A free online metronome with all the essentials yet packed with powerful advanced features when you need them.
And it’s genuinely easy to use.
Now with optional Voice Count mode — it talks!
- Voice Count
- Subdivisions
- Hemiola + Polyrhythms
- 40+ Sounds
- Per-Beat Accents
- Play–Go Silent
- Practice Ladder
- A=440 Tuner
- Audio + Visual Display
- Save Your Settings
- NEWPRACTICE TOOLS:
- Hands-Free Practice Ladder
- Target Tempo Leapfrog (alternating tempo practice)
- The Seven Levels of Misery (block practice)
- Trouble Spot Rehab (spaced interval practice)
- Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice
- Interleaved Practice for Performance
↑ ↓ = Tempo change ±1 BPM (Shift + arrow = ±5 BPM)
Everything you’ve saved, in one place.
Load fills the controls and jumps down to that tool so you can start it there.
Start loads and begins it immediately, right here.
Nothing saved yet — show all
ADVANCED FEATURES
Tools for tricky rhythms and deeper practice.
Works alongside Trouble Spot Rehab and Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice — see “Practice like you have your own Personal Practice Coach” below the practice tools.
Tip: Once you’ve dialed in your settings, click/tap “+ Save this setup as a Hands-Free Practice Ladder routine…” below and give the routine a name. It is then listed in two places: the MY HANDS-FREE PRACTICE LADDER ROUTINES dropdown just below, and MY METRONOME SETUPS & PRACTICE ROUTINES near the top of the page, under Hands-Free Practice Ladder. From either one, the whole routine is one click away to practice each day.
Show settings & saved routines
No saved routines yet. Set up the ladder below, then “Save this setup as a Hands-Free Practice Ladder routine.”
A polyrhythm layers two simultaneous rhythms on top of one another.
For example, in a 3:2 (3 against 2) polyrhythm, there are 2 beats for the underlying primary rhythm on the bottom (the basic or main beat), and 3 beats for the secondary rhythm on the top (the cross rhythm).
When Polyrhythm Mode is turned on, the basic or main beat on the bottom uses a low-pitched tone, and the cross rhythm on top uses a higher-pitched tone.
Tip: To hear the primary beats counted aloud along with the polyrhythm, turn on Talking Voice Count Mode and set it to Quarter notes.
Tip: Turn on the Hands-Free Practice Ladder to raise or lower this polyrhythm's tempo automatically while you play.
SUBDIVIDE BEAT is silenced while polyrhythm is active.
A tongue-in-cheek practice game with a deadly serious purpose: don't practice mistakes. Choose a short passage from a piece you are practicing and set a goal — say, seven perfect repetitions IN A ROW. Each perfect repetition earns a golden note. Make a mistake on number six? You forfeit them all and go back to zero. Hence the misery.
It is an old trick: Mozart's father put ten dried peas in young Wolfgang's left coat pocket, and moved one to the right pocket for each perfect attempt. One slip — even on the tenth repetition — and all the peas went back to the left pocket. Whether or not the story is historically accurate, the practice principle is excellent: don’t count repetitions; count clean repetitions.
Read the full story in Douglas's technique tip, How To Learn A Piece On The Classical Guitar, Part 2.
This type of practice is called “Block Practice.” It helps musicians analyze why they are making mistakes and discover the solutions to fix them. It builds immediate muscle memory. Important: do not use Block Practice exclusively. Combine it with Interleaved Practice, Variable Practice (intentionally changing the rhythms, dynamics, or articulation of a passage), and chunking/chaining for long-lasting results.
Works alongside Trouble Spot Rehab — see “Practice like you have your own Personal Practice Coach” below the practice tools.
More suggestions to improve your practice
- Mark the problems — and the solutions — in your music. Make sure you mark in your music where the problems were or are, and be sure to write in the solution, because it is very probable you won’t remember some of them a few days later, or especially in the months to come. If you keep playing the piece and you start making mistakes in the same passage, it is going to be invaluable to have those solutions written down where you can find them in the future. If you stop playing the piece and then decide to return to it later again, those written comments are invaluable for solutions.
- Use 100% overlearning to master a passage. If it took three tries to get it perfect, shoot for three perfect repetitions in a row to solidify it. If it took six attempts to get it perfect, shoot for six perfect repetitions to make it stick.
- Same mistake three or more times in a row? You haven’t identified clearly or precisely enough what is causing that mistake. Look at it more closely.
- Take a 15-second break. Finally, scientific research shows that taking a 15-second break after three good repetitions may help solidify your mastery of the passage.
