Metronome Online: 20 to 300 BPM, right in the browser
A metronome is one steady pulse, counted in beats per minute. That's the whole idea — and it's exactly why it works: it makes you count instead of guess.
Metronome Online runs right in the browser and schedules every click through the Web Audio API. There are 281 BPM pages from 20 to 300, plus tap tempo, a speed trainer, a rest trainer and stage mode. No download, no account.
What you can do here
Six features, and what each one is actually for.
Stage Mode
F opens stage mode: fullscreen, BPM in oversized numbers, and beat dots you can read from three feet back. Works on a phone, a tablet, or whatever laptop you brought to rehearsal.
Speed Trainer
M raises the BPM on its own, every X bars. You set the step and where it starts and stops; it handles the rest. Useful when you're stuck on a passage and want out without resetting your hand every time.
Rest Trainer
G mutes the click for a few bars, then brings it back by itself. This is the least obvious part of practising: holding the tempo with no audible reference is what separates playing on autopilot from actually knowing where you are.
Tap Tempo
Hit Tap or press T along with the music. After three or four taps the BPM has landed — the fastest way to find the tempo of a record you don't even have the sheet music for.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Space starts and stops, arrows change the BPM, 1–6 switch time signature. You can get through a whole practice session without touching the mouse.
Visual Beat Indicators
The dots under the BPM light up with the sound, and the first beat of each bar lights up brighter. You can see where you are in the bar out of the corner of your eye.
How to use it in practice
The basics come down to three settings.
Pick your BPM
Drag the slider or type the number straight into the display. Arrows move it in single steps; hold Shift for fives. The range runs from 20 to 300 BPM — from a genuinely slow Adagio up to a real Prestissimo.
Set the time signature
Keys 1 to 6 switch the time signature. It starts in 4/4, which is the default for most pop music, but 3/4 for a waltz and 6/8 for compound time work just as well. Worth trying: sometimes the wrong time signature, not a lack of practice, is what's losing you.
Find the tempo of a song
Hit Tap or press T at the rhythm of whatever you're playing. After three or four taps the display stops wobbling and locks onto the tempo. If you're learning a track without sheet music, that's the shortest route to the number.
Tempo markings, in Italian
The same vocabulary you'll see in the score — with the BPM range for each.
Larghissimo
Too slow to fit in a bar
Grave
Slow and heavy, almost funereal
Largo
Slow and broad
Larghetto
A little quicker than Largo
Adagio
Slow, with weight
Adagietto
Adagio in motion
Andante
Walking pace
Andantino
A little quicker than Andante
Moderato
Neither slow nor fast
Allegretto
Shy Allegro
Allegro
Fast and clean — this is where pop lives
Vivace
Allegro with more life
Molto Vivace
Very fast, almost feverish
Presto
Just fast
Prestissimo
As fast as it goes
Ultra Presto
Beyond what's normally written down
A few tempos that keep coming up
Where you end up when you're practising — and what to do at each one.
Warm-up (60 BPM)
Start at 60 BPM to warm up. Slow enough that your fingers find the notes without rushing, and slow enough that you can think about tone instead of just hitting the right finger. Raise it after.
Hip-hop and R&B (90–110 BPM)
90 to 110 BPM is where hip-hop and R&B grooves live. In that range you can work on pocket without losing it: what's right and what's wrong happen at the same time, and you can hear the difference.
The pop and dance standard (120 BPM)
120 BPM is the Allegro, and the most common number in rock, pop and dance. It makes a good reference point: if you can play something cleanly at 120, you're halfway there.
Speed exercises (160+ BPM)
Past 160 BPM it's pure speed. Get there with the speed trainer — jumping up twenty at a time only teaches you to play badly.
Popular Tempos
Jump straight to a tempo — each page opens the metronome at that BPM.
Questions
What comes up most in search.