Recorded myself playing around month four. Thought I sounded pretty good. Listened back and wanted to cry. The notes were right. The rhythm was a disaster.
Rushing through easy parts. Slowing down on hard parts. No consistent tempo. Sounded like I was having a small stroke while playing.
Here's what nobody emphasizes enough: rhythm is a separate skill from playing the right notes. You can have perfect notes and sound terrible if your timing is off. And most beginners have terrible timing because we focus entirely on notes.
The metronome problem: I avoided metronomes for months. Found them annoying. Felt restricted. This was a massive mistake. The metronome doesn't restrict you – it reveals how bad your natural timing is.
First time I played with a metronome I couldn't stay on beat for four bars. Thought the metronome was broken. It was not broken. I was broken.
Start with just clapping. Pick a slow tempo – 60 BPM. One beat per second. Clap exactly on each click. Do this for 2 minutes. If you can't clap in time, you definitely can't play in time.
Then play single notes with the metronome. One note per click. Any note, doesn't matter which. Focus entirely on timing, not what you're playing. When that feels solid, try scales with one note per click.
The rushing problem: We speed up on easy sections because we can. We slow down on hard sections because we have to. The result is tempo that wobbles constantly. The fix: practice slow enough that nothing is hard. If you're slowing down anywhere, the whole tempo is too fast.
Note values matter. Quarter notes get one beat. Half notes get two beats. Whole notes get four beats. Eighth notes get half a beat – two per click. When sheet music shows different note shapes, that's telling you durations, not just pitches.
Counting helps. For 4/4 time, count "1, 2, 3, 4" repeatedly. Quarter notes happen on each number. Eighth notes: "1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and." The "ands" are the half-beats between clicks.
The subdivision trick: Set metronome to half the tempo and play two notes per click instead of one. Then set it to double tempo and play one note every two clicks. Both exercises reveal different timing weaknesses.
Recording yourself is the cheat code. You can't hear your own timing while playing – too much going on. But a recording doesn't lie. Record, listen, cringe, improve. I do this every few weeks.
How long to develop decent timing? Few weeks of focused practice if you actually use a metronome. Months or years if you don't. I'm not exaggerating – I know players who've been at it for years and still have shaky timing because they never addressed it directly.
Use a metronome from day one. I put this in my daily practice routine guide because it's that important. For theory on how rhythm notation works, see reading sheet music.