The short version
- BPM is beats per minute: 60 BPM is one click a second, 120 BPM is two. Most pop sits around 100–120 BPM.
- Tempo markings are rough ranges: Adagio ≈ 66–76 BPM, Andante ≈ 76–108, Moderato ≈ 108–120, Allegro ≈ 120–156, Presto ≈ 168–200.
- In 6/8 and 12/8 the beat is the dotted quarter — the two (or four) big pulses you tap your foot to, each split into three eighths.
- Practise slow, then climb in small steps. Start where you can play cleanly and add 2–5 BPM at a time; a speed trainer does the climbing for you.
- A gap trainer tests your inner clock: the click drops out for a bar or two and you hear instantly whether you rushed or dragged.
How to use this online metronome
- Set the tempo. Drag the slider, type a number, use the + and − buttons (hold them, or Shift-click, for 5 at a time), or tap the Tap button or T along with a song to measure its BPM.
- Choose a time signature and subdivision. 4/4 covers most pop and rock; 3/4 is a waltz; 6/8 and 12/8 sway; 5/4 and 7/8 are the odd ones. Add eighths, triplets or sixteenths to hear the space between beats.
- Shape the accents. Tap any beat dot to cycle it through accent, normal and mute. Mute beats 1 and 3 in 4/4 and you have a backbeat click on 2 and 4.
- Press Start (or Space) and play. Begin at a tempo you can play cleanly. Speed is a side effect of clean, not the other way round.
- Use the practice tools. The speed trainer adds a few BPM every few bars up to a target; the gap trainer mutes bars to test you; the timer stops you after 10 minutes so you actually go and do something else.
Got Bluetooth headphones on? The click stays perfectly even, but it reaches your ears a fraction late. For playing along with a record, wired headphones or speakers feel tighter.
What BPM is Andante, Allegro and the other tempo markings?
Italian tempo markings describe a speed and a character, not an exact number — they were in use long before metronomes existed. The BPM ranges below are the commonly quoted conventions; different books, editions and composers disagree by a few BPM, so treat them as a guide. The label under the BPM readout uses simplified, non-overlapping cut-offs from this chart.
| Marking | Meaning | Approx. BPM |
|---|---|---|
| Larghissimo | As slow as possible | 24 and under |
| Grave | Very slow, solemn | 25–45 |
| Largo | Broad, slow | 40–60 |
| Lento | Slow | 45–60 |
| Larghetto | Fairly broad | 60–66 |
| Adagio | Slow, at ease | 66–76 |
| Andante | At a walking pace | 76–108 |
| Moderato | Moderate | 108–120 |
| Allegretto | Moderately fast | 112–120 |
| Allegro | Fast, bright | 120–156 |
| Vivace | Lively, fast | 156–176 |
| Presto | Very fast | 168–200 |
| Prestissimo | As fast as possible | 200 and over |
What BPM is each music genre?
Genres live in fairly tight tempo bands, and that is the single most useful thing a metronome can tell a producer. These ranges match the Suno BPM cheat-sheet by genre; the “Jump to a genre tempo” menu above sets the sweet spot for you.
| Genre | Typical BPM | Sweet spot | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ambient / cinematic | 60–80 | 70 | Space matters more than the click |
| Lo-fi hip-hop | 70–90 | 75 | Lazy, slightly behind the beat |
| Hip-hop / boom bap | 85–95 | 90 | The head-nod zone |
| Reggaeton | 90–100 | 95 | Dembow rhythm |
| Pop | 100–120 | 116 | Drop toward 100 for ballads |
| Synthwave | 100–120 | 110 | Steady, driving eighths |
| House / disco | 120–128 | 124 | Four-on-the-floor kick |
| Techno | 125–135 | 130 | Hypnotic, relentless |
| Trap | 130–150 | 140 | Half-time feel: snare on 3, so it feels like ~70 |
| Rock / pop-punk | 130–160 | 140 | Live drums, pushes forward |
| Drill | 140–145 | 142 | Half-time, sliding 808s |
| Phonk | 130–160 | 145 | Cowbell optional but traditional |
| Hardstyle | 150–160 | 150 | Distorted kick on every beat |
| Drum and bass | 170–175 | 174 | Rolling breakbeats |
What do time signatures mean?
