Tips for working with a metronome

[atilla]

A few months ago, I took a lesson. The guy was a pretty good teacher, and he gave me some good exercises to work on, and also gave me some ideas to expand my creativity a bit (also worked on bends and vibrato...long lesson!).

Anyway, I improved on the scale exercises pretty quickly with the metronome. But I have a feeling most of the improvement came from knowing the lick rather than actual speed gains from my hands.

It seems to be that just constantly putting the metronome to the edge of my ability isn't really the way to improve. Should I take it down several notches to where I can play it super-consistently and cleanly, and then start bumping it up a beat or two per week? What do you guys do?

Added: I took lessons years ago, so I have a pretty good grasp of scales, alternative picking, etc. I just wanted to bump myself up a notch.

[thetroy]

Start where you can play it perfectly then move it up like 2 bpm for a little while, then go back down 1, then up 2, down 1, etc.

[atilla]

Thanks, Troy!

[demeyes]

I'd say put it to where you are playing it cleanly, then bump it up a bit and try it. If you mess up go back a little and play it more for a while. Also though I would say to put it up at the very edge of your limit for a little to get used to the speed, then go back down again.

[Shawn Lutz]

they key for me (not the panecea for everyone) is to practice the scales slower first to nail the execution. If you go past your abilities you'll get all sloppy . Slowly increase the bpm on the metronome until you reached the max you can play cleanly. Once you define your fastest speed you can gradually bump up the bpm's to challenge yourself. It also doesn't hurt to try it at warp speed, record and listen back to it to see where your having an issue and work on that.