New Metronome

[RockinRobin]

I bought a new metronome and I see that metronomes have come a long way from the exacto The exacto goes up in increments of 2 beats.”How Great Thou Art” is 61 beats PM. So now I have the Peterson Bodybeat Sync metronome. You would need a PH.D in electronics to operate it. Not only does it make audible sounds there is also a clip to clip on my shirt so I can feel the beat
You can find this metronome on Sweetwater

William

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information William, i’ve just ordered one.

i’ve got a portable metronome, but i can’t hear it beeping when i play my sax, i’ve even plugged in an earpiece to hear it in my right ear when i’m playing but i found it distracting when playing the sax.

In the end i use a metronome ap on my ipad and play the sound through an amplifier, that’s the only way i can hear it above the sax sound.

This device where you can physically feel the beat should get round that, without hearing any clicking noise.

[RockinRobin]

Ya Sxpoet
The best metronome for me is tapping my foot. When I play Johnny’s Rudolph I add other notes and side riffs. I start with Dexter Gordon’s “Daddy Plays The Horn” dadada dat da dah. I add other frases that might come up as I play along. So my best metronome is stomping my right leg to the beat in my mind. Sometimes I write the count above the notes e.g. Down beat is always 1st beat in the measure. I’ll try the metronome wile playing “How great thou art” 61 BPM. Keep that foot stomping and leg rocking
William

[Anonymous]

William – the metronome is brilliant! if you are practicing a music sheet where the bpm changes in different bars or the beats per bar changes at different places on the sheet, you can go online and set up all the bars in the sheet with all the bar changes and download it as a midi file into the metronome.

then you can get the metronome to play all the different beat pattern changes for the whole tune. Unlike my metronome i can only play the same beat pattern for the whole tune which is useless if the beat patterns on the sheet change in different bars ex bar 1-4 (3/4 timing at 64 bpm) bar 5-8 (4/4 timing at 120 bpm)

cheers

[Anonymous]

I got my metronome yesterday and I’m impressed with the attachment that physically vibrates the beat against your belt – i really can feel the beat.

my teacher discouraged me from tapping my feet in time for several reasons – it could make a distracting noise for others playing in an orchestra, it might be picked by your microphone when recording in a room, it’s not practical to tap your feet along to very fast tempos, it can be distracting while playing as it is one unnecessary extra thing to focus on while playing. His method is to internalise the beat and rely on the drummer or various instruments played in the track.

either way i can’t win.

[saxomonica]

Helloo everybody ..
🙂

It seems to me that your ‘pro’ gave you bad advice in this instant, sx poet
Who needs a stiff upper lip or a rigid body?
Loosen up ya
Let it go, says Elsa (from movie, Frozen)
Candidly you may need to unlearn this fixed mindset ol’ mate
Look at some of John’s lessons eg a good one is Pink Panther tute for timing
You’ll oft see him clapping his hands and foot tappin’ in other lessons too

One needs to tap their foot and get their whole body immersed in natural time
Sings Elvis, There’s a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on
Sings Robet Parker, Barefootin’

[john]

sounds like good advice.
I always tap my feet and do get the noise from the floor picked up because I do it aggressively…it doesn’t ruin the recording but it does get picked up.
It’s a good thing to do to help the individual play in time…of course if you can play in time by listening to the band then even better.
It is a hard habit to break. I don’t think to myself “I better not tap my feet”: I just do it naturally. I also move my legs and head etc…it’s just a natural thing to do.
Now that you’re gonna work with a metronome follow his advise and don’t tap your feet. It’s good if you don’t need to do it…after all, that’s what the metronome is for.

[Anonymous]

Thanks John & Saxomanica for the feed back.

I occasionally play once a year in a big orchestra, wooden floor etc.. And everyone sits down while playing – these guys are mainly trained working musicians and they allow lesser mortals like me to play along once a year. No one in the orchestra taps their feet, don’t forget they play sitting down, it’s just something they don’t do.

Rather than tapping my shoe in time what i normally do is press down my big toe in my shoe in time to the music.

I don’t play in public, and i play to record at home, One of things with recording inside a small room with a mic, is to keep the sax in a fixed position while recording in front of a mike – don’t sway the sax to and from and away from the microphone.

Unless you use a clip on microphone which i find too difficult to get a good recording out with a cheap mike as there are so many different mike positions with a clip on mike and they all sound different – i prefer a fixed microphone placed in front and slightly above the bell.

i guess it all depends on the environment you play in, which could be in a recording session(might be forced not to tap or move about), in an orchestra (sitting down), in a jazz band (sitting down or standing up swaying left and right), in rock/pop/church clapping band (foot tapping would be acceptable as it wouldn’t be heard).

recording with headphones, my multitrack recorder has the option of playing a metronome in the headphones that isn’t recorded, good for situations where you just want to lay down a sax track with no backing.

Normally i play the backing track through headphones while recording the sax on a different track, so it feels better to keep in time with the band track.

I can see the advantage of not tapping if you can do it. The only problem with playing a metronome and listening to a backing track, is the difficulty in getting the metronome in time with the backing track. So the metronome option goes out the window. Recording with a metronome and not using a backing track is a must do option, to stay in time.

I’ll persevere with the no shoe tapping option, no physical body movements or sax movements as my main playing is recording sessions in a small room, and see how it goes with the metronome body vibration click on belt device.

[Anonymous]

just started back practicing after a two week break from a cold and persistent cough. So i’ve only just been able to properly try out the vibrating metronome – takes a bit getting used to! a bit like a teacher tapping your shoulder in time with a ruler.

In 4/4 time you get a long buzz on the 1 beat followed by 3 short buzzes, so you can feel the start of a bar. It’s also helped in another way, i found when playing along to a backing track (without the metronome) i was focusing better in time with the drummer in the track while counting along in my head.

the time off gave me extra time to spend going through logic pro tutorials. I’ll have to try out the drum loops, and some keyboard midi recording along with the sax. Amazingly complex software logic pro is.

[Anonymous]

with a new sheet of music i always try and play it in time as best as i can with a metronome first, before playing along to a backing track, rather than jumping straight into playing with a backing track.

it’s really weird, i’ve spent years practicing with a clicking noise metronome, and then when i play along to a backing track i’ve never been able to focus on the drummer.

But using the vibration metronome, i must be using a different part of the brain to focus on it. Hearing a clicking noise beat and feeling a vibrating beat definitely use different parts of the brain when playing. For some reason it’s now suddenly made me more aware of the drum beat in the track. Cant explain it. But that’s a win win situation as i can now tell when i’m behind or ahead in the track.

[Author]

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