How To Use Strum Machine As A Metronome

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A lot of my students want to improve their timing and play faster. But when I suggest using a metronome their eyes glaze over. It just doesn’t seem like fun.

I get it. I believe that learning and practice can be fun for a student. And that they can make real progress as they have fun. So how can we learn to enjoy timing practice? Strum Machine solves the problem of the un-fun metronome practice situation.

HOW DO YOU USE STRUM MACHINE AS A METRONOME?

You can use SM to practice scales, exercises and small parts of tunes using the looping feature.

For example, select a D Major chord, then loop on that to practice D Major scale. Practice different variations. Speed up or slow down as needed.

You can also set it to speed up automatically after a certain number of repetitions (which you can also set). I like to start slow and then automatically speed up until I go a little past my edge. And then I work at the edge.

For example, I’ve been practicing certain slur patterns across strings like slur 2-separate 2 .

As you’ll see in the video, my edge is around 160 bpm. Then I can practice a little slower, then speed up a little past my edge.

You can use the same strategy to practice any scale or a single phrase from a tune. Just loop on the relevant part of the song.

I set up SM songs which cover the common fiddle scales. I set up three songs of this in standard time (4/4), waltz time (3/4) and jig time (6/8). It’s not that innovative of an idea, but I hope that it gets you to think in a new way about how you practice.

Note that the basic meter for Strum Machine is cut time: 2/2. In other words, if a song is set to 60 bpm, that means there are 60 half notes per minute. I tend to think in terms of quarter notes, so I mentally double the tempo when I use SM as a metronome. So 60 bpm would be 120 bpm if you count it as quarter notes.

I was initially confused by this aspect of strum machine and so I asked Luke (the creator of SM) to explain. It didn’t affect me so much in my own practice but more in teaching this to others.

YOU CAN PRACTICE ANYTHING

This lesson is part of a mini-course I put together called How To Play In Time. It’s a collection of lessons, articles and exercises to help you play better in time, how to play faster and how to figure out tricky rhythms.

You can improve any aspect of your playing. You just have to find a way to practice it.

View the lesson page for FREE on the FiddleHed site here:
https://fiddlehed.co/HowToUseStrumMachineAsAMetronome

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Question for Luke. As mentioned in the post above Strum Machine seems to function in 2/2 rather than 4/4. No issue at all but I make a note in most songs indicating the actual tempo is twice indicated. Is this ‘issue’ something built into Strum Machine or is it a work in progress?

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2/2 vs. 4/4 may affect how you communicate the tempo to others.
But ultimately, it shouldn’t affect how you play that much. Find the right tempo for yourself, work at your edge.

Sharing my Scale Practice Songs:

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Thanks for sharing this, Jason! Cool to see more approaches to using Strum Machine than just practicing songs.

Re: half-note BPM vs quarter-note BPM – it’s just convention. Bluegrass people often use the former, which is why Strum Machine does. I realize now that many folks prefer the latter, which is why it will eventually be a preference. In the meantime, though, just multiply by two in your head. :slightly_smiling_face: UPDATE: This preference was added to Advanced Settings in December of 2022.

The waltz and jig BPM values are also kind of messed up, because “half notes” don’t make much sense in those time signatures. I will definitely be fixing that in the future. UPDATE: This issue was corrected in December of 2022.

Btw, you can type 0.5 into the Auto-Speedup box if you want it to increase speed even slower. :grin:

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Thanks for clarifying that Luke. I was a bit worried that I confused people with the post. :exploding_head:

But ultimately, you don’t have to overthink the tempos too much. Just find the tempo that works and practice that…:violin:

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What scale pattern or exercise are you using? I can’t seem to find a scale that fits your scale

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In the beginning I played a simple D Major scale.
Then I practice this pattern: D0-A0-D0-A0 with Georgia Shuffle bowing (slur 3-separate one)

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Sorry, Mandolin player so your explanation does not make any sense to me.

Do you play one D scale, while the D chord is playing? Then change to the G scale when the G chord is playing?

As you can see, I do not understand how you use the chords to play scales, against the chords you have chosen.