Using a Metronome

Here are the reasons, in logical order:

1. Your muscles "remember" everything they do, good or bad, right or wrong.

2. Excess tension in the muscles during practice is also "remembered". It prevents anyone who has it from controlling the muscles so that the correct notes are played in the correct way

3. All students have excess tension in the muscles when they practice

4. Any student who is making little or no progress is unaware of this excess tension, and is simply re-enforcing this tension every time they practice.

5. The only way to teach the muscles to play without excess tension is to learn what correct practice really is, and how it connects us to that tension we are creating but unaware of.

6. Once we establish the condition of "no excess tension in the muscles during movements" we must use CONTROLLED, CORRECT REPETITION to re-enforce the movements.

7. This repetition must be gradually done at faster and faster speeds WITHOUT INTRODUCING EXCESS TENSION in order to build our playing ability to where it needs to be to play well, and to sound professional.

8. All students, left to themselves, will practice too fast to actually achieve this. They have no idea of how slowly practice must be done in order to really bring results.

9. The metronome, when properly used, FORCES us to play slowly enough to achieve real, lasting results. It also allows us to gradually increase the speed of our repetitions by very smaller increments, much smaller increases then we could make left to ourselves. The muscles NEED these small increases in order to learn effectively.

10. When we do enough CORRECT REPETITIONS of any passage we are trying to learn, we will MASTER IT!

What type of metronome should I buy?
	This is the style of metronome recommended by GuitarPrinciples. To find out why, and see other choices, click the image.

Fundamental aspects of technique, illustrated using classic songs you know and love (according to The Principles, of course!)

Powerful Secrets! to improve your playing!

Important info on reaching with the index or pinky, and its relation to arm position.

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The classical and casual positions with electric, acoustic, and classical guitars.

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Pictures of good left hand positions for various playing situations.

Video clips of the Walking Exercises from "The Principles".

Video clip of Foundation Exercise # 10, The 6 note Arpeggio".

See the proper form of this difficult chord.

There is much confusion as to the "correct" left hand position for guitar. That is because there is no such thing as THE correct left hand position for guitar!

Find out why you need to have those distal joints in shape for this chord, and also why you don't!

In 30 years of teaching, I have rarely (perhaps never) seen a left hand that wasn't crippled with bad form in one way or another, especially when it comes to doing major scales. This workshop student was no exception......

A common error in technique for students, and contributing factor to a lot of playing problems.

What does good tone and bad tone on an acoustic guitar sound like anyway?

Often, we must squeeze our fingers into some rather unaccommodating positions on the guitar. We know we are supposed to strive to get our fingers "right behind the fret" as we play, but, like so many things in life, we have to bend the rules sometimes (it ain't a perfect world!).


Spread the Guitar Principles message - you CAN be a great guitarist!