How to use the metronome
- Tempo (BPM): type a number from 30 to 300, use the minus and plus buttons, drag the slider, or pick a Quick tempo.
- Tap tempo: tap in time with a song. The tool averages your last eight taps and starts over after 2.5 seconds without a tap.
- Time signature: choose 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8 or 7/8. The dots show one bar.
- Accent the first beat: tick it for a higher click on beat 1, or untick it for an even click. Volume sets the loudness.
- Press Start. You can change any setting while it plays, and your settings are remembered in this browser.
How it works
The time between two clicks is 60 divided by the tempo, in seconds, and one bar lasts the number of beats times that gap. A plain browser timer wobbles when the page is busy, so each click is queued on the Web Audio clock just ahead of time and a short timer only tops up the queue, the lookahead method in Chris Wilson's A tale of two clocks. The name under the number (Largo, Andante, Allegro) is the traditional Italian tempo marking, which sources place a few BPM apart, so treat it as a guide.
Worked example
With the defaults, 120 BPM in 4/4 with the first beat accented, the tool shows 120 BPM, Allegro and 0.50 s between clicks, 2.00 s per bar in 4/4. That is 60 divided by 120, half a second per click, and four clicks make a two second bar, or 30 bars a minute. At 90 BPM the gap grows to 0.67 seconds.
Limits and edge cases
- The tempo must be a whole number from 30 to 300. Anything else shows a message and the last valid tempo keeps playing.
- In 6/8 and 7/8 each click is an eighth note, and 6/8 gets a softer accent on beat 4 to mark its two groups of three. In 7/8 only beat 1 is accented.
- Keep the page open: computers keep time in a background tab, but phones may pause audio when the screen locks.
- Bluetooth speakers delay every click equally, so spacing stays even, but it is not suited to syncing with a recording.
- Count clean run-throughs with the tally counter, time a practice block with the countdown timer, or plan sessions with the Pomodoro timer.
Frequently asked questions
What BPM should I practice at?
Start where you can play the passage cleanly, often well below performance speed. Raise the tempo by a few BPM only after several clean run-throughs in a row, and drop back if mistakes return.
How do I find the BPM of a song?
Play the song and press Tap tempo on every beat, at least eight times. The tool averages your last eight taps and sets the tempo. If the number is twice or half what it feels like, you tapped the off beats, so tap the main pulse instead.
What tempo is typical for different styles?
Ballads often sit around 60 to 80 BPM, pop around 100 to 130, rock around 110 to 140, house around 120 to 130 and drum and bass around 170 to 180. These are typical ranges, not rules.
Why does 6/8 give six clicks per bar?
In 6/8 and 7/8 each click is one eighth note, so the tempo counts eighth notes. To practice 6/8 in two big beats, multiply the dotted quarter tempo by 3: a dotted quarter at 60 is 180 BPM here, with accents on beats 1 and 4.
Why can I not hear the click?
Browsers only start sound after a button press, so press Start first. Then check the Volume slider, your device volume and, on an iPhone, the silent switch, which can mute web audio.
Sources: Chris Wilson, A tale of two clocks (web.dev); Wikipedia, Tempo (tempo marking ranges, which vary a little between sources).