Metronome Practice Record

In the Humoresques of 23^rd April (“Enemies to Lovers”) and 30^th April (“Vingt-et-Un”) I gave you guidance on when, why and how to use a metronome as part of your practice.

One of my pupils, Rhian, has devised a handy chart which you can download and print to keep a record of your progress. This chart shows all 21 metronome speeds down the left hand side. There are four check boxes for you to put in a tick, or possibly the date, when you successfully play your piece (or a particular part of it) at that tempo. Remember the Rule of Three? You must be successful at least three times before moving up to the next tempo on the metronome. Rhian has allowed you a Rule of Four!

Metronome_Practice_Record

You can use this chart when practising a whole piece of music, or just that one impossible bar! Or anything in between, of course. Decide which part of the piece needs your attention and write it at the top, where the chart says Title/Composer. Now choose the Click Value. You may be counting in crotchets, or quavers or even semiquavers. Your teacher may help you decide on the Click Value, or you can make your own choice, depending on how hard the piece is and how slowly you need to go to work on improving it.

Let’s say I am practising Bars 1 to 4 of the Grade 2 piano piece, Jupiter Storm by Alison Mathews.

I decide to count in quavers, eight to a bar, and I start at tempo 60. Each click represents one quaver.

Here is a recording of Jupiter Storm, Line 1, at this tempo:

When I’ve successfully played this, I can add a tick to my record chart (or use today’s date). If there is a bit that needs extra work, I’ll need to fix that before trying again. Eventually though I should be able to play it through at least three times without mistakes at this tempo, and then I can move on to 63 quavers per minute. I’ll do the same at that tempo, and then move up again.

Eventually, I get to 144 quavers per minute:

Once this is successful (three or four times!) I need to print another chart. On this new chart, my Click Value becomes crotchets. Now each click will represent one crotchet.

If I start my new chart at 72 crotchets per minute, I will play at exactly the same speed as before!

Quaver=144 is the same speed as Crotchet=72. So I know I can be successful at this speed, I just need to learn to adapt to the metronome only showing me the crotchets.

Here is a recording of Jupiter Storm, Line 1, at a tempo of 72 crotchets per minute:

Again, I’ll need three or four successful attempts before moving on. You can see from the sheet music that the suggested final tempo is 126 crotchets per minute, and eventually I get to this tempo with these few bars:

In real life, you wouldn’t focus on one line until it reaches the required tempo for the piece.

You would want to learn the whole piece, and so you might get to a certain point with Line 1, perhaps 100 quavers per minute, and then learn Line 2 in the same way. When you can play the entire piece at 100 quavers per minute, you’ll then tackle it in the way I’ve outlined above. I’ve simply used Line 1 as an example of how to do this.

Do print and use the handy Metronome Practice Record. I’d like to thank Rhian for taking the time and trouble to do this and for sharing it with Humoresque.

Keeping a record has many advantages. For example:

1. You can see at a glance where you’ve got to and what comes next.
2. It’s extremely motivating. You want to complete the chart!
3. You can show your teacher how you’re getting on.
4. You can easily see your progress.

Both Rhian and I hope you’ll find it useful. Good luck!

PS: Nobody wrote in with an answer to last week’s question! What a shame. I thought it would be an easy win!

Humoresque = a whimsical or fanciful piece of music. Be whimsical, be fanciful, but play in time!