As a youngster I used to hate practicing with a metronome with until my piano teacher, Joe Palin, introduced me to a practice technique he employed that I’d like to share with you.
By setting the metronome at half the speed needed and then hearing the clicks as the 2 + 4 of a 4/4 time signature you can actually get the metronome to swing!
So in other words… set the metronome to 60bpm – tick, tick, tick…
in the gaps count aloud “one”, “two” and you’ll have this sort of thing:
click | click | “one” | click | “two” | click | “one, two, three, four”
and you’re off!
It works great with anything in 4/4 time, from scales to hanon exercises, improvising through chord changes to a Bach fugue, try it!
Just watch out for kittens that think a metronome is a plaything!