The Art of the Metronome

If you've been following my practice journals, you will recall that - tragically - my metronome has been broken. And in the absence of some sort of metronome repair service - or indeed, the skill to repair it myself - I was forced to think fast (i.e. buy a new one).

So arrived my new metronome and very pleased I was - so much so that I used it in my piano lesson yesterday. However my pupil struggled a little.

This, however, is not uncommon, and so here I emphasise the importance of practicing with a metronome, including when to practice and how.

Choosing a Metronome

If you go for a clockwork metronome as I do, you'll be hard pushed to find one that doesn't look stunning. But aside from making sure that it blends in nicely with your piano and decor in the music room, there are some important things to look out for;

• Volume: most clockwork metronomes are designed for practice against acoustic instrument - like pianos! Acoustic pianos are very loud, and so the metronome in turn has to be loud. For this reason, it very likely is. Just bear this in mind, however, if you are choosing a digital metronome. These can be more a 'beep' than a 'click' which - at a volume to compete with your piano - can be extremely shrill, not to mention annoying!

• Measures: You'll not find a metronome without a bell anymore, and they will usually come in measures of 2, 3, 4 and 6 (or 'off' i.e. 0).

• Tempo Markings: Naturally you'll have your numbers - BPM - but it's a good idea to keep an eye out for a metronome that states different tempo markings. Remember these days that not all notated music uses BPM and many use Italian or German terms to denote tempo. If you're unsure what any mean, the metronome comes in extremely useful to immediately reference it against BPM and hear the desired speed.

Working a Metronome

There really is no great skill to setting a metronome off!

Make sure it is wound up. Set your measures as needs be (for example - to 4 if playing a piece in 4/4, 3 for 3/4 of 0 for a piece with changing time signatures), slide the weight up or down the pendulum to match up with the appropriate tempo, remove the wedge from underneath the metronome, wind the metronome up if necessary (don't force it once it winds fully) and start the pendulum swinging!

The Importance of Practising with a Metronome

So now you've got your metronome up and running! Let's think about situations in which we would use it to practice:

Scales and Technical Exercises

The whole point of scales, arpeggios, chromatic scales, broken chords and the countless technical studies that are out there are so that you can develop a strength and discipline within your fingers, leading to a discipline within your performance when necessary.

In order to translate these forward, these exercises need to be tight and even, both rhythmically and dynamically. Taking it slowly is a great way to start, gradually building up the speed as more confidence is developed.

Don't forget that it is perfectly normal to stumble over yourself when you slow down - even if you think you play them perfectly at a quicker tempo!

The metronome is teaching you discipline with rhythm and with the finger's approach to the keyboard.

Intricate Pieces of Music

It stands to reason, therefore, that if scales and other exercises and technical studies are supposed to be even and tight then so do passages or complete pieces of music that rely on intricacy within the fingers. This can be from any era. For example Baroque music might have a lot of ornamentation such as trills and turns on notes that are to be played rapidly enough as is, whereas Romantic music might have bars of rapid semiquavers that jump between octaves in one hand. Jazz music, on the other hand, may feature a succession of unfamiliar chordal structures that don't feel natural to play straight away and so need some attention.

And here comes the metronome, once again to the rescue. Starting slow and building up helps to build up muscle memory. Muscle memory can, within reason, be sped up as it becomes more confident, but it is not always something that can be established if you attempt to attack a piece of music at its in intended tempo or intricacy.

In other words, if you wish to play a piece of music marked 'allegro', you'll do yourself far more favours and pick up the piece faster (not to mention play it better in the long run) if you start learning it slower rather than jumping in at an allegro pace - even if you feel you have a grasp on most of it. Unless you actually pick apart a piece of music and slow it down, you won't give every bar and passage the right amount of care, and can lead to an inconsistent performance.

Regimented Pieces of Music

As well as discipline in rhythm between the fingers, the metronome teaches us discipline within the overall performance.

Take the Baroque music era again, for instance. This era of music is typified by rapid passages on the keyboard - usually semiquavers or even quicker - and they don't let us. Moreover, there's little to no tempo alteration within a Baroque piece, which leads to it having quite a regimented feel. This is something that a metronome can help you to achieve, and it is generally quite useful even in pieces of music that don't necessarily beg a regimented performance in the end because it allows us to consider our performance as something that needs to keep up. When practising without a metronome, it can be tempting to go back on ourselves and try and correct things. Needless to say, with a relentless click you have to keep going, and it gets us into a mindset of learning what many musicians use as a mantra when it comes to making a mistake - just carry on!

