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I always play with the metronome on 4 beats to the bar. This was taught to me during classical guitar lessons in the early 1980's and I've stuck with it ever since.
But:
Emily Remler in her old VHS videos stated to set the metronome on beats 2-4.
Also, I've been told to set the metronome on the beat 1 only.
Recently, I've even been told to set the metronome on the beat 4 only.
It's only a hobby, but many of us are struggling to play good time, but are told to set their metronomes to beats 2-4, or beat 1 only, or even beat 4 only.
Until I can play good time, I'm sticking with setting my metronome on 4 beats to the bar.
Once I achieve "Good four to the bar" time I will try larger metronome units.
Metronome Practice - Classical Guitar Corner
"Larger units
By doing the opposite and having the metronome beat once every measure, or even two measures, you can feel larger groupings of notes and you can also put your rhythmic stability to the test. If you rush a few notes out of several then the metronome will not line up with you on the down beat. (but don’t throw your nome out the window, he’s just trying to help)"
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04-29-2026 04:58 AM
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a metronome wont help with "playing good time". because good time is not metronomic. but it can help as a benchmark for technique and with being consistant with your time and be able to adjust if not. so for "good time" imo the best metronome exercise is putting it on all four bars and then play four-to-the-bar rhythm guitar with very short attacks. the goal is to drown the metronome out. otoh the dicussions about all four bars vs two and four are completely useless and more akin to theological debates. jeff berlin has been going at it for decades.
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I kind of feel the metronome is good for a few things. Off the top of my head:
- Getting good at synchronising to things which is terribly important in the year 2026, like it or not.
- Teaching you to relax (especially with more spaced out clicks, like the 1 of every other bar and so on). So you start to feel the space between the beats more.
- Checking your accuracy on rhythms. For instance, I like to set the metronome to the swung 'and of 4' and then play dotted quarters and quarter and half note triplets against it (in the latter case the click never coincides with the playing - so it's in the space.
If you find yourself able to do a metronome exercise with ease, it's good to change it up.
But bear in mind some of the people with the best feel you ever heard in your life never used one. Barry Harris has one of my favourite swing feels, and he said he never used a metronome. This is obviously true of generations of folk musicians (and jazz is also a folk tradition.)
AFAIK the originally use of the metronome was to cultivate high level technique in classical students. This was a big deal in the mid 19th century on, though as Mike Longo liked to point out people like Beethoven were quite ambivalent about the device.Last edited by Christian Miller; 04-29-2026 at 06:23 AM.
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I've played with click tracks in pop/rock bands, they have always been "four to the bar" clicks.
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I actually think this is true if you’re playing the click on every beat. If you’re putting it on beat one of the measure or beat four or beats two and four or whatever, it is good for time.
Originally Posted by djg
If you ask the metronome to make the time for you, it’s not helping much, except for those things you mention (which are still good). But there are other things you can do with it.
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I agree with this^ Originally Posted by djg
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4 beats to the bar metronome is good for hearing the microrhythms of playing ahead of/exactly on/slightly behind the beat. Rhythmic feels don't always hit exactly on the pulse, but slight ahead or behind it. The metronome click lets me practice those micro rhythmic details.
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I submit this video as evidence that you can swing with a metronome.
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4 is ok.
I don’t like the sound of the trad metronome tic-tic.
I have Metronome Pro which offers open hat on one and closed hat on 2,3,4. Easier on the psychology.
However I much prefer a drum app.
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depends on your definition of "time" Originally Posted by pamosmusic
. for me there is 1. a natural laid back feel when playing lines in the idiom. 2. the ability to provide a steady pulse 3. to be able and execute rhythms in synch with other musicians or the grid. setting the metronome on the 4 or similar ideas never did much for me in these departments but ymmv.
not sure how setting it to all 4 beats is asking the metronome to make time for you. is that even possible? wouldnt you be late for *everything*? if anything wouldnt setting the metronome to 2 and 4 be asking it to swing for you?
for me part of the beauty of jazz lies in the individuality of the players i admire. that includes "incorrect" time, like rushing or slowing down, often massively. imagine young dexter gordon practicing with a metronome. granted, jazz today is different with the grid being ever so important.
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I can't stand playing a gig and every song, even ballads, ends at 210 BPM because of someones bad time. A metronome fixes this glaring issue, forces the player to listen to time and follow something. Some guys work it out without a metronome, other guys are just clueless. The problem with the later is they're clueless to the issue.
Get a metronome and set it to 4 ticks, if you can't hang, guess what, your time is bad and you're clueless.
This is basic stuff guys. Like learning the names of the guitar strings.
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only if you mike it. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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I prefer good drum tracks for practicing jazz lines
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Just play jazz with a click on your in-ears. Originally Posted by djg
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The metronome angle is pushed so much, it actually took me a couple of decades to clock that there were in fact some great musicians who either didn't use it, or actually felt it was harmful.
I would say the balance of modern players would advocate using a metronome for practice but Chick Corea for example didn't use them. He suggested instead that you record your playing and listen back and critique it. I do this a lot. The only issue with this, is you have to have enough rhythmic awareness to know when you are getting it wrong. And, Tbh, most students are not in a position to make detailed critisms of their own timing.
Which is to say, most students are not Chick Corea.
The metronome can do this, on a very basic level - if you have it set in a way that's appropriate to what you are working on. Which is a whole subject in itself.
These days you can look at the way the waveforms line up on your DAW to give you a sense of how accurate you are to the mechanical grid. It doesn't mean you will be able to swing, but I think it's a good thing to work on.
The fundamental issue I think is that most would be jazz guitarists would rather do anything than work on rhythmic independence and grooves. Even practice with a click every four bars haha.
