First things first - grab your free transcription here.
Is the metronome hurting your time?
Like many things, I think there’s an “adult” and a “pre-school” version of this discussion.
I don’t spend much time entertaining the suggestion, for instance, that a metronome “kills your natural, human feel”. The reality, in my opinion, is that our inherited time perception instincts are badly calibrated to produce danceability, filled with distortions as they are.
We rush offbeats, hemiolas, double time, and most syncopation, while we drag downbeats or sparse rhythms.
What’s more, the “natural” rhythms many cite as examples of our “innate human timekeeping” - take folkloric drumming, for example - result less from anything innate and more from decades of training, beginning in early childhood.
The “natural”/”innate” timekeeping we’re born with mostly results in boring, weighty, unreliable, at-times-frantic playing. Not very danceable.
So we use the metronome to train our perceptions so our groove listening back to our own recordings matches our perceptions in the moment/as we play. (And play along with recordings to capture that “loose”/”human” feel I argue is the result of years of training and refinement.)
But there’s an “adult” version of the argument. Can the metronome be a crutch?
Absolutely.
At first, simply because we use it on quarters for too long, and only learn to “follow”, but not to “lead”. (Plus it becomes easier to ignore.) That’s the reason for unorthodox placements like 16th offbeats and beat “4”.
But eventually, because we can become used to having it accompany us in any capacity.
So - advanced players only, use with a grain of salt. But yes - sometimes it is important to turn the metronome off and rekindle your trust of your own timekeeping. It’s something I’ve been doing increasingly lately.
For the whole in-depth argument, you’ll want to watch the video.
Hope you enjoy!