Does any body know when to increase the metronome and by how much? Or how long should you practice at one metronome setting before increasing the BPM (beats per minute)? Should you increase by 1, 2, 5, or 10 increments? Should it be 1 BPM per day/week or maybe 5 BPM per month? I found this article online and decided to try it out:

http://tomhess.net/articles/howtopractic...speedpart1.aspx

I kinda understand the premise (gradually increase over time). But, no one that I know (all my previous teachers) could ever give me a definitive answer (if there is one). Anybody have any experience doing this sort of thing?

Heya John, I'm Joe and new here myself. Don't know if this will help but one thing on the vids is, say, put the metronome at 60. Then play one note per beat, two notes per beat, etc. It gets fun when you get to 5 notes a beat. That's what I've been working on. Never realized just how hard that seemingly simple exercise is until I tried doin' it. Anyhow, that way you're able to play at different speeds without having to even change the metronome.

Thanks Joe. Yeah, I'm well aware of the practice routine laid out in the DVD and on Pebber's Youtube channel. My questions was more about how and when to increase the BPM in a more efficient manner. It seems to me that in order to increase your technique, with regards to speed, has to happen very slowly over long periods of time.

So, again: how slow (how many increments) and how long of a period of time (a day, week, month)?

I'm no expert but as a drummer I put
In my time with a metronome. You don't have to change tempo
but what you will want to do is change the subdivisions you are attacking
the string with. Example: 50 beats per minute ( bpm )

Quarter notes

1 2 3 4

Eighth notes

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Triplets or 3's

1 trip let 2 trip let 3 trip let 4 trip let

1 2 3 , 2 2 3 , 3 2 3 , 4 2 3

16th notes

1 e & a, 2 e & a , 3 e & a , 4 e & a

1 2 3 4 , 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4 , 4 2 3 4

5's, 6's , 7's , 32 nd notes and so on.

You won't be changing BPM 's but your tempo will change as you shift
gears into and out of different subdivision.

How long? Till you can change subdivisions without thinking about
it locked into the " click " of the metronome !

COUNT OUT LOUD , COUNT OUT LOUD!

as you move through the subdivision, very important!

When you have 50 BPM's down move it to 53 BPM's and start again!

Good Luck and work hard

Just wanted to add that Pebber takes you through this material in a series of free videos with one of his students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxSV3W97goo&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47j-aDvkCQo&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQkhMASRiK8&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pbF0LLhqVM&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2656SWkvRQ&feature=plcp

Thats all ok and yes this is a great way for learning subdivisions but quarter notes to eighth notes is a 50 bpm increase which could be too much for some nothing wrong with sticking to quarter or eighth notes and slowly pushing up the bpm mostly keep it clean but allways push sometimes over your limit to see what you can reach

Yes agreed, there are many way's to skin a cat. If the objective is speed perhaps you have something there.
If the objective is to understand the relationship between subdivisions and the " 1 " then slow methodical repetition is the way.
Speed comes after intellectual comprehension ( not just knowing but owning the material)and setting up neural pathways with slow deliberate repetition.

If speed is developed before understanding the relationships of various subdivisions, the player will have to slow down and bring it all up to speed later. This to a young player might be perceived to be moving backwards and induce frustration.

A foundation is built from the bottom up. All young players want to play fast, it is the nature of the beast. They don't see the hours and hours put in by their guitar hero's to pull out those lightning fast licks. If the question is how do I work with a metronome? This is someone who needs to count deliberately and slowly at a natural pace. With work the tempo will increase naturally, it has to.

And yes it is always good to know your tempo ceiling. Once you have something under your hands and I am relating this as a drummer. I would always push the tempo until it started to fall apart. Then back the metronome down a few clicks and rip there for awhile. Pushing the envelope over time and repetition will always add speed

Of course this is an opinion, your mileage may vary. It's the internet!

One great exercise was to set up a phantom click. It's a great way
to see if you are locked in . I set mine up on a drum machine, the idea
Is to set up the 1 and 2 click , have 3and 4 on silent then the 1 and 2 of the next
bar are audible and 3 and 4 silent again.
This way you have 1and 2 anchor the time and 3 and 4 are silent while you're counting and playing the exercise,you can really see if your time is wavy or if you're
nailing the 1 when the click returns.

Just wanted to add that this is kind
of a micro level.
The fun really begins when you have 4 bars of click
followed by 4 bars of silence or 8 & 8 . When you start doing
these longer increments you find out exactly how screwed up
your internal clock is. The good news is that with practice your time sense
Gets stronger.

Thanks guys for the insight.

The picking exercise that Pebber mentioned in the above post was also in his DVD that I bought. "Making the metronome disappear" seems real similar to what an old guitar teacher showed me when I first started playing the guitar years ago. He called it "finding the center of the beat". It was the hardest thing to do in the world. He told me to use something with a pointy end like a pen to tap with. For the longest time I catch myself drifting a little after or forward with the beat. It took me a while before I could get it accurate enough. I still do it to this day (with a pick on the guitar) for warming up. Currently I'm using the chromatic scale that I took from Pebber's videos.

Chromatic Scale.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

And as a result, it lead me to believe that to increase speed with accuracy meant only one way. To move in small increments. Till this day I don't know how some guys can jump in 10, 20, 30 bpm without hurting themselves.

I think that when guys plateau at a certain BPM they might not be implementing the right strategy (I'm guessing). But, what would be the right strategy? What would be the criteria of selection to know when to move the metronome from 50 BPM to the next one whether it be 51 BPM or 60 BPM?