Over the years I've had to remind myself that most of my students belong to a different generation, and that what I say to them might mean something different to them than it does for me. One such example is metronome markings: when I tell my students to practice an excerpt at one tempo several times and then to go up one notch, for them it means to go, let's say, from 80 to 81 bpm, whereas for me it means to go from 80 to 84 bpm. Here is why.