I started playing the tin whistle in October, and so far have played mostly airs. I was okay with my tempo changing mid-song in those. But now I’m starting to learn The Keel Row, Rolling on the Rye Grass, and The Blackthorn Stick, and I think I’d sound better if my tempo was more steady.
Should I get a metronome? What features should it have? Will I the music I play drown out quieter metronomes?
Doran
I used to think of metronomes as the great evil - a boring robotic uninspiring drudgery. Guess what? I now use one and find it so helpful, I almost can’t believe it. When learning new tunes it both helps to steady my rhythm consistently and also give me a real good idea of where I’m at and at what tempo I start to break down a bit.
I would suggest not making it your only or predominant mode of practice, but just work it in as you want/need as a tool or part of your practice.
At my teacher’s suggestion and after working with his, I ordered a fantastic ltlle one, the KORG MA-30. Look it up on the internet; there’s a place in the South that was selling it for about $18.75 (maybe half the cost in local places). It’s small and easy to use. The tone and volume which are adjustable do not overwhelm the music and it has a visual that you can use with or without tone that is terrific. Has ear phone attachment and you can tap in whatever tempo you’re already playing at.
The company got it to me very quickly as well.
I have an older one by Seiko that’s pretty good but at twice the price and half the features, you do the math.
Philo
I think I have the same metronome Phil has. I find playing along with tunes better to get the timing also better for style. There is nothing wrong with using a metronome I don’t like to but it is up to you. Some times I will use it for speed but I don’t really need one. Some people say it makes music stiff but it is the player that is making the music stiff not the nome. Even if you find you don’t like it there is nothing wrong with having one you never know when you might need it.
The way I see it, if you play along tunes (which you assume have accurate rhythm) then it will work like a metronome as it’s going to force you to keep a steady rhythm, and is going to be much more interesting than just playing along with a machine.
Now, my rhythm have been screwed up for so long, I’d say that playing in time is the most important thing to do, and it that means using a metronome to help you achieve this, then go for it. But it’s like sheet music, it’s a good tool but try not to depend on it too much.
If you can’t keep time, you can’t play with others. Learn how to keep time via whatever method you need.
One thing a metronome is good for is to help you learn to keep your foot tapping at pace even when your playing can’t keep up. So eventually you’ll learn if you flub a note, instead of stopping to get the note, you skip it and jump ahead to where you should be. This is a really helpful skill when playing with others.
Thank you all for your advice. 
Metronomes are a great way to learn a tune…especially one that is giving you a technical challenge. I like to start the tune slow, play through it until I get it right, and then keep moving it up a couple of clicks. Best to go beyond the speed you are ultimately going to play it, just to make sure your digits can do it!
I’ve had different folks tell me different things about practicing with a metronome through the years.
School band directors–love metronomes, which is probably why kids hate 'em.
College flute instructor–advised against practicing music with a metronome but did advocate practicing scales and etudes with one.
Conal – advised against a metronome; recommended foot stomping (when appropriate) or toe tapping, when stomping is not.
Tom Doorley – recommends practicing reels with a metronome but with the metronome on the off-beat.
I do occasionally practice with a metronome…but it’s been my experience what you practice you get better at. If you practice needing an external beat to keep you steady, you may not find yourself steady without one. I’ve actually gotten much better on that by using the metronome far less.
It’s still a work in progress, probably always will be for me.
–James
yes, I will not comment either way on the metrognome.
I sorta agree with Azalin’s first paragraph.
If you want to avoid metrognomes, try this:-
- Play a recording of the piece and clap and tap to it as you SING along.
- Play the recording and play a percussion instrument along with it. If you dont have a percussion instrument play the notes of the main chord of the piece on your whistle in rhythmic way.
- Play the recording and dance to it.
If you enjoyed this, do it several times.
By now the rhythm of the piece may have fairly permeated your being and your body will pulse with timing as you play the whistle.
My metronome is especially bad. I can never get it to play in synch with me!
Seriously now, no other tool improves my playing as much as the metronome. But practicing with a metronome requires stubborn focus to get it perfect. Use a metronome to slow down your practicing, not to speed it up.
Right now i’m learning to play the mandolin, and i’m doing a lot of scales with metronome.
I have the Qwik-Time Quartz Metronome from WhistleShop.com. It shows me that, left to my own sense of less-than-accurate timing, I tend to speed up a tune as I play. So, as Glauber said, I use a metronome to slow my practicing to a steady, consistent beat. I don’t use it all of the time, only sometimes.
I would like to tap my foot with the music, but foot tapping doesn’t come naturally to me. When I try to tap my foot while playing, I have to think about it at the same time I’m trying to concentrate on playing notes and the notes end up tripping over my feet and my playing stumbles. I suspect that players who tap their feet don’t have to think about it.
Sometimes I tap a foot while I play. It’s not usually something I put any conscious effort into, my foot just gets caught up in the music. I also ordered a Qwik-time metronome from thewhistleshop.com today.
Yaay! The weather forecast for Stillwater looks good on Monday! 
I’ve started to bring my whistle with me to campus so I can play a little during the hour or two I have between classes, if the weather is nice enough to sit out on the library lawn and get some sun.
That’s great. Yes sometimes we should practice at slower than performance speed and iron out some glitches deep and slow. Like deep muscle therapy.
For piano, I MUST use a metronome. For whistles and pipes, it’s a lot easier to follow along with recordings and just pretend your onstage with the Bothies or Plantxy or what have you. Imagining yourself onstage playing a CRAZY Hungarian Rhapsody along with Franz Liszt is a little harder to accomplish (if only I could get the ladies like old Franzie did ).
-Mike
That’s how all music should be practiced. Nice and slow, get the timing and the accuracy down first.
Yes I do that a lot but never with the metrognome. I play tabla also. Practice really slowly but never with the gnome. What Glauber said was a corrective to my advice about getting the timing into the body by clapping and dancing to the tune. Of course, you can’t play a recording slow speed these days so I guess its back to the gnome or innate body rhythms for practising slow. I prefer the latter.
This doesn’t seem a particular hazard to me, unless one were to -always- play with the metronome… If you practice with the metronome -sometimes-, it helps train you to be -able- to keep up with an external beat is the point. I’ve never known anyone to become dependent on the metronome for rhythm.
Actually, I had to learn how to tap my foot. What you do, is start by tapping your foot to the metronome, and for a good while, not just 1-2-3-4, but for say, the duration of an A part. Try following the sheet music with your eyes, if you’re using sheet music.
Once you’ve got your foot nice and solidly in that rhythm, you start playing. Chances are, you’re less than halfway through the A-part when you realize your foot stopped, but that’s okay, finish the part, and at the beginning of the repeat start your foot again. Repeat the whole exercise, including long musicless foot-tapping every day or so, and eventually it just works. You can also sneak in some much more enjoyable, but much less focused, practice by tapping along with your favorite recorded music.
Hey, I had no idea Metro gnomes had started to leave Paris.
At first, it’s bound to be homesick.
Are you kidding? Have you ever met a quiet Parisien?
I don’t know that I’ve ever met any Parisean. Would it make it easier for the gnome if I played it something in French? 