"Make the metronome your friend, not your enemy."
- Vinnie Colaiuta.
It can be very frustrating to play with the metronome. And frustration breeds more mistakes, then it snowballs to affect your entire performance and mood. One universal truth for any instrument that the music teachers always teach is to 'go slow to go fast'. You get better by using slower tempo, gain confidence by getting better, then you go faster by gaining confidence, and repeat the cycle.
I think the metronome builds our basic skills and discipline. Once we internalize accuracy until it became our second nature, then we are free to improvise, syncopate, knowing that we can still come back to time when we want to. Many people the opposite is true. They criticize time practice in the name of freedom of play. Then when they are supposed to play on time, they could not get it right. They do not notice the mistakes. They do not have the basics and foundation build through hundreds of hours of time practice. Pretty much applicable to everything else in life isn't it? 😉
I did a shot with my metronome as the backdrop using my Sony A7II on the 50mm macro lens at F/2.8 for that creamy bokeh, ISO 640 and speed of 1/80s. Notice that I had a small hourglass to emphasize my point too! 😉
Remember to build on the basics, and go slow, to go fast! 🍻