi-hat, and cymbal sounds.

You can also find free drum loops to download online, and most DAWs come with a bundle of loops you can use right away.