The Importance of Practising WITHOUT a Metronome

Get to Know the Piece First

Unless you were specifically testing and practising your sight reading, it wouldn't do you any favours to sit down with a brand new piece of music that you intend to learn properly and put the metronome on straight away. Not even if you put it on very slow.

In order to get the best results, you need to have a fair enough understanding of the passages you will be practising with a metronome, however they don't want to be perfect. If you know it too well then it can have the reverse effect. Be able to play a piece or a passage of music from beginning to end before you employ the metronome - even if you have stumbles and falters. The metronome can then be used to identify or further identify problem areas, as they will show up more with a basic understanding.

The same goes for scales and technical exercises.

Practice Half and Half

Once you start practising with a metronome, it's essential that you don't rely on the metronome for every single practise run you do. If you do, you'll find it rather odd when you come to taking the click out of your performance.

This doesn't mean that you have to go full steam ahead once the metronome is off - you can stick to the same tempo, but what you need to make sure you don't lose sight of is your own discipline with tempo and - more specifically - keeping the piece tight. Sometimes when we take the metronome out, it can be tempting to rush. Even when we start at the same tempo, it can feel instinctive to pull forward. So try and get into the habit of using the metronome for half of your practice session and using your 'internal metronome' for the other half!

Consider the End Game of a Piece of Music

Of course, it may be the case that you don't need to use a metronome to practice a piece of music at all!

There is such a thing as artistic license in numerous pieces of music. Think of pieces from the Romantic era - the like of Chopin with his rise and fall of tempo and dynamic, use of subtle pauses. Rits and ralls etc.

Don't get me wrong, however. Romantic music, if we continue with this example, is littered with intricacies of its own, many of which will require their own focus in which the metronome can definitely help (remember my point earlier!), BUT if you rely on a very rigid tempo for practising then it can actually do more damage in the long run when you attempt to put the expression back into the music.

If you think a piece of music just requires you to go with the flow then you might just get away with it!

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Practice Journal: "Pathétique Sonata" - Beethoven - Part Two

A couple of weeks ago I revisited Beethoven's outstanding work - the Pathétique Sonata - and, just to reiterate, I can in fact play this whole suite beginning to end relatively well, but the first movement demands my attention. Particularly those passages marked 'Allegro Molto e Con Brio'.

Refer to Part One for the reasons why it is so difficult and how I am helping myself to achieve greater perfection, but meanwhile have a look at this video where I perform all three individually separated 'Allegro Molto e Con Brio' passages (not including the repeat of the first one):

I still have a broken metronome, sadly, but interestingly it seems a greater challenge to play without - even when playing at a reasonable speed (I sped up slightly for this take).

So what still needs working on?

Conviction

I don't know if I'd specifically refer to it as a lack of trust on my part, but after I hit the record button I actually had about two false starts before what you see above. In my mind I seem to be struggling to correctly assess the situation. Bear in mind that this comes after a whole passage of 'grave', which is naturally a drastically different approach to performance, and so the sudden contrast of rapid quavers in the left hand is something I need to get right so that I can perform convincingly when I do play the piece as a whole.

Note Accuracy

Partly this is to do with the speed I learn, and partly to do with fingers. However, as you can see there are passages in this which involve the right hand crossing over the left hand. This in itself is a fair enough technique, but bear in mind the eventual speed of this (even the speed I'm playing above) and how rapidly the music transitions between the two hands. Quite relentlessly, in fact.

Whilst I will do a take with about 90% accuracy, I can't deny it still feels a little uncomfortable, not to mention that that remaining 10% either sounds bad or I stumble over completely. And it's not a specific part - it changes on each performance!

One of the tactics I am trying to adopt is to play these parts with a slightly different hand / finger shape. The notes during these passages are marked as staccattisimo, meaning that at the very least I don't need to slur them usually. This allows me to be able to curve my fingers more to ensure that they are much more likely to hit the correct notes - especially important in the first passage with lots of hand jumping as it is in Eb minor (i.e. - lots of black notes!).

