Technique: Playing Scales With A Metronome (Guitar Lesson IM-124) How to play IF Stage 2

Justin's Completely Free, Intermediate Guitar Course Lesson IM-124.
Stage 2, Lesson 4.

Could this possibly be the most fun guitar lesson ever? Well probably not, but playing scales along with the metronome is a real important skill that should be mastered by all guitar players!

Find the related course notes on the following link:
http://justinguitar.com/en/IM-124-ScalesWithMetronome.php

This is part of Justin's Intermediate Guitar Method, Foundation. A series of lessons available free online!

http://justinguitar.com/en/IM-000-IntermediateMethod.php

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

Full support at the justinguitar web site where you will find hundreds of lessons on a wide range of subjects, and all the scales and chords that you will ever need! There is a great forum too to get help, no matter what the problem.

And it is all totally free, no bull. No sample lessons, no memberships, no free ebook. Just tons of great lessons :)

To get help with this lesson (and for further info and tabs), find the Lesson ID in the video title (like ST-667 or whatever) and then look it up on the Lesson Index page of justinguitar.com

http://www.justinguitar.com

Have fun :)

.

Hi, How are you doin'?
Justin here!

Welcome to IM-124

Where we are going to be
playing scales with a metronome.

Wow!

Sounds so exciting, doesn't it!

I can see you're smiling already.

Going, wow! I can't believe
I get to play a scale with a metronome.

Yeah right, thanks!

Um, Now.

It's maybe it's not the most fun thing
to be doing on guitar,

but it is one of the most beneficial
things that you can do on guitar.

It'll help you learn the scale.
It'll help you kinda get the muscle memory

of the scale notes under your fingers.
It helps with your timing, 'cause you're

playing with the metronome.

It helps develop your technique,
both your picking and your fretting hand

and the synchronization between
the two hands, which is probably

the most important benefit
from this exercise.

So there's a lot of good stuff
going on here and

it made a huge difference in my playing.

I didn't do it when I was really little

'cause, well, teachers used to suggest it

and I just used to NOT practice it.

But, I hope that you don't do that, because
It was a really dumb thing of me to have done.

You know, I've been playing guitar maybe
5 or 6 years before I got stuck and learned.

You know, my teacher said,
"Look, you really should do this!",-

he explained why, I did it and
I started to notice a lot of

improvement in my playing.
So, you know, please, give it a go

for a few weeks and see, you know.
Because I'm sure you'll see some

benefits in your playing.
So, what we're gonna be doing,

is we're gonna be using the G major scale.
Position 1, you should already have this now.

♪

Really important that you've got
the whole scale that you're using

that little note at the end there.

And what we're gonna be doing
is playing it with a metronome.

Wohoo!

Now, you can use
whatever metronome you like, right?

There's... I use this one called a KORG MA30

but it really doesn't make any difference.

I sometimes use the one on my
iPhone as well.

And what we're gonna be doing
to start off with.

We're gonna be setting it to
60 beats per minute.

Which is really slow.
And we're gonna be playing

one note of the scale with each click.
Now what's really important is

that when you're playing a scale
with a metronome,

that you're exactly in sync
with the metronome click.

It's really common in begginers
to kinda rush

and to try and anticipate
the metronome click,

or, wait for the click and then play.

And neither of those things are right.
It has to be exactly with it.

You can think of it almost like
it's kind of keeping your pace.

So it's running next to you, but you're
not kind of looking and continually

trying to run ahead, or run behind.
it's kinda like a pace-keeper

and you're cruising along. You're in your own
thing and you're keeping track of the tempo.

But the metronome's just
there beside you.

Just kinda keeping you at
the right kind of pace.

That's kind of the way to think of it.
You will find that later on

you want to start playing ahead
or behind the metronome.

And you'll never be able
to do that if you can't play with it.

So, it's really important at this stage
that when you are doing your practice

with the metronome that you're
exactly with the metronome.

Now, 60 beats per minute;
It's kinda roughly this tempo.

Hopefully you can hear that. Now, I'm
gonna put the metronome here on my leg.

Now, you should also be tapping your
foot along with the metronome.

I'm gonna be tapping my toes
inside my shoe rather than my whole foot

just because it looks funny
if my guitar and all of me's

kinda bouncing up and down and there.

