How To Practice With A Metronome

Korg MA1 Metronome with subdivisions

I haven’t encountered a beginning musician yet who enjoys playing with a metronome. I know how they feel because I still remember those days of struggling to practice with the dreaded contraption and wondering why my teacher insisted on torturing me so. Many a time I sat puzzled looking at it wondering why it clearly must be off (of course that wasn’t the case, I was off tempo!) So how can you learn to practice with a metronome?

1. You need to learn the notes for the piece first. If your fingers aren’t sure where they are going on the keys, using a metronome will certainly only add to the frustration. The metronome is to help you with a steady tempo and accurate rhythms so you’ll need to make sure your fingers are comfortable with where they are going.

2. Think before you play. Before you begin any music you are practicing, even if it is just a short exercise in your book, think about the tempo first. If you just start without thinking about it, you may have picked a tempo that is too fast for trickier spots. This will make it so you slow down during those sections. The goal is a constant tempo, not one that speeds up and slows down. The metronome is there to help you make those trickier spots easier and faster by being constant.  

3. Subdivide. Count or sing a few measures out loud and subdivide the notes. Count out loud not only the quarter notes but the eighth notes as well. If your piece has sixteenth notes, count those out and make sure you are right with the metronome. It’s even easier to count the subdivisions if you have a metronome that can play those for you. I recommend the Korg MA-1. It is a great metronome for the money and it will subdivide 8ths, triplets, 16ths and special combinations of those rhythms. If you are keeping time with the metronome while singing/counting, then try to play the piece. It is much easier to focus on listening to the clicks when your focus isn’t on embouchure, fingerings and breath.

4. Play slowly. This may seem like a no-brainer but so many of us pick a tempo faster than we should when working on our music. The tempo for the piece you are playing may say Presto, but you’ll never get to Presto if you can’t play it Largo first. Not only that, if you are busy trying to play faster you are likely not able to concentrate on the metronome because all of your concentration is taken up with your fingers on the keys. It’s ok to slow down. You’ll get there.

5. Listen. Remember to listen out for the metronome.  If you hear it clicking and your quarter notes are not lined up with the metronomes clicks, you stopped listening to the metronome. If that happens, repeat steps 1-4. Keep at it!

Sometimes getting used to playing with a metronome is easier if you practice playing something you know really well. Play scales with your metronome. Usually most band students know at least a couple of scales in their first year of playing. Play those scales and see if your quarter notes are matching up exactly with the metronome.

These tips should help you get over the hurdle when it comes to the frustration of learning to play with a metronome. It was really annoying when I learned as a beginning musician but now I can’t imagine working through my pieces with out it! Do you have any tips that helped you? I’d love to hear them! Write a comment below.

Find the Korg MA-1 metronome recommended in this posting (and pictured above) at http://www.reedpros.com

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• Not Your Daddy’s Metronome: Alem’s Mad Beats (intentionalpractice.wordpress.com)

The Best Coin Ever Spent

This girl drops a coin in this man’s hat when something unexpected happens    I couldn’t stop smiling when I watched this. As a teacher, performer, musician and music enthusiast I found the video to be truly beautiful.

Click here to watch this video: http://www.wimp.com/bestcoin/

(Clicking on the picture doesn’t work. You’ll need to click the URL)

Oboe Reeds – How Long Do They Last?

Back lit hand crafted oboe reeds

How long does an oboe reed last? The average consensus is 10 -15 hours of playing time or about 1 month, whichever comes first.

No two oboe reeds are exactly alike no matter what steps are taken to ensure they are as much the same as possible. Oboe reeds are made from cane (Arundo Donax specifically). Since it is a living thing, the cane will vary greatly.

So what steps can you take to make sure your reeds are lasting as long as possible?

1. Never buy just one oboe reed.

• If you are out of reeds and restocking, never buy just one reed. If that one reed doesn’t play well, you are stuck with it until you can get more. Also (and more importantly) you can’t take the risk on having only one playable reed and it cracks or breaks in some way.

2. Purchase at least 3 oboe reeds at a time.

• See number 1 and number 3.

