Using a Metronome (wisely)
Adapted from my article in American Recorder, Vol. LXIV, No. 2 (Summer 2023)
Keeping a steady beat on the recorder can feel slippery—especially in complex repertoire or ensemble work. A metronome can help, but it’s not a cure-all. It’s a tool you alternate with other practice strategies so your inner pulse (and your listening) gets stronger, not weaker.
I’ll admit it: I avoided metronomes for years. I’d seen adults become dependent on the click and stop listening—to their bodies or to other musicians. Eventually I realized that my own sense of tempo breathes and fluctuates: heart rate, fatigue, nerves. So I began using the metronome in targeted ways—never as a master, always as a mirror.
A (very) short history of the click
The modern metronome is a 19th-century invention, but musicians measured time long before that. Galileo’s observation of pendulum isochronism led to accurate clocks in the 17th–18th centuries. In 1696, Étienne Loulié designed a silent pendulum device you watched rather than heard. Before bars and barlines were standard (aprox. 18th century), players kept tactus—a steady arm motion or bodily pulse (think choirmaster’s arm)—and switched easily between duple and triple by subdividing the same pulse. This allowed for a more fluid sense of rhythm within natural tempo keeping. That natural sense of time is still our goal; the metronome is just an extra tool.
Use with caution
A metronome is not your conductor. Overuse can disconnect you from phrasing, ensemble give-and-take, hemiolas, or flexible rhetoric. If a piece is full of metric shifts or expressive rubato, the click may be the wrong tool for your practice.
Once I had a private student who had been practicing with the metronome—all of his pieces, all of the time. He had become too dependent on the reliable and unmovable rhythm of the metronome. As soon as he played without it, he drifted out of tempo and rhythm. Worst of all, when playing with others, he wouldn’t listen to their musical lines. Rather, he would be engrossed in keeping his tempo and rhythm, but as a kind of isolated activity. The result was that he was always out of sync with the others. We had to work on letting go of the metronome and relying more on his internal sense of rhythm.
Rule of thumb: use the metronome to diagnose and stabilize—then turn it off and make music.
Three benefits (and exactly how to use each)
1) Tempo finder & stabilizer (solo work)
When you learn a new piece of music or work on a difficult passage, it can be easy to lose track of the beat. This is where a metronome can be really helpful. By setting the metronome to the desired tempo, you can practice playing along with a consistent beat, which can help you stay in time and avoid rushing or dragging. It also provides immediate feedback when you make a mistake, which is helpful in identifying areas that need more practice.
When learning a piece or a knotty passage, set the click to a slow, singable tempo, divide the music into different parts and work rhythmically on each part.
How to apply:
Isolate problem bars.
Slow but rhythmic: from the first reps, play in true rhythm (your brain is laying muscle memory now).
Three clean reps? Bump +4 bpm. Small steps stick.
Subdivide on purpose: try quarters → eighths → sixteenths to polish precision.
Alternate with no click: play, then spot-check. Listen/feel the pulse you kept.
2) Feedback for ensemble
For an ensemble, a metronome can be great as a feedback device. In an ensemble setting, using a metronome can be an effective way to ensure that everyone is playing together at the same tempo. This is particularly useful when working on complex pieces of music with multiple parts and intricate rhythms. By setting the metronome to the desired tempo, each member of the ensemble can practice at home, playing with the same pulse, which can help create a unified and cohesive sound when the group plays together.
How to apply:
Play without click to hear each other and shape lines.
Play with click once or twice. Notice where you collectively rush/drag.
Decide together: keep the metronomic pulse here, or consciously allow rhetorical flexibility?
Set the global tempo by the fastest clean passage, not by the slowest.
Record & listen—nothing beats hearing yourselves from the outside.
3) Breath coach
A metronome can also be used to stretch your breathing. Playing a scale pattern up and back down to each click and holding the final note for four beats can be a good warmup. Gradually slowing down the metronome while playing the same pattern can help you to improve your breath control, as long as it feels good and doesn’t lead to straining your body in an unhealthy way.
How to apply:
Play a scale up and down: one note per click, then hold the final note 4 clicks.
Gradually slow the click while keeping the same pattern.
If strain appears anywhere (neck/jaw/shoulders), reset posture and support; never “win” against your body.
When to ditch the click
Frescobaldi, in his preface to his Toccate (1615), wrote that musicians can slow down or speed up the tempo, just as one would sing a madrigal, according to the affect. This is interesting because it indicates that tempo was not something absolute, but rather a variable to express emotion.
That’s your reminder: practicing with a metronome can help you develop a strong, steady pulse, but it’s also important to learn to trust your own internal sense of rhythm. This is especially important when playing with others in an ensemble, where it’s essential to listen to each other and play together as a cohesive unit.
So always return to internal pulse + active listening—especially with others.
Grow your inner time
It’s quite easy to develop a habit of tapping a foot, but this can audibly or visibly disturb a musical performance. Rhythm is something we can develop within our bodies and minds. It’s a strange feeling, but it’s as if time were bouncing in our heads. Often, when we start to play our instruments, we get lost in our heads and forget about our bodies altogether.
Engage the body: soft knees, occasional buoyant bounce; try walking slowly to your music.
Listen to all kinds of genres of music: feel the rhythm in many kinds of music.
Verbalize rhythm: Kodály/Takadimi syllables (specific syllables for each note value or combination) or your own words on tricky figures.
Click subtraction: in 4/4, put the click number on 160 (quarters) → 80 (halves) → 40 (wholes). For the same tempo, you hear fewer clicks: you carry more of the bar by yourself.
Speeding up: smarter than +4 forever
The +4 bpm ladder (increasing the click speed by 4 beats per minute) is fine—until the click starts pushing you into tension.
A better primary method for speeding up:
Two tempos for one passage
Slow & aware: perfect coordination, perfect sound.
Tiny sprints: as fast as you can stay relaxed, in 3/5/7/9-note bites.
If you miss, don’t tense—breathe, reset, try again.
From time to time, check what tempo your relaxed sprint equals on the metronome.
Also:
Play the whole piece as fast as your brain can still track; alternate with very small sections at your top relaxed speed.
Hemiolas & changing meters
For hemiolas (e.g., 123-123-12-12-12), practice the felt pattern first—clap/say/move—then add the click on the larger unit (e.g., half-notes), so the metronome supports, not fights, the phrasing.
Metronome apps
Any simple app works. Useful features:
Tap tempo (you tap, it tells you the bpm)
Time signature accents (click marks the first count of the bar differently)
Subdivisions you can toggle on/off
Apps that also offer vibration instead of a click, which may be very helpful: less harsh, more natural.
Quick reference: practice recipes
Solo calibration: isolate → slow & rhythmic → 3 clean reps → +4 bpm → alternate off/on.
Ensemble alignment: no click → with click → agree → record.
Breath coach: scale pattern + 4-click holds → slow the click gradually.
Click subtraction: quarters → halves → wholes.
Speed builder: slow-aware + tiny relaxed sprints.
The point
Use the metronome as a mirror, not a master. Train steadiness; then switch it off and let the music breathe. Some days your pulse will sit a touch lower; on others, a bit brighter. That’s being human—and it’s part of your daily conversation with the music and your fellow musicians.