Speaking of this...

Jumping off the Notes

I've found it of the greatest importance to jump off the notes even more than I was whilst progressing upwards whilst the left hand performs rapid quavers. This allows for my right hand to be able to much more accurately hit the notes and not be too much of a distraction for my left hand which needs to keep the rhythm going quite relentlessly.

In order to achieve a fairly pleasing result, I am using the right pedal (sustain) to an effect so that when I do jump off the notes, at the very least it isn't too detached and lingers just long enough to create a nice effect.

It is possible that the next practice journal I do on 'Pathétique' will be for a different movement, but in the meanwhile I will be continuing to improve my performance of these pieces.

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Pedal Properly - A Quick Reference

As stated in a previous blog of mine, the sustain pedal (that is, the pedal on the right side as you face the piano) is something of a luxury for pianists. So much so, in fact, that it becomes massively overused.

The result?

Well, there's two:

• If pedalling incorrectly you don't necessarily. get a nice, clean sound as sounds will mush into one another. It is, after all, the sustain pedal...and...

• It covers a multitude of sins, meaning that your technique can actually falter.

So, how do we interpret how to pedal.

A quick reference:

Baroque Music

Baroque Music refers to a period of music between around 1600 to around 1750 - pre-classical, if you like.

It is also the era of music prior to which the piano was popularised - or even existed. Whilst organs very much did exist, the favourite instrument of the home was the harpsichord. Now, speaking as somebody who has in fact played a harpsichord (Wordsworth House) back in 2008, I can confirm that the following is true:

Harpsichords are infinitely less expressive than a piano.

Yes, they have a beautiful sound of their own, but thanks to the nature of their plucking mechanism rather than their striking mechanism associated with the piano, the harpsichord doesn't offer dynamic range in accordance with how hard or soft you press a key (the novelty of a piano being able to do this led to its name - Pianoforte - literally 'soft loud' in Italian - which has been condensed somewhat over time to 'Piano').

Yet there is something else that the harpsichord doesn't offer: Pedals!

Yet another novelty of the piano which allowed for expression, but if you think about it, it explains why an awful lot of Baroque era music was - for want of a better word - relentless. This is why a lot of music from the era (same can be said for the orchestral or chamber works as well) is strict in tempo and also features very regimented melody.

Playing works by the like of Bach, Purcell, Handel and others doesn't strictly require pedal, therefore. Even their slow ones as - if a keyboard piece - they likely wouldn't have been written for the early piano instrument anyway, but sometimes you can be forgiven a helping hand and a little expression. Nonetheless, when learning works such as Bach's 'Well Tempered Clavier' then it is essential you learn to play these pieces without assistance from the pedal. Only afterwards can you attempt to put some in - sparingly for Baroque music - but it can be done.

Whilst it can be tempting to cheat with some pieces - such as Handel's famous Air 'The Harmonious Blacksmith', you should also get into the habit of reading Baroque era music properly and holding notes on for their duration with your fingers rather than relying on sustain to do the work for you. Again, this can be added later to create a more expressive piece than perhaps the composer envisaged thanks to the wonder of the piano, but get those fingers working properly first!

Get used to holding those long notes on for Baroque pieces!

Pedal Markings in Music

Pedal markings are fairly easy to spot because the right pedal is marked by 'Ped.'. If you see this, this means to put the pedal down. However, this on its own does not necessarily mean to keep it help down until told to lift up (this can be marked either by a long line with triangles to imply when to lift, or by using what I'm just going to refer to as a spiky circle symbol!). You need to take a little responsibility in assessing when to do so!

Similarly, don't be tempted to stick rigidly to when the music tells you to lift up and down. It can be of assistance, but sometimes it can not feel right or even sound right according to your own performance or interpretation.

A Pedal Marking in 'I Giorni' by Einaudi

Pedalling by Ear

There is a very simple rule of thumb for pedalling by ear. Actually, more like two. If you're just playing something for yourself, whether you be making it up or playing something you know but without a reference point, consider the following two things:

• Where is the first measure of each bar?

• Where do the chords change?

