When to introduce metronome?

[Shagdac]

When do you find it best to introduce the use of a metronome, not just showing it and having a student familiar with its function, but requiring them to use one?
Do you always have them use one, or only on certain pieces...and if so, at what point when learing a piece do you have them discontinue using one? Thanks for your help.

S.

[bernhard]

A metronome is invaluable to give a student a sense of an absolutely regular pulse. In my experience most students do not have that, and when they hear themselves playing, they often think they are regular when they are anything but.

So I introduce the metronome in the very first lesson to do rhythm exercises (get a simple piece, ignore the pitches, and simply play the rhythm right on the beat with the metronome). This will go on for a while, and once the student gets the knack of it, I immediately discontinue it and only ever use the metronome again if this sense of regular pulse is lost.

On rare occasions I will use the metronome to figure out difficult rhythms, but again I will discontinue it as soon as a feeling for the rhythm is achieved. Ultimately no piece should be played metronomically, and a metronome is really a crutch that can be very helpful for a period of time – if and only if you cannot use your legs – but that should be abandoned as soon as you can walk by yourself.

I rarely if at all use the metronome to develop speed (start at a slow beat and repeat going up a notch every repetition) because I believe it creates speed walls. I will however do the opposite: use a slow metronome to avoid rushing up (it is far easier in general to play fast than it is to keep a steady slow pace).

Finally – and in my opinion – the area the metronome is the most useful is in mental practice: By going through a score with the metronome on, you ensure that you are performing the piece in your mind in real time. The mind tends to fast forward and skip whole sections unconsciously, so it is very easy to deceive oneself that one has gone through the piece mentally at the real tempo, when in fact nothing of the sort has ever happened.


I hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Shagdac]

Thanks Bernhard, your posts always help! I never thought about it being a "crutch"...or a tool that could possibly handicapp one's progress, but I definately see your point, which is very interesting. I've also never used it to "mentally" practice a piece, however I did try this and it really seemed to help my rythmically with the piece. I always used to use it to develop a faster rate (clicking it up a notch each time), until I read about practicing as fast as you can and not worrying about hitting the right notes and then "slowing it down a notch" each time until you can play a part correctly. That was a completely different approach than what I had been used to, but now I find that it is definately more helpful than the way I was doing it. I have several pieces I've been using the metronome while learning, but again, never thought of it as being a crutch. I will discontinue using it, now that I have the rhythm down, and see how it goes. As always, thanks so much!

Shag

[bernhard]

You are welcome!

[steveolongfingers]

I have found the earlier the better, after a few years of metrodome work a student can count evenly enough not to need it all that ofter

[pianoannie]

I have my students use metronome from very near the beginning, starting with their pentascales that I assign all new students as warm-ups.
All of the teachers that I have had seemed to value metronome use, so we do continue using it in various ways, pretty much forever.  All of my students are assigned to do at least one scale or warm-up each day with the metronome.  Particularly as students are working on fast scales, it is easy for them to slow down and not realize it.
In general I don't assign students to practice an entire piece with met, but if there is a trouble spot, I will assign them to isolate it, figure out what tempo they can currently play this section with no errors, then use the met to help bring it up to tempo with the rest of the piece.
Another warm-up I like to assign met for is what I call 1-2-3-4-scales.  The student sets the met at a comfortable 16th note tempo (which can range anywhere from 60-120 depending on the student).  They start with a nice slow one-octave scale as quarter notes (one note per beat--lets them really think about the notes, and make sure their hands are in good form); then 2-octaves as eighth notes; 3-octaves as triplets; then 4-octaves as 16th notes.
I guess my overall opinion about met (like anything else related to piano) is: if it helps the student achieve the particular goal, use it.  If it's a hindrance in a certain situation (ie making a piece sound mechanical) then obviously that's not the appropriate circumstance to use it.  I don't consider it a crutch in general though.