My youngest daughter, Halle, has her eye on my metronome… she swipes it every chance she gets. And then we find her in her bedroom where she’s dancing to the swinging pendulum… grooving away as though it is music. But this love affair with the metronome is often short-lived for piano kids. And before long it’s something they dread using, then hate using… then stop using.
4 Tips For Metronome Use With Piano Kids
Piano Kids Need to Know What those Ticks Mean: Setting a metronome to tick away incessantly in the background while your piano students play, without having them understand what each tick means, will do nothing but annoy them and eventually cause them to simply tune it out. Instead, practice having them match one tick per note, then two ticks per note, then four, and so on. But don’t just match note to tick. March, tap, clap, nod… those ticks need to become ingrained so that they become meaningful (and therefore listened to). This way, once you go to use the metronome to set a tempo, you can effectively explain where each tick should fall in each measure as they understand this “matching” concept.
Piano Kids Need to Know How to Use the Metronome Themselves: If you want your piano kids to use the metronome, they need to learn how to use it themselves. Discuss tempo markings and how they translate to the metronome – show your piano kids how to set an appropriate tempo for what you’d like them to use the metronome for. Make markings on their sheet music for the first few bars to show where each “tick” should fall when matched correctly. Have them make markings on their page for where each “tick” should fall. This will ensure that the metronome at home isn’t a) dusty and un-used or b) mis-used and causing bad habits.
Piano Kids Need “Catch-Up” or “Fall-Back” Techniques: One of the most frustrating aspects of a metronome is that it doesn’t wait for you (and it also doesn’t speed up to catch you!). Kids who are used to playing with rhythmic freedom are likely to be annoyed by this fact… but if they are taught to pause and count one measure before hopping back in, or to adjust their speed as needed “on the fly” then they’re much more likely to gain some benefit from their use of the metronome.
Piano Kids Need to Build an Internal Metronome: One of my favourite things to do to help my piano kids build their internal metronome is to reach over and pinch the pendulum of my metronome (yup, I’m old school… I have a non-digital one!) I hold it still for a few lines as they play and then let it go again. It’s a good way to give them the moments of silence they need to learn to hear their “inner metronome”.
To Tick or Not To Tick…
While using a metronome can certainly help piano kids to develop a great sense of underlying beat and rhythmic accuracy, it’s also important to give them ample opportunities to play without the metronome. Nothing squashes self-expression more quickly than a metronome… and that self-expression feeds motivation and enjoyment. However, armed with a good understanding of how a metronome works and how to use it effectively, your piano kids will learn to groove to the ticks once again… just like Halle.
Emma says
Four fantastic tips I look forward to using with my students.
Barbara says
Great idea to have students move something besides their fingers to the tick of the metronome. I love the old fashioned metronome. Kids find it much more fascinating than my digital one. I teach at a community center so the digital is easier for travel, but I take the other one in once in a while to change it up.
By the way, absolutely loving the “12 Days of Christmas” gifts so far. ‘Thank you’ seems inadequate, so I’ll also thrown in you guys are amazing and I’m blessed to be part of your community.
Andrea says
You’re so kind Barbara! Glad you’re enjoying the gifts so far – they were really fun to create. 9 more to go 🙂
Paulette A. says
For an intro to tempo and use of the metronome,I play a game I call “Stump the Teacher’ I sit down to play, and the kids have control of the metronome as I play. They can speed it up or slow it down on a whim. They love having the control and we always end up laughing;)
I really enjoy your blog. It’s been so helpful and fun filled!
Jolene says
Thanks for the gifts! I’m so excited to try the Jingle Bells duet!
Andrea says
We’d love to know how your kids like the duet!
Rebecca Brown says
I have found that a critical element in teaching metronome use is to start using it from day one. In my preschool piano preparatory class, we have metronome practice almost every class period. We clap, stamp, march, nod, tap our knees, and play a single repeated note on the piano at various tempi. Eventually, we work up to stepping up and down on the keys of the piano to the beat of the metronome, as well.
Private lesson students do similar activities, in addition to using the metronome with their songs. Many teachers think it is pointless to use the metronome at the beginning, and wait a year…or two…or more. These will be the most frustrated students when they start trying to use it. The easiest time to teach them to match the beat of a metronome is when the only note value they are using is a quarter note.
I have also found that it makes a big difference what terminology you use. If you tell them to “follow” the beat, they will do just that…follow the beat…and be just a fraction of a second behind it. Instead, I tell them to “match” the beat. This helps them think of it as identifying the pace of the steady beat and playing at the same time.
Andrea says
Great comments Rebecca – thank you!
Tabitha says
My students generally HATE the metronome… but absolutely LOVE playing with a drum loop! I use GarageBand all the time during lessons and will just turn on one of the prerecorded drum loops – especially great for putting some hip-hop into Hanon! 🙂
Val Letenyei says
Pro-metronome is a great app to use…its free and now that I have an Ipad, the kids love seeing the giant metronome on my piano. It has a great feature…you can change the tone to something other than a click – my kids who are sensitive to sounds love to pick their favorite tone and are more willing to use the metronome as a result. its very user-friendly and the techy kids love it!
Carlos says
I’m pretty sure they would love to practice to Petronome, which is a metronome in where you can select and play along with different animals to keep your beat in time. -> http://petronome.net/
Panisara Thomas says
I teach them to clap on the beat with the tick and also they need to know the duration of the beat,once they get the steady tick they need to be albe to clap between the tick as well.
Michelle says
Great ideas but certainly should not be limited to “piano students”. These are great ideas to use with any music student!