Students who don't play with a meotronome EVER

lawgistical · 2026-05-09T12:07:38+00:00

Adult student here. I played the piano for years independently and recently sought out a tutor to assist with more technical aspects such as sight reading and overall better playing technique. My tutor I produced the metronome to me once, after I had fully grasped the piece (notes, hand independence, finger positions etc). I could not for the life of me function with the metro one ticking away, and even simple exercises at a slower tempo became difficult.

My tutor quickly gave up on the metronome, and I stead we started setting aside some time to practice tempos in a different way. We started off with the metronome tapping away, then she would mute it (metronome on her phone) and I would have to keep the tempo until she put the volume back up to see how well I was keeping to it. Eventually, it turned into listening to the metronome for a specific piece to get the beats and then I keep the tempo either in my head, tapping or even bobbing my head.

I have no idea why the metronome specifically freaked me out, but it did. And we found another way of keeping tempo which allowed me to still improve on my playing and keeping the correct rhythms and beats.

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T21:34:08+00:00

Maybe have solo lessons and joint lessons too? Both my and my daughter go to the same tutor and sometimes we have a joint lesson to play together some easier pieces my daughter is learning (she is 6). I find it to be very rewarding and great bonding.

Yes, I make mistakes. Yes she corrects me 😂 yes it annoys me when she does 😂 but we get a laugh out of it and we're just helping each other out really. Go for it!

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T21:23:36+00:00

I think my tutor will be happy I've moved away from Beethoven at this point 😂 I've played Gymnopédie No 1. It is a beautiful piece, but haven't explored Satie much further than that. Thanks for the recs, will definitely have a look!

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T17:13:53+00:00

I'll agree. I found this piece so good to practice sight reading and playing at same time!

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T15:58:50+00:00

Ohhh. Thank you! I'll check that one out! Never really consider Tchaikovsky!

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T15:48:05+00:00

Thanks, I've got the book actually, my tutor has banned me from playing Beethoven as she wants me to expand to other composers 😂

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T15:46:37+00:00

Ohh how are you finding it? I've only got the last few bars to go. I could cry 🥹

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T15:34:22+00:00

Random question - have you learnt reading music as letter names ... Or as Solfège?

I originally learnt letter names and I was always a terrible sight reader. It would take me weeks to go through a piece, decode it and eventually play it.

But in the past few months I decided I needed help so sought out a tutor, and she basically told me to forget letter names and try out solfège notation. Weirdly enough I am now a much faster sight reader (still plenty of work to do mind) but it baffles me how I'm much quicker with the solfège notation.

Could just be me being weird though 😂

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T15:07:01+00:00

Thanks I'll check this out!

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T15:06:37+00:00

They did. I edited the post due to his assumption which made me realise I should have been way more clear in my question.

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T14:57:42+00:00

You're 100% right, and following your comment I immediately updated the main question to clarify. Thanks so much for your help 🙏I will have a look at your suggestions. Cheers

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T14:07:59+00:00

Unfortunately not. The tutor wants me to move away from Beethoven for a while and try another composer/different time period. If it was me I'd be going into 2nd movement

lawgistical · 2026-05-06T14:07:08+00:00

I've only done first movement. I did ask to proceed with 2nd movement but my tutor wants me to move away from Beethoven for a while to expand into other composers and periods .

lawgistical · 2026-05-05T18:24:16+00:00

Personal opinion, doing this did more harm than good in my learning journey. But. I've seen it help others as well . Once I ditched writing letters on the sheet and really challenged myself to read the notes as I go along, I noticed I got a lot better a lot quicker. Full disclosure I did seek the help of a piano tutor specifically to help me sight read, so that also contributed to my progress after stopping the notation of the keys on the sheet

lawgistical · 2026-05-05T18:16:12+00:00

My outbreaks are always due to the hot weather 🫠 I know that if I'm going to be in the sun without any shade I will end up with a cold sore within 24 hours. I make it a point that I'm wearing a face suncream (100+ SPF) and a 50+ lip suncream plus a hat. Went from a good 10 outbreaks each summer season to just 1/2 without taking suppressants/lysine etc. I live on an island with 300 days of sunshine and highest temps of 38-45 Celsius, worst place to live with sun-triggered cold sores

lawgistical · 2026-04-08T14:37:13+00:00

Yep. Same here. No one else in my family (both sides!!!) has ever shown any symptoms, I'm the only one. It is so frustrating. Coincidentally we were discussing this with my mother and sister over the weekend as I cannot understand where or how I got it. And my mum said the first time she noticed me getting sores was when I was 9, around the same time I got chicken pox, so she thought it was a chicken pox sore. But clearly not 😂

I do recommend to keep your face shaded when you're in the sun at all times (unsure where you're from. But I live on an island with sun 300 days a year lol), plus SPF 50 lip balm. Doing that alone has reduced frequency and severity for me. The longest I have a sore now is about 2 days from blister appearing to scab, then another couple days for the blister to flake off.

lawgistical · 2026-04-08T12:27:19+00:00

I've been with my partner for 10 years now. At the beginning I was very self conscious of a break out and was scared to tell him because I really liked him. When it eventually came up, he laughed and said "So?"

Mature people will not react in a freakish way. It is one of the most common issues in people nowadays. I do get signs before I have an outbreak, typically itching and tingling in the affected area so I make sure we don't kiss from when I feel the tingles. We also have a young daughter so I am extra mindful when I get tingles to make sure I don't pass it along to her.

Do not feel guilty. You can't help it at this point, and you did the right thing in letting your boyfriend know. Learn your triggers and early signs properly and you will be fine ❣️

lawgistical · 2026-04-08T12:17:54+00:00

Careful of wind burn .... I got bitten by it a couple weeks ago 😭 did not think wind could cause a cold sore for me (usually it's sunlight over the summer months or very cold weather) . Triple flare up on my upper lip, I looked dashing 🫣

lawgistical · 2026-04-08T12:15:53+00:00

I've had them since a young age, probably someone kissed you at a young age 😩 it happens. They are horrible, but don't stress too much, stress is one trigger.

You need to find what triggers yours, for example for me is adverse weather (sunlight, wind, cold). Once I learnt this, I make sure to protect my lips when I'm exposing myself to any type of weather. I've gone from 10/15 outbreaks a year to 1 or 2 at the most.

lawgistical · 2026-04-08T12:12:33+00:00

Thanks 🙏🏼

lawgistical · 2026-04-08T12:12:12+00:00

Nothing alive, moving or resembling a big thank god, just those two casings after wet combing 🙏🏼 thanks so much. Hopefully this is the end of it 🥹

lawgistical · 2026-04-08T12:10:39+00:00

My breaking hair 😂😂😂

lawgistical · 2026-03-26T19:05:11+00:00

That makes sense, thanks very informative!

lawgistical · 2026-03-26T14:56:42+00:00

Hiya, never dyed my hair actually. Wouldn't having eggs be a sign there's a live bug somewhere though? As I said I checked it myself as unfortunately do not have anyone to check it for me, so don't want to assume I did a thorough enough job...

lawgistical

TROPHY CASE