So when I was a kid I had this piano teacher who was completely against even owning a metronome.
He was adamant that using a metronome to practice was a bad habit and insisted that pupils always count "internally".
In retrospect, several years later, this seems to me like unorthodox advice.
I recently started playing again, and after playing through a new piece I am even finding it very helpful to practice it at different tempos with a metronome, going from incredibly sloooow to faster to super uber fast, and then sloooow again: I can play with increased confidence and I can iron out all the parts that don't quite work - and afterwards I can concentrate on expression, rallentando, accelerando, crescendo as I please.
So: I'm confused.
Can anybody show me what are the pros and cons of practicing to a metronome and why would a teacher ban it altogether?