Metronomes used to be big, bulky things with a mechanical action, and even the first electronic ones were quite big and heavy.

Nowadays, you can get software metronomes which will do exactly the same thing, and you can get them almost for FREE.

I’ve tried a few different ones.

Firstly, if you just want a simple metronome tool - and don’t need any advanced features such as accented beats or subdivisions you can visit the online one at http://www.metronomeonline.com its a free tool that I tell all my students about, because you dont need to install software, it works just from the webpage. you can’t get simpler than that!

If you’re looking for something a little more advanced, you can try the Tempo Perfect metronome from NCH software. It is free, however it does come bundled with a lot of other applications which encourage you to upgrade to their paid products.

Another Product which I highly recommend is the Ultimate Metronome.  It costs $19.95 USD – but you don’t get any nag screens or included extras that encourage you to buy anything else, and it has an excellent advanced feature which I love – the ability to automatically increase the speed after a given number of seconds.

For example you can set it to a slow speed to practice a scale or exercise, and then gradually increase it every minute, until its at a point that you can no longer play.

This Speed Drill Feature is an excellent tool for practicing Scales and Technique, so check it out!

Of course I have my own opinions on the value of these sort of games from a real education standpoint – but I’d love to hear from you about it.

I’d really love to hear from people who have learned from these games – people who started from scratch, not being able to play at all, and then graduated from the game into playing real instruments.

Personally I think they are awesome fun – I played the acade version of the drum game years ago – well before it was released like it is today.

If you havn’t seen it before click on the link below to check it out at Musicians Friend – Its available for Ps3 and XBox360 – and has the works – the guitar controller, the drum kit and microphones.

Firstly you can Learn at your Own Pace – you dont need to rely on the teacher giving you the next steps in your learning

Secondly you can Learn your own style of music – you aren’t influenced by the teachers particular musical tastes and experience.

Learning online does have distinct advantages, however it should be used as part of your learning mix and not your only method.

At the Fun Music Company we are experienced musicians and teachers, and we’d never recommend that you learn only online – because it really doesn’t give you the most ideal learning environment.

Here is the learning mix which all people should experience to learn an instrument:

- Learning from Video and Instructional lessons, both offline and online

- Learning from a teacher, preferrably face to face

- Learning from doing – playing in a band, learning in a group.

If you learn using all three of these methods you’ll have the greatest chance of learning your instrument the fastest and learning the most in the smallest amount of time