In a typical pop song, for example, it wouldn't be uncommon to change chords only once per bar. Therefore, it may be the case that you can just lift the pedal up immediately prior to the first measure of each bar and have a very pleasing result. Think along the lines of 'My Heart Will Go On'. This can be pedalled beautifully with just a lift on each bar.

However, consider assessing the music using your instinct a little more and consider where the chords actually are changing. They might not change more than once per bar, but you might find that it does. Or you might find that sometimes it does. For example, 'Yesterday'.

This song - once the melody has kicked in - has a whole bar of F major, then within the second bar it is E minor to A7, both for two beats. That's two chords in a bar. So here you can alternate - perhaps keep the pedal down for the first bar, then lift up twice during the second, just to avoid any unpleasant clashes and to keep it clean.

Analyse Intervals and Tempo

This again is something that you should do during the practice sessions of your piece. You need to consider the length of your sustain bearing in mind that an acoustic piano has an average of about 10 seconds.

The reason for this is because 10 seconds is plenty of time to create unpleasant and often undesirable effects (believe me, there are times when the dissonance is most desirable!). For example, take a very slow movement of music. Very slow, such as the 'Grave' passage of Beethoven's 'Pathétique Sonata' (first movement). Yes, there is more to this than just holding the pedal down, but because of how slow you play ('Grave' is the slowest tempo marking you can hope for!) then you're unlikely to get too much by way of clashing.

However, fast forward to the third movement from the same sonata - the 'Rondo' (which has a lot of tendencies to its Baroque era predecessors) and we're now performing much more quickly.

Although Beethoven doesn't use an awful lot of 'block' chords within this movement, he is still writing music based around chords of the C minor scale (C minor, G7 etc.), and so the previous point can still be considered regarding bars and chord changes anyway, however the tempo makes it of even more importance that we respect our use of the sustain pedal.

Additionally, consider the notes in terms of their proximity to one another. It's always as well to get quite well up on all kinds of intervals so harmonically, because if you are pedalling with melodic intervals, such as a group of two quavers that follow on from each other to make a major second, then by holding on the pedal for both of these notes you're going to create a harmonic interval regardless. A major second, for example, is a nice interval but one that can sometimes muddy up the melody, so be mindful of this. Intervals such as perfect intervals (fourths and fifths) don't necessarily suffer this problem, so using a pedal in these instances may be a pleasantry.

And now, to combine the two, consider any rapid passage of several notes. Even in pieces marked at a slow tempo we can have rapid passages, and it's unlikely that the composer would want a rapid passage of notes to mush. Again, depending on the notes and the intervals it may be indifferent. For example, a rapid succession of notes that just repeats chords may not only sound good with but also benefit from a pedal held down for its entirety, whereas a rapid chromatic - due to it being a string of minor seconds - may not sound great. Don't forget the average sustain length is 10 seconds!

For Technical Assistance

And for the last point, the pedal can be used to assist where our fingers let us down.

I doubt there is a pianist in this world who doesn't use some sort of trick with the pedal to assist.

The most common trick that we can assign to the pedal is especially beneficial to those of us with short fingers (not me, I dare say!) - or, indeed, where a piece of notation just seems to be impossible or cause an uncomfortable stretch.

Take Rachmaninoff, for example. Famed for his supersized hands and huge stretch, his music is considered very difficult due to this. And whilst some of the stretches are just uncomfortably unavoidable, those that seem to be impossible can be assisted with a little help from our friend - the sustain pedal.

How could the pedal assist with this Rachmaninoff interval?

Even my fingers couldn't reach from a C# to a B nearly 2 octaves above, but what we can do is rely on the pedal to deliberately make it sound as if we were utilising expression in our piece of music. Rather than count a strict 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 into the bar in which this interval resides, consider the C# merely a grace note (an extremely lost acciacatura, if you will) and depress the pedal to allow it to ring out. Now find the B and proceed with the passage, at all times being mindful to very, very slightly lift that pedal just enough so as to not let the C# dampen, but just enough to soften the impact of each preceding group of triplets / left hand crotchet, thus avoiding clashes (especially as they work down chromatically!).

This is adaptable to any piece, of course, and if you're struggling with anything, whether it be a splayed chord, a grace note or just the relent from one bar or passage into another, you can use the pedal ornamentally to create an effect that - whilst not necessarily in the composer's original vision - may just allow you to enhance and complete your performance.

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