by Whopbamboom » Mon May 19, 2008 7:29 pm
I think the ultimate goal is to develop a really good internal metronome that also allows you to play with feeling for the music.
I should pretext the following by saying that I currently do not play in the context of Afro-cuban polyrhythms, but rather in any time signatures that can be notated with standard western music notation. That is, 4/4, 2/4, 6/8, 3/8, 9/8, 7/4, 5/4, 12/8, 7/8, plus changing meter (a measure or two of one time signature and then a measure or two of another time signature, changing as desired, etc.)
After quite a few years of playing myself, (as well as drumming along on the steering wheel to many different types of music and styles), I've developed a really good sense of timing. I do still check myself against a metronome once in a while for "staying in check", but my internal metronome allows me to change tempo by say, a beat or two per minute at will. This has become important to me, as some types of music that I play actually REQUIRE a more organic feel to them (very SLIGHT) tempo changes (depending on the section of the song or the vocal styling/dynamics), and do not sound right with mechanical timing.
The next thing I'll be challenging myself to do is to be able to play either SLIGHTLY AHEAD of the beat or SLIGHTLY behind the beat, without speeding up or slowing down the tempo. But I can curently play some pretty syncopated stuff and stay right on, without the use of the metronome while I'm playing. And I can sense if others in the group are slightly speeding up or slowing down by a beat or two per minute.
I attribute this to the fact that I never lose sight of where the downbeat of each measure is... and my internal sense of timing automatically is able to subdivide the measure up into the beats, the half-beats, and the halves of each half beat. And I can divide each beat or half beat up into triplets or duplets if necessary. Hopefully later I'll be able to do quintuplets or septuplets effectively, but for now that remains a challenge as well.
If I tried to play what I play now, but back when I was a beginner-- and with a metronome in hand--- I probably couldn't keep track and I'd fall out of rhythm.
So I can't stress this enough: The ultimate goal is to develop your own sense of internal rhythm... an internal metronome if you will. I recommend that you use a metronome AND your sense of counting to start solidifying your sense of where the beats are, but that you also concentrate on being able to subdivide or to syncopate those beats without needing the metronome to tell you when and where to play what's in between the beats. And then wean yourself from the metronome so that you don't need it! Periodically check your sense of timing with it, but work toward the goal of being able to sense the beats without it... even to the point of being able to alter the timing when necessary. Never lose sense of your feeling for the music. Don't rely on the metronome so much that you become mechanical.
In short, the ultimate goal should be to be able to play anything you want without the use of the metronome. But a metronome can help in the beginning and also as a periodic check-up.