To play: choose your options below, then click the pink START THE GAME button (not the green main metronome Start button).
Tip: Once you’ve dialed in your settings, click/tap “+ Save this passage as a Block Practice routine…” below and give the routine a name. It is then listed in two places: the MY “SEVEN LEVELS OF MISERY” BLOCK PRACTICE ROUTINES dropdown just below, and MY METRONOME SETUPS & PRACTICE ROUTINES near the top of the page, under “Seven Levels of Misery”. From either one, the whole routine is one click away to practice each day.
Show settings & saved routines
No saved routines yet. Set up your passage below, then “Save this passage as a Block Practice routine.”
Got a stubborn passage that you just can’t seem to nail? Set it up below — and if you’re wrestling with several, add up to eight. The timer brings them back one at a time at spaced intervals in your practice session for focused repair work until the fix becomes reliable muscle memory. Soon you will play them correctly the first time, every time.
Like Interleaved Practice, Spaced Interval Practice is helpful for those who zone out while practicing the same passage over and over, or who tend to practice mindlessly. With several trouble spots, they take turns, so you get the benefit of interleaving and real space between visits to each one.
Researchers also recommend using spaced practice more broadly: once you tame trouble spots by spacing them out within single practice sessions, proceed to space out their practice over days or weeks.
Works alongside the Practice Ladder, the Target Tempo Leapfrog, Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice, and the Seven Levels of Misery — see “Practice like you have your own Personal Practice Coach” below the practice tools.
To start: 1) name your trouble spot — and add more if you’re working on several, 2) set the total practice time for all your trouble spots and pieces, 3) choose even or random spacing, 4) if you added more than one, choose serial or random order, 5) optional: limit how long you practice each spot when it comes up, 6) click/tap the purple START THE REHAB button below (not the green START button on the metronome itself).
Tip: Once you’ve dialed in your settings, click/tap “+ Save this setup as a Trouble Spot Rehab routine…” below and give the routine a name. It is then listed in two places: the MY TROUBLE SPOT REHAB ROUTINES dropdown just below, and MY METRONOME SETUPS & PRACTICE ROUTINES near the top of the page, under Trouble Spot Rehab. From either one, the whole routine is one click away to practice each day.
Show settings & saved routines
No saved routines yet. Set up your trouble spots below, then “Save this setup as a Trouble Spot Rehab routine.”
How it works
Build a sequence of measures and the metronome loops through them. Click a measure tab to edit it; click a note value to drop it into the bar (dot it or add rests as needed) and watch the fill meter.
A low tone marks each beat, the downbeat lower still, and every note adds a high tick. One tempo — the quarter-note BPM — applies to the whole sequence.
Stop and restart to apply edits while it's playing.
No saved rhythms yet. Build a rhythm in “BUILD A RHYTHM HERE” and save it there.
BUILD A RHYTHM HERE
time
signature
PRACTICE TOOLS
Research-based learning routines that go beyond keeping time.
Which to use: Hands-Free Practice Ladder or Target Tempo Leapfrog?
The traditional way to speed up a passage or exercise: Starts below your target tempo and gradually raises (or lowers) the tempo a few BPM at a time as you keep playing. Good for exercises. Also good for passages that are still being learned and are not yet ready to be played at their final tempo.
Starts at your target tempo from the very first pass and keeps returning to it, dropping to a much slower recovery tempo in between so you can identify problems and make corrections. Best when you are already close to the target tempo and are making the final push to play at full speed cleanly and consistently.
Why leapfrog between two tempos?
The traditional way to bring a passage up to a final target or performance tempo is the practice ladder: 80, 84, 88… step by step up to your goal. But the movements that work at a slow tempo may not be the movements that work at full speed. So instead of slowly climbing toward your goal, Target Tempo Leapfrog takes a different approach: you play at your target tempo from the very first pass and the target never moves. Between visits you drop way down to a much slower recovery tempo — not to inch your way back up, but to observe and repair: fix synchronization, release tension, prepare shifts, listen to your tone. Then you immediately test the corrections where they matter — back at the target tempo.
Each tempo has its own job. At the target tempo: feel whole gestures and groups of notes — don’t micromanage individual fingers. At the recovery tempo: make every note correct, watch for unnecessary movement, release tension.
Important: If the passage repeatedly falls apart at the target, today’s target is too fast — set a lower target and leapfrog to that instead.
