I spend a lot of my banjo time practicing my songs and tunes with strum machine. I just recently tried practicing with a metronome, and I am absolutely terrible at it. Do you feel there are things that you gain by practicing with a metronome that you don’t get from practicing with strum machine or jam tracks?
Question for you metronome practicers
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I think both help your timing and strum machine is definitely easier. But I think practicing with a metronome gets you more precise than just playing with strum machine. With guitar rhythm it’s easier to be shaky between the beats. With only the metronome you have to stay steady or it’s a lot more obvious.
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Mainly anger management skills!
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I think a metronome better helps develop my internal ticker. Also, it really helps if you will be playing with a click over IEMs in the future, either in studio or live.
All that said, I like @Michael_Mark 's answer best 
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The metronome doesn’t lie, and when you record yourself playing with the metronome and listen back, it’s an even more honest picture.
Funny story though. I remember when an online metronome first came out and I was using it in my browser, was doing horribly. I got very frustrated. Finally I swore that the metronome had to be off. I compared it with a physical metronome and the online would stutter a few milliseconds very few beats 
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Also I’ve found that if you are playing a metronome through a Bluetooth speaker it might not be perfectly steady.
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I have found it infinitely better to shun the metronome and embrace technology. I use garage band, and record myself against a decent backing track. I find that listening to that, shows me not just where to fix timing issues but playing against the music shows me a lot more about where my dynamics are at which I find to be the real key to making the banjo sing like Earl intended, or some proximity thereof or playing a stream of notes, albeit with great timing 
Would you suggest setting the metronome to the cut time bpm, or no? For instance, I’m trying to play “Unclouded Day” at 210 bpm. Should I set the metronome at 210 or 105? Which would be better?
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Neither way is better all the time. For instance, if I’m practicing REALLY slow, I often like to set the metronome at twice the speed so there’s not a huge gap between beats. But having that large gap also presents a challenge and forces you to keep better time with your internal clock.
Check out this cool vid from David Benedict:
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Great, thanks!
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