So, I've got my toe clicking along
with the metronome,

I know my scale well enough now.
If you don't know your scale well enough

to play it at this speed, you need to do
more practice on the scale - right?

So, that's the first thing. So, if you're cool
with this, then you're gonna start playing it.

And you're gonna be using alternate picking.

So, first a down pick and then an up pick.

So, it'll be

down

up

down

up

♪

and you are really starting to...

you shouldn't almost kinda
not really even hear the metronome,

because you're playing at exactly
at the same time as the metronome.

♪

You play right the way through
your whole scale.

♪

And you should find that the root now,
the note that you start on,

should come back to being a down stroke.

That's a good way of kinda monitoring to make
sure that you've got your alternate picking good.

If you're struggling with the alternate picking and
you find yourself sometimes doing 2 down strokes

or 2 up picks. Say it out loud.
Say it that you go down-up-down-up,

That's the best way. It kinda
solves that problem pretty quick.

So, really if you concentrate on that, that's the one to make sure your alternate picking's good.

Now, once you've got it. You can play the
scale along at 60 beats per minute,

with one note per click. It's really important

like I said, concentrating on playing exactly
with the click.

When you can do it four times,
consecutively, perfectly.

So four times, in a row, without

making any mistakes.

Making sure that your picking's all good

that you didn't
loose the metronome at any point.

That you're exactly with the metronome all the
way through

Four complete cycles of the scale,

without making a mistake then you can

speed it up a little bit.

So maybe go from 60 to 65

Then you do it again

You are playing the scale,

you do it four times consecutively, perfectly,
no mistakes.

Move it up to 70.

Four times through, consecutively, perfectly,
up to 75.

And you keep going, and you keep moving
at faster and faster.

And the speed that you really want to get to

with this is 160.

Now, 160 is quite quick on a metronome

and it starts to get difficult to tell

that you're playing exactly with the metronome or not.

So it'll be like:

♪

Now once you can get 4 times right
the way through that.

Four times consecutively, perfectly

at a 160.

What you wanna do is

to drop the tempo to 80,

Which is exactly half of 160

for those of you that are
not so hot on your math

and, now we're gonna be doing

2 notes per metronome click.

So, if I put this back down here and
I drop the tempo down

back down to 80.

We are now going to...

It'll be exactly the same as doing

1 note at a 160,

but we're gonna be doing our down pick

with the metronome click, and an
up in-between.

So, down, up, down, up, down, up, down

See? Just the downs are with the metronome,

but we are adding an up in-between.

Now, doing this on one string like this
on one note

is really good way to get you

kinda used to playing on the beat.

If you're struggling a little bit,

You're having trouble syncing with the metronome

just break it down so it's one note.

and practive just playing that one note

and getting it synced up.

That's a really good way of kinda

making sure that you are properly synced.

Cause it doesn't wanna be kinda close.

It wants to be really sycned up properly.

Now, ideally what you wannna be doing again

is, once you can do four times
consecutively, perfectly, at 80.

So:

♪

times four, you pump the tempo up again.

to 85

then 90, 95.

Getting it four times perfectly, correctly
every time.

Until you're all of the way up

at 160.

♪

And again, you should be able to make sure

that you can cycle this thing.

So, it's just going over and over again.

Four times. Without
making a mistake at all.

And if you can talk while you're doing it
like this,

then you get an extra bonus point.

Because it's actually kinda difficult

and I'm having to split my concentration a bit.

There we go.
That was four times through.

So now, we break it through back down
to 80 again.

But this time we are playing

four notes per metronome click.

So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4

down, up, down, up, down, up

There's the metronome

If you are struggling to get the feeling for that

start with all down picks

on the metronome click

then add a down pick in-between.

So, down, down, down, down, down, down,
down.

Then add the ups.

♪

Where did that come from?

Then play the scale!

♪

So that's 16th notes now.

It's called.

Because it'll be sixteen notes

in four beats, or a bar.

So, sixteen notes at 80 beats per minute.

Now, that's a very reasonable
speed to get up to.

So, don't be trying

to get that one right a way,

But, I just want you to be aware

of this idea for starting one note
per metronome click.