Three ways to set the recovery tempo. Fixed is the classic version: one slow recovery tempo, every time. Random draws a fresh, unpredictable tempo from a range you set for every recovery pass (120 → 72 → 120 → 105 → 120 → 84…), with the option of two passes between visits — one slow, one near the target. This is variable practice: you don’t know what tempo is coming next, so your brain and muscles must adapt on every pass instead of settling into one familiar pattern. Rising keeps the target fixed but lets the recovery tempo creep upward after each visit (120 → 70 → 120 → 75 → 120 → 80…). You still return to full speed after every recovery pass, while progressively challenging your controlled playing at faster tempos. Research on these variants is sparse — each is recommended here and there, and none is a magic bullet. The one that works best will depend on the player’s level, the passage, how well the player can already play it, and the point in the learning process at which it is introduced. So try each one and keep what helps.
Stuck at a tempo you can’t break through? Learn more about fast practice
Is this you? You are learning a piece that one day you hope to play at a fast tempo. You learn the basics and then start practicing slowly with the metronome. Next, you gradually increase the speed over several days, weeks, or months until you reach your final tempo goal. Sometimes that works. But more often than not, especially in high-speed pieces or passages, you reach a certain tempo and get stuck. No matter how patiently you increase the metronome notch by notch, you cannot break through that barrier or ceiling.
The solution may be to practice the piece or passage at the final fast tempo mixed with slow practice, instead of gradually working it up to speed over time. Playing fast is not always simply a sped-up version of playing slowly. When you play something slowly, you use many motor movements that will not work at a fast tempo. Your teachers tell you to practice slowly to preserve good habits, and slow practice is still essential. But slow practice alone creates habits that are functional only up to a certain tempo, not at your final goal tempo. You will have to unlearn or adjust the movements that worked at the slow tempo and adopt new ones that work at the fast goal tempo.
Target Tempo Leapfrog develops the correct habits you need to play the piece at your final target or performance tempo from the very beginning. The slow recovery passes give you time to observe, analyze, and correct problems. The target-tempo passes immediately test whether those corrections actually work at full speed.
Practicing at the target tempo also makes it easy to detect flaws and weaknesses in your technique early in the learning process. For example, if you learn a piece solely by practicing it slowly for several weeks, you will know that the fingerings you have chosen work fine at a slow tempo. But what happens a month later when you begin to speed up? You discover that some or many of the fingerings do not work at fast speeds. That is a bummer, because now you must change the fingerings, retrain the fingers, and relearn the passage. That wastes a lot of time, which is demoralizing, and it can be hard to do once the old fingering is entrenched in your fingers and brain. With fast practice you detect the unworkable fingerings early, and you can change them before the habits settle into your neuromuscular system.
That is the central idea behind Target Tempo Leapfrog: use slow practice to diagnose and repair, but keep returning to the target tempo to make sure what you are practicing will actually work when the music is fast.
Works alongside Trouble Spot Rehab and Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice — see “Practice like you have your own Personal Practice Coach” below the practice tools.
To start: 1) enter your target tempo, 2) choose how the recovery tempo is set — Fixed (60% of the target is recommended), Random or Rising — and enter its tempo(s), 3) set how long to play each tempo, 4) choose how many visits to the target, 5) click/tap the dark green START THE LEAPFROG button below (not the big bright-green START button on the metronome itself).
Tip: Once you’ve dialed in your settings, click/tap “+ Save this setup as a Target Tempo Leapfrog routine…” below and give the routine a name. It is then listed in two places: the MY TARGET TEMPO LEAPFROG ROUTINES dropdown just below, and MY METRONOME SETUPS & PRACTICE ROUTINES near the top of the page, under Target Tempo Leapfrog. From either one, the whole routine is one click away to practice each day.
Show settings & saved routines
No saved routines yet. Set up the Leapfrog below, then “Save this setup as a Target Tempo Leapfrog routine.”
Which to use: Trouble Spot Rehab or Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice?
Intersperses a trouble spot or set of trouble spots at wide intervals throughout a longer practice session. For example, while you are memorizing a piece or learning a new one, the Trouble Spot Rehab will pop up the trouble spot(s) one at a time at wide gaps throughout the session for focused, spaced practice.
Pops up selected difficult passages one after the other for intensive practice on that group of passages, but for a limited amount of time. For example, you might be practicing a new piece or practicing exercises. Stop and turn on Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice and do intensive practice on that group of difficult passages for a set amount of time. Then resume your regular practice.
Practice each passage or piece in rotation for a limited amount of time, usually 5–10 minutes each.
Why interleave your daily practice?
