Green Monster Tip of the Week

• Learn With Every Experience
• Adopt Their Training and Philosophies
• Stretch List
• Listen to Jeff Beck Today
• Divide Your Practice Time
• Palm Muting When Practicing Scales
• Program Your “Computer” the Right Way the First Time (Garbage in/Garbage out)
• Explore
• Celebrate
• Metronome
• Balancing Your "Focus Pool" or "Focus Energy"
• The Race Car Driver and Guitar Player - Part 3 of 3
• The Race Car Driver and Guitar Player - Part 2 of 3
• The Race Car Driver and Guitar Player - Part 1 of 3
• Going to My Lesson with a Chip on My Shoulder... or Play It Like You Mean It!

Metronome

Practicing with a metronome is a tremendous benefit to all musicians. Whenever possible practice scales, chord changes or anything that may appear difficult at first with a metronome. Let’s say there’s a particular riff that is tricky to play. Practice it with a metronome at a slow tempo until you “own” that tempo. That means you feel physically relaxed and loose and maybe could even chat with a friend while you are playing the riff. That’s when you “own” that tempo. Then and only then, bump up the metronome by only a couple of clicks.

I played with a drummer once that had a great strategy for playing tough grooves. If my song were at a tempo of 112, she would work on it until she could play it at 120 with a metronome. When we played it at it’s true tempo of 112, she was in complete control, relaxed and focused. Pretty smart, eh?

The metronome will also greatly improve what I call your “internal clock”. You will be able to notice if songs are speeding up or slowing down. You will be able to “lock in” with the greatest drummer and they will love you for it!

So go get a metronome or use our on-line “netronome” and get your timing together! Your drummer will thank you.