The other thing they don't want to do is learn solos by ear (preferably by singing them), which is the ideal way to absorb musical information, including rhythm, in a very intuitive and holistic way.
(Source: that was me)
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these days you can show these waveforms to the AI and have it compare them to the waveforms of wes or grant. it will then happily inform you that your time is better. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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I like using ONE click to give me the largest marker of time possible. Usually that's a click on the downbeat (ONE-2-3-4) of the measure. Click for the downbeat of every two or four measures is also great. Helps me frame my phrases. Could put the click on another part of the measure (the 4 or one of the "and's").
That all being said, I also do a lot of work keeping time with my feet. 1 and 3 with one foot, 4 with the other--for common time. I play jam sessions more these days, haven't gotten back into my little gigs. Dunno who brings a metronome up with them to play music. At the end of the day, I have to internalize that click and "be my own drummer."
Those Jimmy Raney studies are rhythmically tricky, and I relied on the metronome to get the downbeat lined up right. Got me relating to musical time in a brand new way, and I love that! Truth is, I won't be able to use any of what I've learned until I can get everything grooving AWAY from the metronome.
Slow process with a SLOW metronome, but worth it. Point being, the metronome can't be turned on during the whole practice session--if you know what I mean?
Last edited by PickingMyEars; 04-29-2026 at 06:00 PM.
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It's almost like real time is an art form. Originally Posted by djg
There's professional value in being able to snap to a grid. Can we do both? Not sure.
It reminds me of a funny story a great Brazilian percussion teacher told me once about doing a session.
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To some extent, I feel Konnakol is also dealing with that snapped gridlike mathematical time. As much as can be done with the human body.
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Yes, I've spent many, many years recording with DAW metronome grids and click tracks.
Looking at the results can initially be a very humbling experience, but improvements will be made overtime.
DAW quantization is not the answer to timing issues.
Having read the posts, I still think that getting your "Four to the bar" playing accurate to a metronome's "4 clicks to the bar" is the first thing to achieve.
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I don't understand the DAW alignment thing. I mean, I get it, it's hearing with your eyes.
The first time I saw it it just made me realize how time feel is often/usually not exactly on the beat division line.
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I'm still struggling to play precisely on the beat. I guess my ears aren't as developed as they could be. I mean, I'd love to be able to choose to play slightly behind or ahead of the beat, but, if you can't hear it, you can't play it. Similarly, it'd be nice to be able to consciously decide where to place my swung 8th notes. I can do either straight or triplet 8s. Nothing in between.
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For me it's having feedback loop between my ears, feel and where the note is relative to the beat. I think it's useful for recording with a click obv haha. People do that these days? I've got roasted on it. Originally Posted by supersoul
Typically quarter notes in jazz are on the beat or slightly pushed, while eighth note lines are synchronised to the 'and'. This results in the latter usually ending up a little behind the beat, at least if you are using typical horn tonguing.
But it depends where the accentuation is, and where you are relative to the beat. The issues come less in consistent placement of notes behind or ahead of the beat - which is part of feel - but rather when notes change positions within a phrase. This actually may be as much of a technical/articulation issue as a rhythmic one, and there are some situations where this is fine.
If your tendency is (as with me) to play on top, or rush, learning how it feels to lay back is essential, and looking at the DAW is ver helpful to make sure you are actually doing this, and not just thinking you are. It creates a link between what you feel and what you do. Some people have this naturally, I didn't. Of course you could also get a teacher to tell you, but I'm not convinced how useful that has been for me - and listening back is only good if you know what you are listening out for. Having a visual confirmation really helps with this, at least early on.
You do get to a point when you listen to great players and hearing where they don't line up (OR- where they DO). I think that level of perception is useful to have provided you understand the wider context. It's like having a well honed sense of intonation.
Just make sure you have your audio interface set up properly though haha. The latency settings in particular.Last edited by Christian Miller; 04-30-2026 at 11:30 AM.
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I don't get it either, supersoul. Seems like many folk are more obsessed with looking at a DAW than working on the actual rhythm in question. Who is looking at a DAW and hearing with their eyes in a performance situation? Whether it's a jam session, a gig, or recording an album--when does looking at a computer to check your time feel? Freddie Green, Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, George Benson, Peter Bernstein, Ed Cherry--did a DAW help them groove more? Originally Posted by supersoul
When I am in the midst of playing, my indicator is my ears. Practicing hearing where I am within the beat is akin to hearing where I am in the form. My ears need to know if I'm rushing or dragging because there ain't no DAW on stage. Thus, I need to fine tune my ears by hearing inaccuracy with... my ear indicators. Here's the "we statement." We are all always working on our time. Don't care if it's me, Reg, or Kenny Washington.
Same thing with the metronome. I don't know many jazz musicians who play with a click track on stage. Studio maybe. The musicians I know and study with don't perform with a click track--whether that's big band or small combo. Thus, the metronome needs to be treated as a tool and not a crutch. If the metronome is always on during every practice session, it ain't being used right. So why are we talking about DAW's to measure time feel when most of us--even high level musicians around these parts--aren't playing in a situation where a DAW would even be needed?
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Hey Christian, I know how you hate to be overly-analytical about this stuff Originally Posted by Christian Miller
but I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. Can you clarify. Assuming we're talking about an 8th note line, and we have a time-line going between 1 and 2 between the first two beats, then with a standard triplet swing I guess the first note is on 1.0, the off-beat on 1.67, and the next on 2.0. What are you suggesting instead? That the notes on 1 and 2 should be delayed a little, so, eg, we have 1.1, 1.67, and 2.2? Where the fractional bit is a question of 'feel'. Is that what you mean? How would you characterise Charlie Parkers time feel like this, on his slower tunes?
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