Another metronome question

I try to make it a habit of using a metronome to do some scales and speed drills 2 or 3 days out of the week. The problem I am running into is that I can play faster now so I am trying to get into the practice of picking 2 or 4 notes for every one beat of the metronome. I get to a point as I am working up slowly to my fastest speed where I can no longer tell if I am staying in time. It gets all jumbled up. Is this a common problem? And do I now need to just keep working at it to develop my ear better. I have seen players like Petrucci give an example of a scale with a metronome and it is amazing to me that he can actually say that he is in time with the metronome because it is so amazingly fast he seems to be playing like 8 billion notes for every one beat on the metronome.

I dont think I realy get what your saying, but if you want to stay on beat its somtime easyer for me to tap my foot, count out loud like 1+2+3+4 or it may be easyer for you if you dont skip from a slow beat on your metronome to a fast beat. If you just started playing guitar and thats your first insterment then it always is hard at first. (Not saying that it wont be hard if you been playing for years) It just takes practice. :D

The faster you play the more your accuracy counts. Basically because if you miss a note at high speed, you need to play catch up with all the others.

Take note of the BPM where you feel you're loosing tempo. This will become your next goal. You have the right approach where you take it slow and build up the tempo.

What you could is do your normal drills 10 bpm shy of your goal tempo. Once in a while, try out that goal tempo. Don't spend too much time on a tempo you can't handle. That will screw up your technique. By just trying it out once in a while you'll be pushing yourself while keeping your accuracy and technique.

The problem is that most metronomes give you four clicks (one per each beat), and you don’t hear anything in between clicks.
To solve that issue you can use a drum machine which allows you to hear the clicks in between the beats. You can even assign a different channel for each step.
Here is the link to a free download.


http://www.d-lusion.com/DownloadDrumstation.html


It is important to warm up before you get into a serious speed training session, and after warming up, don’t spend too much time playing at slow tempos because it is unproductive; instead, find the tempo were you can still play accurately but is not too easy, and then practice a few times at your goal tempo, but don’t spend too much time there either, because you will develop some bad habits and poor technique, finally go back to the previous tempo and finish your session cooling off. In a short time you’ll notice your progress and it‘ll be time to set a new goal.
Hope that helps.

Thanks for the responses. After I posted the question I pretty much realized that its like everything else so far with the guitar. I just need to keep at it and time and practice will probably solve the problem. Its just going from playing one note for every beat of the metronome to trying to play 4 notes for every beat is making me have to develop my ear and my timing that much more. I cannot believe how much better I play after a session with the metronome. It helps so much but thinking about using it is about like thinking about going to the dentist. But the more I use it the more I am changing my mind on what a great tool it is.

Hey equator...I will give that download a try. Thanks