A time signature tells you how the beats are grouped into bars. The top number is how many; the bottom number is what kind of note gets counted — 4 means quarter notes, 8 means eighth notes. Signatures in eighths with a top number of 6, 9 or 12 are compound: the eighths fall into groups of three, and you feel each group as one big beat. That is why this metronome counts BPM in dotted quarters for 6/8 and 12/8.
| Signature | Count it as | BPM counts | Feel / where you hear it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/4 | 1 2 | Quarter note | Marches, polkas, two-step |
| 3/4 | 1 2 3 | Quarter note | Waltzes, many folk ballads |
| 4/4 | 1 2 3 4 | Quarter note | Most pop, rock, hip-hop and dance music |
| 5/4 | 1 2 3 4 5 | Quarter note | Usually felt 3 + 2, as in Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” |
| 6/8 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Dotted quarter | Two swaying beats: Irish jigs, slow rock ballads |
| 7/8 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | Quarter note | Grouped 2 + 2 + 3: Balkan dance rhythms, prog rock |
| 12/8 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | Dotted quarter | Four triplet-feel beats: slow blues, shuffles, 50s ballads |
Want 7/8 grouped 3 + 2 + 2 instead? Tap the dots: accent 1, 4 and 6, and set 3 and 5 back to normal.
How to practise with a metronome
- Find your clean tempo first. Play the passage slowly enough that it is right three times in a row. That number is your real tempo today, whatever the record says.
- Climb in small steps. Add 2–5 BPM, play it clean, repeat. Set the speed trainer to, say, +4 BPM every 4 bars and let it do the nudging.
- Back off when it gets messy. If the speed trainer outruns you, stop, drop 10 BPM below where it broke, and climb again. Practising mistakes at speed only makes faster mistakes.
- Subdivide. Turn on eighths or sixteenths when a part feels rushed. Hearing the gaps between beats is what stops you rushing into the next one.
- Move the click. Put the click on 2 and 4 only (mute 1 and 3) for groove and swing, or click only beat 1 once you are confident. Less click means more of the time-keeping is yours.
- Go silent. The gap trainer — 3 bars on, 1 bar off, then 2 on and 2 off — is the honest test. If you land back on the click, your time is yours.
- Keep sessions short. Focused practice with a timer beats an hour of noodling. Set “Stop after” to 10 or 15 minutes and take the break when it rings.
Why I built this
I taught myself guitar at 14 on a borrowed guitar that was half broken, and nobody told me about metronomes. So I learned to rush. Every fill, every solo, every exciting bit — straight off the front of the beat like an over-keen Labrador.
Phone metronome apps fixed it eventually, but most of them want a subscription for the speed trainer, which is the one bit you actually need. So here it is, free, in a browser tab, no account. The gap trainer is the bit that humbled me: three bars on, one bar off, and I still come back in a whisker early. Here’s the honest bit — it’s a click, not a teacher. But it never gets bored of counting to four, which is more than I can say for me.
It is also handy for the AI side of what I do: I tap along to a Suno draft, find out it is 92 BPM, and know exactly what number to write in the next prompt.
Using your tempo in a Suno prompt
Suno responds to an explicit number in the style box — “92 bpm” works better than “mid-tempo”. The snippet box in the metronome builds a short tempo phrase from your settings, like 92 bpm, 4/4, steady groove, and adds the genre if you picked one from the menu. Copy it, or press Open in Prompt Studio to carry the BPM straight into the full style builder, where you can add instruments, vocals and mood.
- Pair the number with the genre. “house, 124 bpm” agrees with itself; “lo-fi, 150 bpm” fights itself and sounds frantic.
