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MetroDrone®

MetroDrone®: Groundbreaking New Addition to Ear Training and Instrumental Practice

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Add digital copy to cart – $24.99 with Acoustic Bass

Add digital copy to cart – $24.99 with Tuba

MetroDrone® is a core addition to Ear Training and Instrumental Practice now available with an acoustic bass or tuba sound!

MetroDrone® is our best selling product of all time!!

We are super-excited about this new invention which Bruce Arnold calls the “MetroDrone®. It will greatly enhance both your practice time, and the rate at which your playing and musicianship improves. The MetroDrone® is available as a digital download which uses MP3s or our new MetroDrone® app which is available for iPhones and iPads.

Two Important Courses

MetroDrone® and the Long Line Rhythm Course are joined at the hip. To understand to full potential of the MetroDrone® it is highly recommended that you get the Long Line Rhythm Course course. This course gives you three videos and a PDF to show you how the concept of Long Line Rhythm® can transform your playing. Notice that both the MetroDrone® and Long Line Rhythm® are trademarked. This tells you that you are looking at something unique that can forever change your musical ability. Once you start practicing with the MetroDrone® and understand Long Line Rhythm® there will be no looking back, you will improve every aspect of your musicianship and it will happen quickly. Read on to see some of the possible exercises both for ear training and time.

Bruce Arnold states that the MetroDrone® is a CORE practice tool!

MetroDrone® should be a new addition to the CORE products you use to reach your full potential as a musician…

Two versions of the MetroDrone®

Difference between Acoustic Bass and Tuba MetroDrone®

Acoustic Bass MetroDrone® Sound is much longer in duration than the Tuba MetroDrone® making it easier to hear the key center. 10 to 60bpm MP3 files
Tuba MetroDrone® Sound is much shorter in duration than the Acoustic Bass MetroDrone® making it much harder to hear the key center and therefore is recommended for the advanced ear training student. Also has slower MP3 files 8 to 60bpm MP3 files

MetroDrone® lets you:

Practice singing exercises in time and speed them up, to master real-time ear-training recognition and execution.
Practice ear training even when you are practicing scales or any other technique on your instrument.
Develop lightning speed by using the included “long line rhythm” concept (considered a “holy grail” by many guitarists). Video and PDF included.

MetroDrone® works any place you use a metronome® and with many ear training exercises

MetroDrone® will work with any Muse-Eek book you own -or one from any other company. But to most effectively use this new tool – it would be best for Mr. Arnold to understand how you currently practice your instrument, and ear training.

Unsure if MetroDrone® is right for you?

Unsure how to use it or if it’s right for you? – Use the contact email at bottom of the page and Mr. Arnold will personally review your current practice schedule – and advise you on possible improvements, and how to integrate MetroDrone® into your practice time for maximum results.

Keep on track, Keep in contact!

As always it is what you are practicing and how you are practicing that is crucial to your progress. Please keep in touch with Mr. Arnold every few months so that you don’t practice the wrong thing or the right thing in the wrong way. Bruce may also may be able to make recommendations on how you should change some aspect of your study so that you improve even faster.

Check in and get on track

So right now, it’s time to check in and get your practice regimen ship-shape. Even if you been sluffing off – you can still write to Bruce and we’ll see how to get you back in the saddle and improving your musical ability.

Ideas for using MetroDrone®

Bruce Arnold says that hearing chord progressions is a topic that comes up frequently with students of ear training. You will probably have to gain some basic skills with identifying pitches within a key center before you can tackle how you hear chord progressions but there are some things you can do with the MetroDrone® MP3s to start preparing now for this exciting aspect of ear training.

Think the same way you hear

The overall thing to realize is always THINK THE SAME WAY YOU HEAR. What do I mean by this? I mean that you can listen to a chord progression in a song, and if you sing or play the melody, you will probably HEAR some or all of it in the key of the song. But when you play or sing over a chord progression, it is easy to start thinking about all the different scales you could play, and lose sight of the key center.

So that is why it is important to think the same way that you hear. This will make your playing much more musical and you will truly express the music you hear inside yourself. The main purpose of the MetroDrone® is to get you always thinking the same way you are hearing. If you practice a C scale with a C MetroDrone® going on in the background you are thinking about a C scale and you are hearing it in relationship to the key of C. This gets progressively more important as you work with more and more complicated material.

Now let’s turn our attention to how THINKING THE SAME WAY YOU HEAR applies to a chord progression. If we have a chord progression you will either hear the whole progression in one key or parts of the progression in one key. This will depend on how quickly the chords are moving one to another and the tempo of the tune. Usually the longer you stay on a chord the better chance you will have of hearing that chord in its own key center.