And then when you're at a 160,
cut it in half and you do

2 notes per metronome click
at 80.

Get it up to a 160 again.

Chop it in half.

Now, a really fast speed, well, for me,

I think the fastest I've ever got
was a 160 something.

Was it 160 something, or 157?

Can't remember.

These days, if I'm practicing scales,

which I don't do

very often, I must admit.

But, I can kinda get 150 fairly comfortably

and any faster than that

I'd have to really concentrate.

But I'm not really a fast guitar player.

The really fast guys, like the world record

holders are doing like 320.

So, four notes per click.

With their clicks at 320 beats a minute.

which is ludicrously fast.

And, I think quite unnecessary and it ceases to

become very musical at that speed.

In my humble opinion.

But, anyway, this is not the debate for that.

But that just to give you an idea of
perspective, you know,

I think a really good speed to get to,

is four notes per click, 16th notes,

at 120 beats per minute.

Most people don't generally need to play

much faster than that.

So that's a good kinda
target for your self if you want.

Now, some important things to think about

while you are doing this as well

is to keep a monitor of your technique.

To make sure that you are not doing

flying fingers, you know, we talked about that already.

If your fingers are coming too far

off the fingerboard, you'll
never get it really fast and it

will be a big hindrance to you.

So, be aware of that.

I do really recommend try to find a good teacher around

that can eat least give you a check up

every now and again to make sure

that you fingers are kinda doing the right thing.

Because it's very difficult to do

this stuff on line and it's difficult to explain it

even, you know. Maybe if you videod yourself

and got someone to critique, that would work

you know. But generally I think it's a good idea

to try and see a teacher every now and again

to keep an eye on your technique.

Especially if you kinda getting into the

16th note playing, the four note per metronome click.

Means you are kinda developing

your technique pretty solidly.

So, it's worth getting a check up.

As well as monitoring your flying fingers

kinda technique, you also want to be aware

of your pick hand as well.

Because if you making really big strokes

with the plectrum, that can make it kinda

difficult as well

so you wannna be making sure that your

pick is moving as little as possible.

Don't be trying let it fly all about too much.
You know.

Whether you're doing the way I do,

with using an anchor.

Using your little finger touching

the pick guard as an anchor point.

Or whether you're floating completely free.

Whichever you're using, you wanna
make sure that the pick motion is very small.

The other little hint that I'll give you
as well, lot of, I see a lot of , kind of

beginner to intermediate guitar players
struggling with this, the angle of the plectrum.

Now, if the angle of the pick is flat
aginst the string each time

it kinda of sits and then it
jerks over the string.

And you can't really tell
when it's gonna go over the string or not.

And it really, most people who play like that
tend to have very kind of a jerky sound.

There're ways of doing it that
make it sound cool, but what I

would recommend that you do

in this kinda beginner to intermediate stages,

Angle the pick

to about 30 degrees on the string

so, as soon as you press

it just glides over the string.

It's a, that's a really, really good, uh

thing to be getting into, you know.

Like I said, later on, you can
try it playing with a

dead flat pick and it can be

quite an effective kinda fun sound.

but, it can be real problem

when you are trying to develop your speed.

so, try and get that pick in an angle

If you are struggling there,

you just kinda bend the knucle on

your thumb and you'll find it

bending that knuckle there

will straight away give your

angle on the pick and

hopefully let the pick glide over the strings

easier and you'll be able to play your scales

a bit faster. So, have a bit of fun with that!

It's a... well, have a bit fun with it,

it's hardly the most fun thing

but it's a really, really good thing

This is eating your vegetables, you know.

It's really, it does you a lot of good

and I'll guarantee you

that if you practice this regularly,

you will improve your technique

and your scale playing will improve a lot.

And, although we gonna look at

how to kinda change the things that we use

for the scales later on, it's really

important that you can do it up and down

smoothly and easily from memory

and you get that kinda muscle memory

on board as well, which
scale playing helps a lot.

Okay. I think I've done enough
talking for now.

Hope that's cleared up

how to practice your scale with the old
metronome,-

sounding like Jamie Oliver now,-

the old metronome.

and I'll see you for another lesson

sometime very soon, me 'ol muckers.
Bye-bye!