- Say half-time when you mean it. Trap and drill are written around 140 BPM but feel half as fast. “140 bpm, half-time feel” is clearer than “70 bpm trap”.
- Odd meters are a gamble. “7/8” and “5/4” in a prompt are a nudge, not a guarantee — AI music models lean heavily towards 4/4. Try it, and expect a few rerolls.
The best BPM for Suno by genre guide goes deeper, and the drum machine lets you hear a full beat at the tempo before you prompt. Already have a track and want its tempo? The BPM and key finder can tap it out or analyse an audio file.
How it works, and what it does with your data
Browser timers like setInterval wobble by several milliseconds and pause in background tabs, so this metronome does not use them for timing. A short timer just wakes up a lookahead scheduler, which books each click a fraction of a second ahead on the Web Audio clock — the clock that drives the sound card — so every click lands on an exact sample. When the tab is in the background it books further ahead (about a second and a half) so the beat keeps going; that is why a change made while the tab is hidden can take a moment to be heard.
The pendulum, beat lights and flash read the same audio clock, minus the output delay the browser reports, so they line up with what you hear. With “reduce motion” switched on in your system settings, the pendulum stays still and only the beat lights change. Every sound — click, woodblock, cowbell, hi-hat and beep — is synthesised on the spot from oscillators and filtered noise; there are no audio files.
Nothing is uploaded and there is no account. Your settings (tempo, signature, accents, trainer values) and today’s practice minutes are stored only in your browser’s local storage. Clear your site data and they are gone.
Metronome FAQ
What does BPM mean on a metronome?
Beats per minute: how many clicks you hear in sixty seconds. 60 BPM is one a second, 120 BPM is two. Here the beat is the quarter note in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4 and 7/8, and the dotted quarter in 6/8 and 12/8.
What BPM is Andante, Allegro or Adagio?
Roughly: Adagio 66–76, Andante 76–108, Moderato 108–120, Allegro 120–156, Presto 168–200 BPM. They are conventions, not rules — books and composers disagree by a few BPM. See the tempo markings chart.
Is an online metronome accurate, or will it drift?
This one does not drift. Each click is scheduled ahead on the Web Audio clock, which runs from the sound card, so the spacing is sample-accurate even when the page is busy. If you hear wobble, Bluetooth audio or a badly overloaded device is the likely cause, not the timing.
How do I use a metronome in 6/8?
Pick 6/8 and set the BPM to the dotted quarter — the two big beats you tap your foot to. The metronome plays all six eighths, accents the start of each group of three and gives beat 1 the strongest click. 12/8 is the same with four groups.
What is a speed trainer?
It raises the tempo for you while you play. Set a start BPM, a target, how much to add and how many bars between steps. It climbs in small steps without stopping and tells you (loudly, with a little chime) when you hit the target.
What does the gap trainer do?
It plays a few bars of click, then goes silent for a few bars while you keep playing. When the click comes back you hear straight away whether you rushed or dragged. It is the quickest way to find out how steady your own time really is.
Can I make it click only on beats 2 and 4?
Yes. In 4/4, tap the dots for beats 1 and 3 until they show as muted (dashed). The click then lands only on the backbeat — the classic way to practise swing and groove.
Why can’t I hear it on my iPhone?
On iPhone and iPad the ring/silent switch can mute web audio. Flip it to ring, turn the volume up and press Start again. If you expect sound in Bluetooth headphones, check they are connected.
Does it work with Bluetooth headphones?
Yes — the clicks stay evenly spaced, but Bluetooth adds a delay on the way to your ears. The visuals compensate where the browser reports that delay. For playing along with a recording, wired headphones or speakers feel tightest.
Does it upload anything or need an account?
No. Sounds are synthesised in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and there is no account. Settings and today’s practice minutes live only in your browser’s local storage.
Know your tempo? Build the rest of the prompt.
The free Paddy Prompt Studio turns a BPM, a genre and a mood into a full Suno style prompt — and writes Vidmuse video scripts for the finished track.
Open the Prompt Studio →