Specific Example

Everyone will vary on how they exactly hear the same progression, though in many cases it will be similar. Let’s take a simple chord progression as an example: C Major to F7. Let’s say there are two measures of C Major and one of F7. The tempo would be medium, around 100 BPM. When you play the F7, most likely you will not hear a new key center; you will hear F7 in relationship to the key of C. This will affect what scale you should use and how you will hear the notes of the of F7 chord.

READ THIS it’s important!

Usually if you play an F7 chord you wouldn’t think of it as an F Mixolydian scale BUT we are not hearing the F7 in the key of F; we are hearing it in the key of C so you would think of it as a C Dorian scale because you are in the key of C not in the key of F. Yes, a C Dorian scale and an F Mixoldyian scale are the same notes BUT if you are hearing in the key of C and the F7 chord is playing and you hear a melody in your head with scale degrees b3, 2, 1 then you would play Eb, D, C not Ab, G, F. What I’ve just stated is one of the most important lessons you will ever learn about hearing music and why my ear training method is crucial to developing composition and improvisation skills.

Aural Comprehension is key to musical success

Now if you listen again to the notes of the F7 chord as you are hearing it in the key of C, you will not hear: F=1, A=3, C=5, Eb=b7 you will hear: F = 4, A = 6, C= 1, Eb = b3. As you can see, this is a pivotal step to understanding how your hear chord progressions and again why key center ear training is so important. Check out the book called Secondary Dominants Ear Training Studies that applies this same logic to all the Secondary Dominant chords. It’s crucial that you learn this information NOW so you don’t have to rewind and start hearing the correct way later on. It’s important to realize how you are hearing chord progressions as opposed to how you are hearing the melodies in your head.

Practicing Scales with MetroDrone®

Let’s relate these ideas to practicing scales. Most professional musicians spend about 20 years practicing the scales. Practicing them in the right way is crucial so make sure you have either the Essential Scales book or the New York Guitar Method Volume One. Here is an unusual but highly productive way to use the MetroDrone® when working with scales that relates to the discussion we just had about hearing chord progressions. The usual way musicians practice scales is to play them cycle 5 –so if you had a Major scale you would first play it in C then F, Bb, Eb, Ab etc… Instead of switching MetroDrone® MP3s for each new key, just use a C MetroDrone® and move through the modes of C Major all the while a C MetroDrone® is sounding. This will get you processing scales all in one key which is the same thing that will happen when you are hearing a whole progression in one key as we previously discussed.

Applying MetroDrone® to Modes

So you start with playing C Major (in all positions if you play a stringed instrument)

Then play a C Dorian Scale (which is actually a Bb Major Scale but you are hearing the notes in “C” so it’s C Dorian.)
Then play C Phrygian (which is actually a Ab Major Scale but you are hearing the notes in “C” so it’s C Phrygian.)
Then a C Lydian (which is actually a G Major Scale but you are hearing the notes in “C” so it’s C Lydian.)
Then a C Mixoldian (which is actually a F Major Scale but you are hearing the notes in “C” so it’s C Mixolydian.)
Then a C Aeolian (which is actually a Eb Major Scale but you are hearing the notes in “C” so it’s C Aeolian.)
TThen a C Locrian (which is actually a Db Major Scale but you are hearing the notes in “C” so it’s C Locrian.)

So you have played through all 7 modes of C Major!

Then I would take a break and later or the next day do the same process in the key of F with an F MetroDrone®.
This way you will practice all the modes of major and start applying them the way you will hear them in many chord progressions.
(See Secondary Dominant book for more information on how how all this applies to the modes of Melodic Minor Ascending.)

MetroDrone® and common chord progressions

Just so you can see some common chord progressions and how you might hear them in one key and the scales you would use, here are some examples:

C Major to F7 and hear that all in the key of C then you are moving between C Major Scale and a C Dorian Scale.
C Major to F-7 and hear that all in the key of C then you are moving between C Major Scale and a C Aeolian Scale.
C Major to Db Major and hear that all in the key of C then you are moving between C Major Scale and a C Phrygian Scale.
C Major to C-7b5 and hear that all in the key of C then you are moving between C Major Scale and a C Locrian Scale.

As you can see from this discussion how you hear greatly affects how you should think and play. This is why working with MetroDrone® can lay the right foundation for your success with music.

Choose your version of the MetroDrone® and get starting learning the correct way with MetroDrone® TODAY!

Get either the Acoustic Bass or Tuba MetroDrone® today and transform your sense of key and time.