"If you have trouble staying with the metronome, you've got trouble--because you can't stay with a steady beat."


I think the above is an oversimplification. I'm good at keeping a steady beat. I sing and play with others, and we all begin and end together. However, when I use the metronome, especially at the piano, my mind just doesn't seem to process the sound. It's ignored, the same way the fridge, furnace and meows are ignored. In music, different brains work different ways.

Sidelight - I have a cuckoo clock which ticks. When I'm playing the piano, I never notice the ticking until I play "My Grandfather's Clock." About halfway through that song, I notice the ticking. My husband says he does the same thing.

Here's one good thing I do with a metronome - use it to slow a song down slightly. Sometimes when our band wants to slow down a bit, we slow way down instead.