Metronome

This metronome keeps strict time for practice on any instrument, for singing, dancing or running drills. Set a tempo from 20 to 300 beats per minute with the big number, the slider or the − and + buttons, or tap the beat you have in your head and it works out the BPM for you. The Italian tempo word, from Largo to Presto, updates as you go.

Timing is the part most online metronomes get wrong. A simple page timer drifts and stutters whenever the browser is busy, so this one books every click ahead of time on your device’s audio clock, which is accurate to a single sample. The click lands on the beat even while you scroll or the computer is busy.

It goes well beyond a plain tick. Choose 2/4 through 12/8 or build your own signature, add eighth, triplet or sixteenth subdivisions, and tap any beat to accent it or silence it. The speed trainer raises the tempo every few bars up to a target, and the practice timer counts only the minutes you actually play. All the sounds are made on the spot by your browser, so nothing is downloaded or uploaded.

1. Set the tempo: type a number into the big BPM display, drag the slider, use − and +, or press “Tap tempo” in time with your music.
2. Pick a time signature, a subdivision (Beats, Eighths, Triplets or Sixteenths) and a sound under the settings.
3. Tap the numbered beat circles to cycle each one through normal, accent and silent.
4. Press “Start” or the Space bar. The circles light up with every beat and the line underneath shows the bar and beat.
5. For steady progress, open “Speed trainer” and tick “Speed up automatically while I play”, or set a goal in “Practice timer”.

• Any tempo from 20 to 300 BPM, with the classical tempo marking and its meaning shown alongside.
• Tap tempo that averages your last six taps and starts afresh after a two-second pause.
• Time signatures 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8 and 12/8, plus custom signatures of 1 to 16 beats.
• Sensible default accents: compound and odd meters such as 6/8 and 7/8 get a stress at the start of each group.
• In 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8, the BPM can count every eighth note or each dotted-quarter group.
• Subdivisions in eighths, triplets or sixteenths, played softer than the main beat.
• Four synthesised sounds (Click, Woodblock, Beep and Hi-hat), a volume control and an optional flash on every beat.
• Speed trainer, practice timer with an automatic stop, keyboard shortcuts, and settings remembered on this device.

• Use headphones when you record yourself. A small speaker click near a microphone ends up on the recording.
• Practise slowly with sixteenths switched on: hearing the gaps between beats is the quickest way to stop rushing.
• Silence beats 2 and 4, or even whole beats in turn, to test whether your inner pulse holds without the click.
• Bluetooth speakers and headphones add a delay of their own. The sound will still be steady, but the flashing light may run slightly ahead of what you hear.
• On iPhone, if you hear nothing, check the volume buttons first. Newer versions of Safari play the click even with the silent switch on; older ones may not.