Metronome Mastery - The Key to Perfecting Your Practice

Published in California Music Teacher, Volume 47, No. 2, Fall 2023

When a musician thinks about practicing, one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is that tick tick tick of the metronome. Depending on who you talk to, it can be both loathed or loved, but no matter how you feel about it, there is no questioning the fact that the metronome is an essential part of practice for growing musicians and finished artists alike.

I'd even like to take it a step further and say that I believe the metronome to be the essential tool for musicians. My goal in this article is to not just convince you of this, if you are one of the loathers, but to excite and inspire you and your students with new ideas for how to maximize your use of the metronome. I'll cover how best to get started if you or a student has long been neglecting it, how it can help to massively grow one's technique, and my favorite part, which is how to create maximum efficiency by hacking your body to solidify and advance what you have been practicing, even while you sleep.

Before continuing, I must first give credit where credit is due. I owe everything to my teachers who have inspired and given me many of these tools along the way.My father, Michael Tierra, who was my first teacher, sat with me every day at the piano until I was about 8 years old. Then, Californias own Hans Boepple, who worked with me from ages 11-18 and opened the door for my future successes. And lastly, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, who spent many extra hours working with me, pushing me to compete on the highest level while studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music for 8 years. These mentors showed me the way and inspired me to become the best practicer and artist I could be.

As any artist knows, though, it's not always an easy path. Coming out of high school, I would say that I was a good talent but not yet a great one. I was coming off winning the First Place Award in the Piano Solo Competition at the 2002 MTAC State Convention, so my confidence was high, but a year later, I was not admitted to Juilliard. At the time, this had me confused and humbled, but mostly, insanely hungry. In hindsight, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It inspired me to gradually re-build my confidence by working harder than I ever had before. My goal was to make Juilliard regret not admitting me, and whether they ended up caring or not (which I'm sure they didn't), it still propelled me to highs that were seemingly out of reach at the time. Most notably, aside from winning several international piano competitions, I was able to make it far in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in 2010 and was one of just four Americans admitted to take part in the 2009 Van Cliburn competition.

BE SMART, ORGANIZED, AND EFFICIENT

Now, being hungry and working hard is just one small piece of the pie. The other part is being smart, organized, and efficient. Sure, I had times where leading up to these big events I was practicing upwards of 6-12 hours a day. But many times, while beginning to perform regularly and maintain my standing in school, I would only be able to get 1-3

hours in a day. I had to learn how to be massively efficient and get the most out of my practice time.

You see, practice is not always a good thing. It can be used just as much for harmful progress as it can for good progress. Practice is about repeating, solidifying and exploring. But what if one is solidifying or exploring potentially bad habits? This can lead to deeply rooted issues that can be incredibly difficult to fix and is something I see time and time again when potential students come to audition for me at the San Diego Piano Academy.

Usually, these potential students all have one thing in common: they've been using the metronome wrong or not at all. Simply putting the metronome on to play once through a passage of music is not enough; even the more common strategy of the pretty good practicer, where they might start slow and gradually speed up to full tempo is not enough, either. When the student doesn't have a more organized plan and isn't paying close attention to detail and clarity, or giving up too quickly when it's difficult, it can be very challenging and daunting to approach using it, let alone using it well. This is why a basic understanding of how to practice is the crucial first step to reacquainting oneself with the metronome.

I want to make it clear here that there are multiple ways of growing as a musician, but through my teachers and the many other world-class musicians I've been lucky enough to have studied with, I did notice some common themes in how these artists worked. I made it my mission to boil down the best and most powerful tools that I had learned into a clear practicing system, which is something I'm very proud to now give to my private students locally and to many other curious pianists around the world.

THE M IN SMART

The metronome is an important part of my system called the SMART practicing system. It's hopefully a memorable acronym that helps students keep track of the basics while they practice. S stands for Slow it Down and Small Sections. M stands for Metronome. A stands for Authority. R stands for Repetition. And T stands for Time Management.

I always tell my students that if at any time they get stuck or frustrated when starting to use the metronome, always go back to S, the beginning of the system. Remember that there is always a slow enough tempo and a small enough section where one can get it right. If you can find this zone and solidify it, then you can easily and gradually expand the section and raise the tempo from there.

It takes the right mindset to get to this point, however. One of the stories I consistently share with my students comes from one of my lessons with Hans Boepple while I was in high school. I remember working fairly hard, pushing the tempo with the metronome, rushing to finish a challenging piece and get it to a performance level. I had been working on this piece for a few months and had repeatedly brought it to him in a sloppy,

unpolished way. At one of the lessons he stopped me and said, "Wow, you must be really patient." At first I was thinking to myself "What on earth are you talking about? I'm super impatient! I'm working my butt off here and trying to get this thing done quickly." He continued to explain that if I kept rushing to finish it at high speeds, we may be working on the same piece for six months to a year and perhaps never get it to a polished state that would be ready for performance.

This was a light bulb moment for me. It was my impatient practice that led to unpolished and somewhat sloppy playing. Instead, I needed to become the opposite type of practicer. To achieve long term results, I had to learn to be very patient and disciplined in the moment while I worked. It meant keeping the metronome at a slow speed for a while until it was more solid. While it felt like I was making less progress on a day to day basis, this gradual growth from a rock solid foundation led to much quicker longer term results.

