Online Metronome

Why Use a Metronome

Musicians, regardless of their level of expertise, can benefit immensely from incorporating a metronome into their practice routines. Serving as a steadfast rhythmic guide, the metronome cultivates a musician‘s sense of timing, precision, and consistency. By practicing with a metronome, musicians can refine their ability to play in tempo, ensuring that their performances maintain a steady rhythm and flow seamlessly. Moreover, the metronome aids in the development of internal timing and pulse, essential skills for ensemble playing and musical communication.

For beginners, the metronome provides a structured framework for learning new pieces and building foundational rhythm skills. Intermediate and advanced players can use the metronome to challenge themselves with increasingly complex rhythms and tempos, pushing the boundaries of their musicality. Whether practicing scales, exercises, or intricate compositions, the metronome serves as a reliable tool for honing rhythmic accuracy and enhancing overall musical proficiency. Ultimately, by integrating the metronome into their practice sessions, musicians can unlock their full potential, elevating their performances to new heights of precision, expression, and musicality.

Practice Tips

1. Start Slowly

Begin practicing a passage at a tempo where you can comfortably play it accurately. Gradually increase the tempo as you become more confident, using the metronome to maintain steady progress.

2. Use Subdivisions

Set the metronome to subdivide the beat into smaller units (e.g., eighth notes, triplets) to improve rhythmic precision and internalize complex rhythms.

3. Focus on Accuracy

Pay close attention to how your notes align with the metronome clicks. Aim for each note to land precisely on the beat, ensuring tight synchronization between your playing and the metronome.

4. Experiment with Different Tempos

Practice at various tempos to develop flexibility and control over different musical styles and speeds. Slow tempos can help refine technique, while faster tempos challenge your dexterity and agility.

5. Practice with Dynamic Markings

Use the metronome to practice dynamics, gradually increasing or decreasing the volume of your playing in sync with the metronome‘s tempo.

6. Record Yourself

Record your practice sessions with the metronome to track your progress over time. Listen back to identify areas for improvement and adjust your practice accordingly.

7. Stay Relaxed

Avoid tensing up or rushing to keep up with the metronome. Focus on maintaining a relaxed and steady tempo, allowing your playing to flow naturally.

Features

A metronome created by a musician. As a violinist and pianist, I often found metronome applications to be lacking in one way or another. They would get the job done in terms of keeping the beat, but perhaps the UI was not well designed, it was missing some features, or it was not that intuitive to use. When I built this web metronome app, I wanted to take all the features that I liked from other metronomes and put them in one place. I also wanted to make the metronome accessible to all, regardless of operating system or device. As a teacher, when I would ask my students to use a metronome or drone to practice, it would be difficult to recommend a specific application, because some have a smart phone, some do not, some use iOS, and others may be on Android. This app is the one-stop solution for all devices and musical needs.

Flash on Beat

Sometimes, it is difficult to hear the metronome, given the volume of your instrument or the instruments playing around you. Other times, you may want to keep the metronome on silent, while having a very clear visual indication of the beat. The Flash on Beat feature exists for this reason, flashing the entire screen on every beat.

Pitch Drone for Tuning

For strings and winds, tuning and intonation is a constant concern, and it is important for students to develop their ear early on. The pitch drone feature that is included with this metronome can be used to tune an instrument, or practice a passage in a particular key. For example, if a musician is playing a C major scale, it is helpful to set the drone to a C or a G and tune the notes of the scale against the drone.

Keyboard Shortcuts

For musicians that want to use a metronome on their laptop or desktop computer, the wide array of keyboard shortcuts that this metronome app provides can speed up various commands. Everything from starting and stopping the metronome to adjusting the number of polyrhythm beats is linked to a convenient keyboard shortcut, making most of the metronome controllable from the keyboard.

Polyrhythms

For advanced musicians, especially pianists and percussionists that have to perform complex polyrhythms in their music, the metronome‘s polyrhythm feature is a great practice tool. With support for up to 21 main beats and 15 secondary beats, the cross-rhythm combinations are numerous. Furthermore, this metronome allows for sound customization and beat accent adjustment on the polythyhm beat, giving great flexibility in timbre.

Subdivisions

Subdivisions are helpful for practicing more intricate rhythms in slower pieces, or ensuring that the notes within each beat are placed accurately. Miitronome supports various subdivisions up to quintuplets.

Custom Beat Accents

The metronome provides an easily accessible way to adjust the accent on each beat with three possible levels. This adjustment can be performed on both the main beat and the cross-rhythm beat.

Tap Tempo

Often, a musician won‘t know the exact tempo of a song, so it is helpful to be able to tap along to what they hear. This feature can be accessed by tapping on the BPM indication (the big number at the top), or tapping the "T" key on the keyboard.

About the Developer

This application is developed by Michael Shingo Crawford, a software developer and violinist. View his portfolio and music website.