Chords for How to Practice with the Metronome - Beginner Banjo Lesson

Hey y'all, in this video I want to show you how to begin playing with the metronome.
It's really easy and actually it doesn't even require banjo at the very beginning.
All you want to do is lock in with that metronome as best as you can.
And that really just comes down to doing something physical, whether it be clapping or tapping
on your leg and listening to the metronome.
So to start out we're going to set the metronome at 80 beats per minute.
I have this metronome app, it's called Pro Metronome.
It's available on the iTunes store and also on the Google Play store.
It's completely free and it's what I use for all of my metronome practice.
It's really powerful as well.
So I've got it set at 80 beats per minute.
If you can hear that, _ it's not super loud right now, but what I'm going to do is I'm
just going to clap with the metronome.
I'm just going to clap exactly with each beat.
So, _ _ _ _
[N] _ pretty _ simple right?
So what we just did was one note per click, just right with the click.
The next thing we're going to do is two notes per click.
So first I'm going to try and sing that.
So we hear that one note per click, it's dat dat dat [B]
[F] dat dat.
[F#] _ Two notes per click, dat dat dat dat dat dat.
[F] _
_ _ _ [F#] _ _ _ _ _
[N] _ _ _ _ _ _ Cool.
How does that feel?
Were you able to do that?
Do you feel like you were really locking in with the metronome?
Maybe you can record yourself and listen back to see if your clapping was lining up with the metronome.
So now what we're going to do is combine those two exercises.
We're going to combine the one note per click and the two note per click.
So you're going to put the metronome on 80 and you're going to play four one note per clicks.
Or you're going to clap four one note per clicks and then you're going to do eight two
note per clicks.
So it's going to sound like this.
Four one two three four one and two and three and four and one two three four one and two
and three and four.
What I want you to focus on is that transition from one note per click to two notes per click.
Is that transition comfortable?
Chances are if you're doing it for the first time it might feel a little bit uncomfortable
and you're going to have to practice that some.
So you can slow it down a little bit.
I wouldn't recommend going too much slower than 80 just because it gets a little bit
more difficult to feel the pulse if you go below 70 or 60.
So maybe down to 75 you can practice that transition and you can isolate that transition as well.
So you can go one two one and two and one two one and two.
So what this is doing is tuning our ears into what the metronome sounds like and allowing
us to physically feel a beat with something outside of our banjo.
A lot of banjo players get tripped up on playing with other people or playing with a metronome
because they're really only focusing on physically what's going on right here on their instrument.
And part of playing with people is listening to that other person and communicating with
that other person.
So playing with a metronome is kind of like step one for doing that or for being able
to do that.
So now what we're going to do is apply this exercise to our instrument.
We're going to play something using just right hand roll patterns and a pinch pattern and
we're going to feel that [G] subdivision change from one note per click to two notes per click.
The pattern is third string, pinch, and then an alternating thumb roll.
An alternating thumb roll is strings three two five one and you're going to play that
thumb index thumb middle.
So it's going to sound like this. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ You got that?
Boom da boom boom boom boom boom.
With the metronome it sounds like this.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
That might even feel fast if you're a beginner playing with the metronome.
So maybe slow it down to 70.
See how that sounds.
And so this is 70.
I'm not going to automatically play with the metronome.
I'm going to hear the metronome first and try to sing what I want to play with the metronome
before I actually physically do it.
_ So boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Like that.
And once you feel comfortable with that, then you start adding left hand chords doing that
exact [F] same roll pattern.
And then you just keep going from there with songs.
I hope that was helpful and you can start working that in your routine.
This Sunday, May 13th, I'm hosting a seven day metronome challenge.
It's completely free.
All you have to do is play with the metronome five minutes a day for seven days and share
your progress on social media using the hashtag metronome challenge.
To sign up for it, click on the link below this video and I will send you to a blog page
where it has all of the details, the giveaway details.
Every day I'm going to be giving away prizes from Dearing Banjo Company, Kristen Scott
Benson and there's a grand prize from Davis Banjo and Inlay that I'm super excited about
on day seven, as well as prizes from BanjoByEar.me.
Please join us for this.
It's going to be a really fun special seven days.
And my hope for you is that you come away from the seven days with a whole new appreciation
and bond with the metronome so you can start really taking your playing to the next level.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment below.
Thanks so much for watching and I hope you join us for the seven day metronome challenge.