Question 1

Is this online metronome free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every tempo from 20 to 500 BPM, every time signature, the subdivisions, the swing, the polyrhythm voice, the speed trainer, the gap trainer, the count-in, the spoken count, the saved setups and the setlist: all of it works without an account, a trial or a payment. No setting on this page asks you for money, and there is no limit on how long you run it.

Question 2

Can I tap the tempo instead of typing it?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Press "Tap the tempo" four times in time with the music, or hit the T key, and the tempo comes from your taps. It averages your last few taps instead of the gap between the final two, so one uneven tap doesn't throw the number off. Pause for two seconds and the next tap starts a fresh count.

Question 3

Can I get a metronome with subdivision, like eighths, triplets or sixteenths?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Under "Subdivision and swing" each beat can split into eighths, triplets, sixteenths, quintuplets or sextuplets, and the uneven patterns are there too: a dotted eighth with a sixteenth, a shuffle that plays the first and last note of the triplet, and an offbeat setting that clicks only on the "and" so you have to place the beat yourself. If the pattern you want isn't in the list, choose "A pattern you set yourself", pick how many pulses the beat splits into, and switch each one on or off. The subdivision has its own sound and its own level, so it sits under the beat rather than competing with it.

Question 4

Does this work as a 3/4, 6/8, 5/4 or 7/8 metronome?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and as anything else up to 16 beats over a note value of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. Compound meters arrive the way they are actually felt: 6/8 comes set up as two groups of three rather than six equal clicks. Odd meters can be regrouped, so a 7/8 metronome runs 2+2+3, 3+2+2 or 2+3+2 and the accent lands where the phrase does. The grouping buttons appear as soon as the bar has a length that gets played in groups.

Question 5

How do I get a 120 BPM metronome or a 60 BPM metronome?

Accepted Answer

Type the number into the tempo box, or press one of the tempo buttons under the slider. To come back to the same tempo later, or send it to someone, press "Copy a link to this setup". The link carries the tempo with it, so opening it starts at 120 BPM, or 60, or whatever you set before copying.

Question 6

Is there a visual metronome I can use with the sound off?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Mute the click with the speaker button and the beat is still there to see: the dots light in turn, the pendulum swings, and under "Sound and what you see" you can add a screen flash, a large beat number, or both. Above three flashes a second the screen flashes once a bar instead of once a beat, and when your system asks for reduced motion it stops flashing altogether, because a fast full-screen flash is a real risk for some people.

Question 7

Is this a good metronome for guitar?

Accepted Answer

For getting a passage up to speed, the two settings that matter are the speed trainer and the gap trainer. Start the trainer below the tempo you can already play cleanly and let it add 5 BPM every four bars, then keep going until it stops climbing: you find out exactly where your playing comes apart instead of guessing. Once it holds, switch on the gap trainer so the click drops out for two bars at a time. Keeping tempo through that silence is the difference between playing along with a metronome and having time of your own.

Question 8

Is this a good metronome for drums?

Accepted Answer

The settings drummers reach for first are the subdivision and the accent pattern. Set eighths or sixteenths, give them their own quieter sound so the beat still reads through them, then press individual beats to switch them off: a click on 2 and 4 only, or on the downbeat only, tells you far more about your time than a click on everything. For odd time, group the bar, 7/8 as 2+2+3, and the accents fall where the phrase does. The polyrhythm voice covers 3 over 2 and 4 over 3 with a separate sound for each side.

Question 9

Can I use this as a metronome for piano practice?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and two things here are aimed at it. Hands-separate work at a slow tempo needs a subdivision to keep the space between beats honest, so set eighths or triplets and it fills them in. And the marking beside the tempo names what the score is asking for: set 76 and it reads Adagio, which saves converting Andante into a number in your head. The table under the tool lists every marking with its range.

Question 10

Do I need to download a metronome app for this?

Accepted Answer

No. It runs on the page, and once the page has loaded once it keeps working with the network off, so a practice room with no signal still has a metronome. On a phone the screen is held awake while the click runs and released the moment you stop it, which is the thing most likely to interrupt you when a phone is propped on a music stand.

Question 11

Will the click drift or stutter while I'm playing?

Accepted Answer

No, and it is worth saying how that is done. A metronome that sets a timer for each click drifts, because a browser timer fires late whenever the page is busy and later still when the tab is in the background. This one queues every click on the audio clock about a tenth of a second before it is due, and once a click sits on that clock it sounds at the exact sample it was placed at, whatever the rest of the page is doing. Subdivisions, swing and the polyrhythm voice are placed on the same clock in the same pass, so they cannot wander against the beat.

