Best way to keep time?

Agreed. A metronome works for most people. It really drives the time home. I kind of get tired of listening to clicking, so I tend to simply play songs with their recordings. This gives me a solid beat and also helps be practice "playing with a band." Metronomes work though. It's definitely good practice to try to use one.

Thanks for adding your vote. I'm finding the metronome to be an unforgiving mistress. I agree, playing with the song is more fun than the click but I can't keep up with most songs so for now it's tock, tock, tock.

As far as my tuner question in this thread, I ended up buying a D'adarrio that was recommended. It didn't work, as it would not respond to the E string. I sent it back, and got a Snark. Same problem, only for ALL strings not just E. Sent that one back, got another Snark, and it works great. Weird.
 
Metronome, definitely, or better still, a drum machine, one that has at least one boom among the clicks. But also one that wont let you waste time trying to program a new beat into it.

Ghost strumming also helps a lot -strum in the air on every 2nd beat for example.

Playing along with your favourite song vid can help to get your whole body moving to the beat, also standing up and swaying to the beat can help too. Bend your knees! :) Dance lessons...

Read a text while simple strumming to the metronome. You’re trying to separate the words in your head from timing physical muscle memory. That should be automatic.

Finally remember that if the metronome irritates you, it’s partly the sharp clack (that you need for accuracy), but a big part of it is that you are following it. In time you will use it less, every fourth beat say, to confirm you’re in the right place and then even longer stretches for example when taking a solo instrumental, at the end, because of focus on the notes you can sometimes lose the timing. The others around you will help bring you back.

Another is to swing the pick or hand an exact amount for each beat, same pressure on the strings, same angle of the pick to the strings, planning to get back to the beginning of the swing at exactly the right time, and don't let left hand movements accidentally change the right hand swing.

Also count 1,2,3,4 out loud all the time (if the song’s in 4/4 time) and remember that other people’s chord changes and accents give indications of where the measures are. Later you wont have to count four beats every measure, you will only hear the 3 -this helps a lot.

Listen to music and count out loud. Know that there’s a slow down option, 50% I believe, it’s an icon below the window on YouTube, but that some bands, even some good ones can slow down and speed up a lot.
 
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Myself I had not found metronomes much in use. I have a Seiko dm-20. I understand they can be used for speed, or also in melodic play to understand how to play with all the rests in notes etc a difficult passage.

For me just the right hand constant strum is best as I never could tap my one feet or other or keep toes moving in beat :) They get restless with music and want their own beat. So I best keep them resting when I play.
 
One thing, counting or tapping, or whatever, I often feel like our ukulele group is racing through songs. It also seems that a lot of ukulele music is set at 120 bpm. So our group jumps into some song and we're strumming like crazy and I wonder who the heck thought this song sounded good at 120 bpm and why the heck do we think that we have to play it that fast just because someone stuck 120 bpm up there at the top.
 
I think a metronome is a really good tool. It is best to see it as your friend. I actually like the way it measures my progress as I gradually get up to the required speed. I use the Tonal Energy app on my iPad. I like the fact that you don’t have to use clacks, beeps etc because it has a voice option. I mainly use the voice option because, for me, it is not so irritating as the other sounds.
 
This may sound weird (and it may in fact be weird) but I find that there is an ontological inferiority with all the computer stuff. The computer stuff lacks a certain amount of "realness." The computer makes the sound of a beep but a real, physical metronome produces a beep and there is a percussive force and you can feel it better.
 
I use a regular pyramid metronome. Seeing the arm swing is as important as hearing the click or bell, especially when learning to play off the beat.
 
I use a regular pyramid metronome. Seeing the arm swing is as important as hearing the click or bell, especially when learning to play off the beat.

I forgot about that. The arm is important in improvising as well. In certain contexts, like a blues progression, you're allowed to improvise for a measure before you get back to the progression. So it is useful to internalize that arm-swing so that you know how much time you have. Otherwise, you just demolish the song's timing and then start wanking around.
 
I think I will get a "traditional" metronome. That makes sense to me.

I have a Kliq metronome/tuner and I have never warmed to it. But some people love it. It has both a light and a beep tone for the metronome.

My Peterson Strobo Plus tuner has an optional metronome and a vibration accessory that lets you feel the beat as opposed to hearing it. So you can play a song and not have a competing sounds to listen to. It's expensive though. (I bought it used.)
 
Most players tend to speed up while playing. Especially when performing.

On open mike nights at out uke club most of the performers begin to go faster as they play and sing. (Nervousness and adrenaline kick in and can change our perspectives and senses. That's one of the reasons muscle memory is so important.) Performing many times reduces that reaction.

I have the reverse problem. I tend to slow down as I perform a song.

One of the hazards of playing to a recording is that the performers do not necessarily keep a constant time. And, quite often, a song will contain changes with the time signature. It may start out in 4/4 but change to 2/2 or even 16/8 or whatever.

I have found that I do best listening to a song over and over until I know it really well, and have the song firmly in my memory. Then I try to play it to the written chords or TABs. If I'm playing with others, I try to make sure that everyone listens to one recording of the song, and that is the interpretation we start out working with. Then we may alter it, as we practice. It's really difficult if you are trying to play a popular song and each of the people you are playing with knows a different version of it. The person who suggests a song, gets to recommend the version/style we initially follow.
 
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