Online metronome

This online metronome gives you a steady click for practicing an instrument, singing, rehearsing with a band or recording. Set any tempo from 20 to 300 BPM, and go well beyond a basic click:

• Time signatures from 1/4 to 12/4, plus 3/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8 and 12/8, with selectable groupings for odd meters.
• Per-beat accents: every beat can be strong, medium, normal or muted.
• Subdivisions: eighths, triplets, sixteenths, quintuplets, sextuplets or swing eighths, with a separate subdivision volume.
• Six sounds: classic click, woodblock, beep, cowbell, rimshot and a drum kit.
• Practice tools: a tempo trainer, a mute-bar trainer and a practice timer that can stop on its own.

Every click is scheduled ahead of time on your device's audio clock, so the beat stays steady when you switch tabs or your computer is busy. Changes made while it plays land on the next beat. While it runs, the screen stays awake if your browser supports it.

Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. Your settings are saved in this browser, so you pick up where you left off.

Next to the BPM, the metronome shows the matching Italian tempo marking and the length of one beat in milliseconds (60,000 ÷ BPM, so 500 ms at 120 BPM).

These ranges are conventions, not rules. A number on your score, such as ♩ = 96, always wins.

For odd meters, choose how the bar splits: 5/8 as 2+3 or 3+2, 7/8 as 2+2+3, 3+2+2 or 2+3+2, and 9/8 as 3+3+3 or 2+2+2+3. Group starts get a medium accent, so you always hear where each group begins.

A metronome for 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8. Compound meters are felt in big beats of three eighths, so by default the click falls on the dotted quarter and the BPM counts dotted quarters (♩. = 60). Learning slowly? Switch to clicking every eighth. The tempo converts automatically, so the music keeps its speed: ♩. = 60 equals ♪ = 180. Odd meters can also click once per group, which helps at fast Balkan tempos.

Tap a beat to cycle it through strong, medium, normal and muted. Useful setups:

• Backbeat only: in 4/4, mute beats 1 and 3 so the click lands on 2 and 4, like a snare. You supply the rest of the pulse.
• Downbeat only: at fast tempos, keep just beat one to hear the top of each bar.

Subdivisions add softer clicks between the beats. Eighths and sixteenths keep your strumming or sticking even; triplets and quintuplets train three- and five-note groupings. With swing eighths, set the swing ratio from 50% (straight) to 75% (dotted); about 67% is a classic triplet swing. Because subdivisions have their own volume, the main beat always cuts through. Woodblock and rimshot are sharp; cowbell and the drum kit cut through a full band.

1. Tempo ladder. Turn on the tempo trainer, enter a target, a step size and how many bars per step. The main BPM is your starting tempo. From 80 to 120 BPM, up 4 BPM every 4 bars, you reach the target in bar 41. Changes land on the bar line and the tempo holds at the target. Set a lower target to slow down instead.
2. Mute-bar test. Play 2 bars with the click and 2 bars of silence, and keep playing through the gap. If you land with the click when it returns, your inner time is solid. Then try 1 on, 3 off. By default the beat lights go dark during silent bars too.
3. Focused blocks. The practice timer runs only while the metronome plays. Set a number of minutes and it stops on its own.

To match a song, tap the Tap tempo button or press T along with the beat. Four or more taps give a stable reading: the metronome averages your recent taps, ignores taps that are way off, and starts over after a 2.5-second pause. For a recording, the BPM finder can detect the tempo and open the metronome at that BPM.

Shortcuts work whenever you are not typing in a field: Space starts and stops, Up/Down arrows change the tempo by 1 BPM, and Shift with an arrow changes it by 5.