What would i set a metronome to for for a jig, a reel, and a hornpipe?
Ive never ever used a metronome in my life.
depends on how fast you want to play, for the most part your basic metronome (as opposed to those rural gnomes) doesn’t account for time signature, some of the newer ones can be set to 2/4 3/4 and 4/4. with one of those ones you could use either 2/4 or 4/4 for a reel or hornpipe, for jigs you could use a really fast 3/4 or just use 2/4
If you’re using a metronome to learn rhythm, put it a whole lot slower than you think you want it at.
Or a little faster than you think is appropriate, and play on every other click, as I was doing for a while! I was wondering why I was going at a pleasant pace with a jig at 110, but felt that 90 was SLOW for me at a reel…ended up that I was actually playing those reels at 45!
I would recommend that you get a free download of a metronome and fuss around with it for a while…you’ll either slow down to the point that its doing you some good, or you’ll give up using a metronome altogether.
For a long time I swore I couldn’t use one. I thought it distracted me or something, and knew that I did terribly. What I wasn’t ‘getting’ was the fact that I was speeding up and slowing down from phrase to phrase, note to note sometimes, depending on whether I was comfortable playing that particular bar. And the metronome keeps its own sweet time, whether or not I was following it.
I started taking lessons, and was forced into doing exercises to a metronome. The whole idea was EVEN NOTES, not speed. And he makes me do the stuff that doesn’t come smoothly over and over and over and over at a VERY SLOW SPEED. I can’t tell you how often I run G and Am scales and arpeggios because of the dread Cnat and my uncooperative ring fingers.
At the same time I started using the metronome on tunes. I probably went from that 110 on jigs down to 65 or so…and when I had a tune down decently ALL THE WAY THROUGH three times at 65 I moved it up to 70.
I don’t think its screwed up my ‘swing’. . .my swing was already pretty awful, and is only getting better gradually as my fingers are getting the skill to do what my ear tells them to do.
Tyghress covered a lot of territory with her reply. I would like to stress though, that when practicing a tune take it very slow at first, and work it up so that you can play it near perfect every time, then increase the speed ever so slightly. I like learning this way, it helps make the tune more cohesive when up to speed.
Jeff