Question 12

Can the metronome speed up gradually while I practise?

Accepted Answer

Yes, that is the speed trainer, and it has two modes because two different things get called the same name. Bar mode adds a set number of BPM every so many bars, say 5 BPM every four bars from 80 up to 120, then holds at 120 when it arrives. Time mode glides from where you are to the target over a number of minutes, small enough that you never hear a step.

Question 13

Can it go silent for a few bars so I can check my own timing?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Turn on the gap trainer and set how many bars play and how many stay silent. The bar count keeps running through the silence and the click returns exactly where it would have been, so if you are still together when it comes back, your time held. Two bars on and two off is a good place to start, then make the gaps longer as they get easy.

Question 14

Can it count the beats out loud?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Switch on "Count the beats out loud" and a voice says the beat number on each beat, in the language this page is in, while the subdivisions keep clicking underneath. The numbers are short recordings placed on the same clock as the clicks, which is what lets them land on the beat rather than somewhere near it.

Question 15

Can I set a polyrhythm, like 3 against 2?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Turn on "Play a polyrhythm" and choose how many clicks fall across how many beats: 3 across 2, 4 across 3, 5 across 4, or any pair you type in. The second voice takes its own sound, so the two rhythms stay separate lines and you can hear where they meet. The pattern restarts with each bar, which keeps it anchored to the downbeat instead of drifting around the bar.

Question 16

Can I swing the eighth notes?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Set the subdivision to eighths or sixteenths, then move the swing slider: straight at the left, a triplet feel around two thirds along, a hard dotted shuffle at the right. Everything between is available too, which matters because most swing sits somewhere between straight and triplet rather than exactly on either.

Question 17

Can I save my settings and reuse them?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Name a setup and it keeps everything in it: tempo, time signature, grouping, subdivision, swing, the accent on each beat, the sounds and their levels, and the trainer settings. Setups can also be chained into a setlist that moves on after a number of bars or waits for you to press next, which is what a piece that changes tempo halfway through needs. All of it stays in this browser, so there is nothing to sign into.

Question 18

What BPM is Allegro, and what about Andante?

Accepted Answer

Allegro is usually taken as roughly 121 to 156 BPM and Andante as roughly 77 to 108. Treat both as bands rather than fixed numbers: editions disagree by a few BPM at every boundary, and a marking carries character as much as speed. The word beside the tempo on this page names the band your current setting falls into, and the table under the tool runs from Larghissimo to Prestissimo, each row clickable to set that tempo and hear it.

Question 19

Is anything I do here uploaded anywhere?

Accepted Answer

No. There is no microphone, no file and no upload involved at all: every click is built in your browser out of a couple of oscillators. What you do create, your saved setups and your setlist, is stored in this browser only, and this page has no server to send it to.

Question 20

Can this tell me the BPM of a song I already have?

Accepted Answer

No, and that is a different job. A metronome produces a tempo, while getting the tempo of a recording means measuring one, which takes an analysis of the audio itself. For that, use this site's BPM Finder: drop the track in, get the number, then type it in here to play along with it.

Question 21

Does it work on my phone?

Accepted Answer

Yes, all of it: the tempo, the meters, the trainers, the setlist, the flash and the stage view. Two things are worth knowing on a phone. The screen is held awake while the click runs and released as soon as you stop it. And on an iPhone the ringer switch silences web audio, so if the page says it is running and you hear nothing, check the switch on the side.

Marking	BPM	What it asks for
Larghissimo	under 24	Slower than a heartbeat, rare outside a held introduction.
Grave	25–40	Slow and heavy, with weight on every note.
Largo	41–60	Broad. Room to let each note ring.
Larghetto	61–66	Broad, but moving a little more than Largo.
Adagio	67–76	Slow and calm, the tempo of most slow movements.
Andante	77–108	Walking pace, which is what the word means.
Moderato	109–120	Moderate. Neither pushing nor holding back.
Allegro	121–156	Fast and bright, the most common marking of all.
Vivace	157–176	Lively, quicker than Allegro and lighter with it.
Presto	177–200	Very fast, at the edge of comfortable.
Prestissimo	201 and up	As fast as the piece can be played at all.

Online Metronome

Time signature

Subdivision and swing

Click sounds

Counting out loud

Watching instead of listening

Count-in

Stop by itself

Saved setups

Setlist

Send this setup to someone

What the tempo markings mean in BPM

Keyboard

Frequently asked questions

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