Music production tip: Always practice with a metronome

Hey everyone! So today, I’m going to give some music production tips that we all need to hear. 

Let’s get into it.

Metronomes

So what happens is that for a big majority of my time playing as a guitarist, I would not practice with a metronome. Instead, I would practice just by listening to the music and playing along with it. 

And though that works in some cases, it’s not always good because what happens is that you should know that drummers and rhythm sections aren’t always on beat. 

And I actually didn’t know that.

Until I hit my first recording session.

What happens is that I saw then that it’s actually natural and okay for your music to be a little off at every beat. But the thing is that if you practice your music to off beat music, you’re always going to be off beat.

And even though the difference is minute, it still makes up for a big difference in the end. 

Also, you need to practice listening to a metronome. 

What happens is that when we’re practicing with a metronome, we often times don’t hear the metronome because our instrument is just too loud. 

But if we practice listening to it, we will keep beat with the metronome while not hearing the loud parts. 

Clicks tracks

A click track is basically playing the same song that you’ve always known except playing it along with a metronome. 

And it helps when you’re creating virtual instruments and adding backing vocals. 

Now remember that I said that it’s natural to be slightly off from the metronome. 

If you practice with a metronome then when it comes down to the click track, you will be slightly off but just naturally slightly off. 

You won’t be too on and you won’t be too off. 

Unlike if you were to just practice playing with just a backing track and no metronome. 

And that’s a big mistake that us guitarists have. 

I have heard countless times of how guitarists can’t keep beat with a metronome even though that is so essential in the lives of a musician.

It gives us the rhythm that we need. It helps us to keep beat. 

And when it comes down to lay down tracks for your music, it’s so essential that you are able to play on a click track. 

If you’ve never recorded music before, this might not make much sense because you’re probably wondering to yourself, “But German, when you record music, you have the drummer and bassist and vocals playing at the same time right?”

Well that’s wrong as well. 

Sometimes you don’t have all that when you’re recording music. 

Sometimes you need to record guitars first, then vocals, then drums and bass and synthesizers afterwards. It happens more often than not. 

I bet you’re probably wondering to yourself, “But German how do you do that?” 

Well it’s a process called overdubbing. 

You basically record the guitars first, and then go back to the beginning of the track and then record the vocals at the same time that the guitars are playing in your headphones so that way you can hear what comes next. 

And then you do the same thing with the drums and everything else. 

That’s why it’s important to record with a click track, so that way you can go in and record other parts later on down the road. 

Broadcast

I sure hope that I have been an inspiration and a hope to you all. Please remember to pray, read your bible, go to church, and love God above all else. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time.

If you want to go to heaven, then believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. (John 3:16)

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. 

German Gonzalez, signing out!