3. Rotate the reeds.

• It is really easy to play on the reed you love the most all the time and ignore your other reeds. Don’t fall into this trap! It will wear out sooner if you only play on one reed. Save the best reed for your lessons, really important band rehearsals, solos or performances. If you rotate the reeds when you purchase three at a time, they break in evenly and last longer. Play reed “A” Monday, reed “B” Tuesday, reed “C” Wednesday, then back to reed “A” for Thursday. Continue the pattern.

4. Buy hand made reeds from a qualified supplier. (Like www.reedpros.com)

• Mass produced reeds purchased from most music stores have inferior scraping techniques and a shrill tone quality at best. You’ll have a more mature sound and enjoy playing on hand made reeds.

5. When soaking your reeds up to play, use water in a cup instead of trying to soak them in your mouth.

• Reeds soaked in your mouth don’t really feel as free blowing as reeds soaked in water. Saliva has digestive properties and degrades the reed as you play. Might as well keep the exposure to a minimum if possible.

6. Rinse your mouth with water (or brush your teeth) if you have just eaten before playing. 

• Food “gunk” is no good for your reeds or your instrument!

7. Avoid oversoaking the reeds.

• If you have soaked up multiple reeds for the rehearsal or performance and decide on the reed you like be sure to put the others away. Leaving them soak for extended periods of time causes the fibers to lose their elasticity thus shortening the life of the reed.

Out of oboe reeds? Try hand made reeds by Reed Pros! Visit http://www.reedpros.com and read the descriptions to see which reed is right for you.

Related articles

• Importance of Oboe Reed Cases (reedpros.wordpress.com)
• Double Reed Day – Cal State Fresno (reedpros.wordpress.com)
• Retired Oboe and English Horn Musician: The Chinese Musician’s ‘Performance was flawless’ (theepochtimes.com)

Importance of Oboe Reed Cases

Oboe Reed Case, French style reed holders

Yes, you really do need a reed case.

Oftentimes one of the essential supplies that is overlooked when students start the oboe is a reed case. It doesn’t need to be an expensive one. A plastic case, like the one pictured below, will do just fine.

Plastic oboe reed case

The plastic tubes or even the plastic clamshell style containers you get when purchasing reeds from a supplier are only meant to keep your reed safe during the shipping process. They are no substitute for a quality reed case!  See below the tubes and clamshell shipping containers.

clamshell reed holder

shipping tube with reed

The plastic tubes don’t offer the reeds the proper ventilation for the reeds to dry out. Another problem is if you aren’t careful when going to place the reed into the tube you could end up hitting the delicate tip and ruining the reed.

The clamshell style doesn’t offer a way to hold the reed securely. The reed ends up rolling back and forth on the foam padding while you try to close the clasp. If you haven’t ended up accidentally catching the reed in the sides of that case yet, it doesn’t mean you won’t. Then you’ll have spent between $9 – $15 for a reed you can no longer use because the tip of the reed got crushed as it rolled on the padding when you tried to close the clamshell.

Oboe reed cases come in a variety of materials and price ranges for all budgets. Keep your reeds safe and happy – purchase a reed case.

Now Reed Pros offers oboe reed cases! Please visit http://www.reedpros.com to see our latest products. We will have new lines of reed cases coming soon so check back often!

Related articles

• Double Reed Day – Cal State Fresno (reedpros.wordpress.com)
• Will playing the saxophone affect my embouchure on oboe? (the-saxophone.information-about-music.com)
• What Playing the Oboe Taught Me About Building My Own PR Practice (waxingunlyrical.com)

Double Reed Day – Cal State Fresno

Reed Pros at Cal State Univ Fresno Double Reed Day

I had a wonderful time at the California State University, Fresno 16th Annual Double Reed Day!  Rachel Aldrich and Larry Gardner were both very gracious hosts. The guest clinicians were Andrea Jayne Ridilla (oboe) and George Sakakeeny (bassoon).

The experience was so great, I’m looking forward to my next Double Reed Day. The best part was getting to meet the students, parents and oboe lovers who came to the event.

Reed Pros product table

I know many people have reservations about purchasing oboe reeds from a new supplier. Luckily going to an event like this allows you to try out my reeds to see what you think!

