Ditch the Phone, Get a Metronome!

The useful part

By Laurie Niles: I often ask students to use a metronome in their practice. I also ask them to use a tuner so that they are training on an in-tune fiddle. These two tools -- a metronome and a tuner -- are important to the violinist and violin student.

How it works

• Because everything else also is available, often for free, as an app on your phone: messages, e-mail, social media, Candy Crush, your grocery shopping list, Amazon, the weather....In this video, I explain...
• Certainly I use both tools on a daily basis, as a teacher and orchestral violinist.
• Conveniently, both of these tools are available, often for free, as an app on your phone.
• Inconveniently, both of these tools are available, often for free, as an app on your phone.
• Have you ever opened your phone to do one thing, then been distracted by something else, and then 10-30 minutes later wondered why you had opened your phone in the first place?

What to take from it

I daresay our phones are designed to whisk our attention away and hold it hostage for as long as possible. My point: if your metronome and/or tuner is located solely on your phone, you risk being seriously distracted in the practice room. For a student or child, if their only option for a metronome or tuner is on a parent's phone, that creates even more problems.

Example or evidence

• Imagine this scenario: your phone metronome is ticking away as you practice, then you hear the ding of a text message, or a call, or multiple sounds of notifications.
• Would it be better to simply leave your phone in another room, or turn it to silent, or off completely?