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@Skyman I agree with @jumpinjeff Don’t even use your metronome if you are still in the learning phase of any piece. Get the music under your fingers first, let your brain be OK with your chord transitions and finger placements. If you don’t have those in place you will never be able to keep up with the metronome.
I’d say the metronome is great for learning to play the notes/chords in the correct rhythm. Slow it down really slow at first and count out loud. All the beats and the ands and the ahhh’s. One-Eeee-Annn-Ahhhh, Two-Eeeee-Annn-Ahhhh, or One-Trip-Let, Two-Trip-Let, etc etc… Stress the counts where you are playing a note, ONE-eee-ann-AHHH, TWO-eee-ann-AHHHH, THREE, etc etc. I did some beginner’s drumming stuff and it’s amazing how that helps you learn rhythms!!
Another really good use for a metronome is when you’re learning a piece and you’re thinking about giving up because you’ll never be able to play it at full speed (Like Tony P does it). So get out your metronome, set it at whatever. Pick something. 30 bpm. Try playing. If you can’t keep up, slow it down by 10 bpm. Try it at 20. Find the speed you CAN play it at. Once you can play it 5 times without a mistake, nudge the bpm’s up by 3 or 5. So go from 20 bpm to 25. Play it 5 times perfectly and nudge it up to 30. Before you know it, you are playing it at tempo.
And yes metronome is good for practicing scales. Nice and level and even… Scales are good for us, like vegetables.
My fav metronome is a free app called ProMetronome. You can make a different click for the first beat of a measure or make the same click for every beat. You can even make it silent. You can tap the screen (to a song you are hearing) and it will tell you what the tempo is in bpm. You can change to any time signature. Not bad for a free app.
Sorry this is so long. I’m procrastinating playing my scales, hahahaha!!