Tick, tick, tick, tick... the metronome constantly ticking in your ear may be annoying, but it's really helping you become a better pianist! For some players, it can even be more difficult to play a song with the metronome than without, but that means it's doing its job. Sound crazy? Let me explain.

The metronome helps you keep a steady beat. Keeping a steady beat will help the song sound better and not sound rushed. At this point, you may be thinking, "okay, it will improve my song in the end, but why do I need to practice with it?" The reasons to practice with a metronome are many, and we will cover several reasons in the posts. For now, here are two reasons practicing consistently with the metronome will improve your practice.

First, practicing with the metronome will engrain in you a steady rhythm. If you don't use the metronome now and learn what a steady beat sounds and feels like, you will be less likely to be able keep a steady rhythm well without it. This especially makes performing or accompanying much more difficult. It will also cause frustration in more advanced pieces where the speed is faster or the rhythms more complex.

Second, the metronome also helps you learn note durations well as it will show you your mistakes. Doing this early will make it easier to play harder songs as you advance. If you start a new song by practicing it with the metronome, you will be less likely to learn incorrect rhythms as well. This will make the entire process of learning the song much easier and even faster!

At the beginning, I mentioned that if the metronome makes a song more difficult, that means it's doing its job. How so? If the metronome makes things difficult, that means it's showing you your mistakes or correcting or steadying rhythms you may have learned incorrectly in the song. If it's difficult to play with the metronome, that likely means it is difficult to play with a steady beat. Making yourself use the metronome will help you learn steady rhythms better. This is not always the case, but quite often it can be.

To conclude, using a metronome will help you learn steady rhythm and recognize note durations, keeping you from learning unnecessary mistakes, and making more difficult pieces easier to learn.

Read the whole series, "5 Tips for Better Piano Practice", here