Hmm… I don’t think I needed to bring as much stuff as I brought. The oboe was necessary though. Definitely not optional!

One of the best parts of the day was the double reed ensemble. All attendees were invited to participate. Nothing sounds quite so cute as Sousa marches by an all double reed group!

I hope to see you at the next Double Reed Day or at the International Double Reed Society Conventions!

Congratulations Region Band 2013 Winners

Congratulations to Emily Low!

She won 1st chair for the Arkansas Senior High division on oboe. There were some tough pieces to have to learn this year for the audition but Emily knocked it out of the park.

Congratulations again and now on to All-State auditions!!

Even A Few Years Of Music Training Benefits The Brain

Fantastic article in the Scientific American.

Music has a remarkable ability to affect and manipulate how we feel. Simply listening to songs we like stimulates the brain’s reward system, creating feelings of pleasure and comfort. But music goes beyond our hearts to our minds, shaping how we think. Scientific evidence suggests that even a little music training when we’re young can shape how brains develop, improving the ability to differentiate sounds and speech.

With education funding constantly on the rocks and tough economic times tightening many parents’ budgets, students often end up with only a few years of music education. Studies to date have focused on neurological benefits of sustained music training, and found many upsides. For example, researchers have found that musicians are better able to process foreign languages because of their ability to hear differences in pitch, and have incredible abilities to detect speech in noise. But what about the kids who only get sparse musical tutelage? Does picking up an instrument for a few years have any benefits?

The answer from a study just published in the Journal of Neuroscience is a resounding yes. The team of researchers from Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory tested the responses of forty-five adults to different complex sounds ranging in pitch. The adults were grouped based on how much music training they had as children, either having no experience, one to five years of training, or six to eleven years of music instruction.

Music training had a profound impact on the way the study subjects’ brains responded to sounds. The people who had studied music, even if only for a few years, had more robust neural processing of the different test sounds. Most importantly, though, the adults with music training were more effective at pulling out the fundamental frequency, or lowest frequency sound, of the test noises.

“The way you hear sound today is dictated by the experiences with sound you’ve had up until today,” explained co-author and lab head Nina Kraus. As she and her colleague wrote in an article for Nature, “akin to physical exercise and its impact on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness.”

Bulking up the auditory brain has non-musical implications. The ability to differentiate fundamental frequencies is critical for perceiving speech, and is an integral part of how we recognize and process sounds in complex and noisy environments. Thus childhood music instruction has strong linguistic benefits and improves performance on everyday listening tasks. Since we live in an inherently noisy world, the better we are at focusing on sound and perceiving different sounds, the better. This can be particularly important for children with learning disorders or those for whom English is a second language.

There is a body of research that suggests music training not only improves hearing, it bolsters a suite of brain functions. Musically trained kids do better in school, withstronger reading skills, increased math abilities, and higher general intelligence scores. Music even seems to improve social development, as people believe music helps them be better team players and have higher self-esteem. “Based on what we already know about the ways that music helps shape the brain, the study suggests that short-term music lessons may enhance lifelong listening and learning,” said Kraus. “Our research captures a much larger section of the population with implications for educational policy makers and the development of auditory training programs that can generate long-lasting positive outcomes.”

The importance of music education is something to consider, given that election season is in full swing. According to a recent White House report, more than 300,000 education jobs have been lost since the “end” of the recession in 2009 – 7,000 were lost last month alone. As schools lose funding, arts and extracurricular programs are often first on the chopping block, meaning less music education for the nation’s youth. Given the scientific evidence supporting the importance of music both neurologically and educationally, the loss of music education seems particularly painful. Perhaps as we head to the polls this season, we should give even more thought as to how our choices of elected officials might affect the education system in this country and the brains of the children who are its future.

Citation: Skoe, E. & Kraus, N. (2012). A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood, Journal of Neuroscience, 32 (34) 11510. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1949-12.2012

Music brain image from the Department of Homeland Security

About the Author: Christie Wilcox is a science writer and blogger who moonlights as a PhD student in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Hawaii. Follow on Google+. Follow on Twitter @NerdyChristie.