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

By applying this mindset, it should become easier to stay disciplined when initially using the metronome. Here's how I work with my students: The first step is to put the metronome on at any slow tempo where they can play the passage of music correctly. Then, they are ready to focus on the details, the clarity, the evenness of the notes. This phase takes time; it's easy for students to cave in to the temptation of speeding up until the details are rock solid.

Once students reach this point, they can gradually raise the tempo on the metronome until they reach about half to two-thirds of the desired full tempo for the passage. Once a student becomes comfortable with using the metronome at this tempo, the real power of this tool can be tapped into. This is where A (Authority) comes into play. What I mean by playing with authority is literally to use strong fingers. The section of music shouldn't necessarily be pounded out, although sometimes this is necessary. Instead, it means to practice forte and focus on achieving flawless evenness, control, and precision at this slower tempo. I always say that the magic happens at these slower tempos. When this is comfortable, which can sometimes take days or weeks to achieve well depending on the comfort of the student, the tempo can gradually be raised.

This is when students can tap into ways to help the body work for them, even while they sleep. I know, it's a bold claim, but I'm always blown away by how consistently this occurs if the process is followed closely. I's actually pretty simple to achieve this, as the body remembers the last thing played in the practice room when returning to work the next day.

As a student gradually speeds up a piece using the metronome, they will likely begin to cross over from clean playing to somewhat uncomfortable and sloppy playing. This in and of itself is not bad. That's what needs to be done to bring a difficult piece to full tempo. One has to push a little. The key then becomes what to do after that. Most

students end their practice here. I've done it many times in the past and noticed that some tiny bad habits gradually creep in, and I would begin my practice the next day with these same bad habits more deeply ingrained in me. It would then take me longer to fix these issues before trying to speed up again. What needs to happen instead is to always lock these sections back in, possibly several times, at the initial slower tempo. I call this the maintenance tempo. If a practice session finishes fully locked in, the next day can begin with a flawless forward progression. The benefit of pushing the tempo is maintained, and the good habits are more deeply ingrained. Students who stack a few days or even weeks together like this can achieve staggering results.

ADVANCED METRONOME WORK

Using the metronome in the ways I've laid out will certainly help to grow a pianist's technique over time. It is how I personally use it about 95% of the time. There are certain pieces, however, that are so difficult, they require an even more rigorous approach. This is when I use what I call The Power Tools. There are a few tools in this toolbox that can help tremendously, working in rhythms being one of them, but my favorite still involves using the metronome in what I call Advanced Metronome Work.

Let me give you an example. I've played and conquered a lot of really difficult music over the last couple decades, pieces like the Brahms Paganini Variations or several of the big concertos come to mind. But none gave me more of a struggle than Prokofiev's Etude in D minor No. 1, Op. 2. It's a short little piece of about two and half minutes, but the reality is, that for the performer, it's two and half minutes of hell. This was the piece where I discovered this advanced metronome work, and reliably this type of practice has not once failed to help me conquer any technical difficulty in my way. What's even better is that the results stayed firmly in my grasp.

What did I do to conquer this? Well, as always, I started with the maintenance tempo with strong, clear, and even fingers. Then, when raising the tempo, I went just one notch at a time (or about 3-5 bpm on digital metronomes) until I became slightly uncomfortable and my technique would start to fall apart. Then, instead of jumping all the way back down to the maintenance tempo, I gradually walked it back down just one notch at a time. I want to warn you though, this technique should not always be used. It consumes a lot of time and energy, and if over-done, could lead to injury.

I remember that for about a month stretch, I could only raise the tempo from about half tempo to two-thirds tempo. A month or two later; with some days not being able to progress at all, I was able to get to three-quarters tempo. I just kept chipping away like this until about six months later, I had conquered the piece at a tempo that would make any pianist proud. There were lots of bruises along the way and some very frustrating days, but once I got it, it stuck.

I decided to bring this piece back a couple years ago after over a decade of not playing it to test myself, and I was able to perform it after just a few weeks of this type of

practice. It goes to show you that this deep type of training really sticks and works powerfully to bring an artist's technique to the upper reaches of what's possible.

Hopefully through my experiences, I've convinced you to dust off your metronome and fire it up. The world of more clean and effortless playing may be at your fingertips, just a few tick

tick ticks away.

............

Chetan Tierra, a Yamaha Artist, pianist, composer and teacher, has delighted audiences across the globe in recital, as a soloist with orchestra, and on radio and TV. He is the co-founder and artist-in-residence at the San Diego Piano Academy, where he maintains a small studio of highly advanced students. He has performed on some of the world's most renowned concert stages after making strong and winning appearances in the most prestigious international piano competitions such as Queen Elisabeth, Van Cliburn, Jose Iturbi, Hilton Head, New Orleans, Unisa, and Seoul. The NY Concert Review praised his 2006 Carnegie Hall debut as "magnificent," and his charismatic persona and emotional style have led to many praises from audiences and critics alike."Tierra held piano lovers on the edge of their seats," said Chris Waddington from the Times-Picaynne in New Orleans. “Pianist Chetan Tierra, Magic and Mastery!" said Lyn Bronson from the Peninsula Reviews.