Spending a long stretch grinding one passage feels productive, but attention fades and repetition slides into mindless autopilot. Rotating quickly among several passages — 5–10 minutes on each — keeps you fresh and forces your brain to re-engage every time you switch. In her book, Learn Faster, Perform Better—A Musician’s Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing, Dr. Molly Gebrian calls this “Time-constrained practice.” She notes, “Since you have extremely limited time to work on a given section, you must be very focused and quite specific about what you are working on and how you are working on it. This can dramatically increase focus and, therefore, the effectiveness of your practice.”
This is different from Interleaved Practice for Performance: there is no scoring and no single-attempt rule. It is simply a timer that keeps your daily practice moving, so you cover more ground and never get stuck in a rut on one spot.
Instructions
Load 3–15 passages from one piece or several. Give each a name, how long to spend on it (5 minutes by default), and — if you like — a metronome tempo: check the Metronome box and enter the BPM (or leave it unchecked and control the metronome yourself). Set your total practice time (60 minutes by default) and choose Serial or Random order.
Want the tempo to climb as you go? Open a passage’s Practice ladder and set a start tempo, a target tempo, how much to change by, and how many rounds to wait between changes. That passage then steps its own tempo each time it comes back around — and every passage can climb at its own pace, or not at all. A ladder replaces that passage’s single BPM. You can also ramp down by setting a target below the start.
When you start, the routine rotates through your passages — when a passage’s time is up it moves to the next, cycling over and over until your total time runs out. Passages with a tempo start the metronome for you; the rest leave it under your manual control.
To start: 1) add your passages below, 2) set each passage’s time and your total time, 3) pick Serial or Random, 4) click/tap the teal START DAILY INTERLEAVED PRACTICE ROUTINE button below (not the green START button on the metronome itself).
Works alongside the Practice Ladder, the Target Tempo Leapfrog, and Trouble Spot Rehab — see “Practice like you have your own Personal Practice Coach” below the practice tools.
Tip: Once you’ve set up your passages, click/tap “+ Save these passages as an Interleaved Routine for Daily Practice…” below and give the routine a name. It is then listed in two places: the MY INTERLEAVED ROUTINES FOR DAILY PRACTICE dropdown just below, and MY METRONOME SETUPS & PRACTICE ROUTINES near the top of the page, under Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice. From either one, the whole routine is one click away to practice each day.
Show settings & saved routines
No saved routines yet. Set up your passages below, then “Save these passages as an Interleaved Routine for Daily Practice.”
One-shot practice of each passage or piece in a preset or random rotation.
Important — click and read this:Why interleaved practice for performance?
In a performance, each moment happens only once. You do not get to stop, back up, and play a passage again until it finally comes out right. There are no “do overs.” That is why our practice must prepare us not only to play a passage well after several tries, but to play it well on the first try.
Block practice, such as the work we do in “The Seven Levels of Misery”, is essential. In block practice, we slow things down, isolate problems, analyze every detail, stop and start constantly, and repeat a passage many times. This is how we teach the brain and body the precise movements, timing, sound, and mental focus required to play a passage correctly. In the early stages of learning a passage, block practice is usually the best tool we have.
But block practice has a limitation. When you finally nail a passage on its 20th straight repetition, that success reflects only the momentary strength of the habit — your hands are warm, the movement is loaded and ready, and you’ve just done it nineteen times. It’s real and it matters, but it doesn’t carry reliably from one day to the next. It isn’t a true measure of how well you actually know the passage.
Real mastery is what lets you play a passage well on the first try, today and again tomorrow. That day-to-day first-try reliability is exactly what a performance demands, and it’s what you’re really training for. It means you can return to a passage later, without warming it up for twenty minutes, and still play it with control. That first attempt tells you a great deal about your true level of mastery.
The best way to build first-try reliability is with interleaved practice. Instead of repeating one passage over and over, you will rotate among several different passages, giving each a single attempt before moving to the next, then cycle back. Choose passages from one piece or several — play each passage once at performance tempo and quality, move on immediately, and repeat the rotation.
This will feel harder than drilling one passage until it’s smooth, and that difficulty is the point. Each time you come back to a passage cold, your brain has to retrieve and rebuild the movement from scratch — the same demand it faces on stage. Block practice builds the movement; interleaving makes it hold up under performance conditions.
Interleaved practice is not a replacement for “The Seven Levels of Misery”. It is the complement to it. Use block practice to build passages. After a few days or weeks, once they are fairly reliable, use interleaved practice to test them, strengthen them, and prepare them for performance. In other words, block practice builds the skill. Interleaved practice makes it performance-ready.
Instructions
Load 3–15 passages. The metronome shows them one at a time; you play each and mark it Perfect ✓ or, if you slipped, X. Then it advances to the next passage.
Goal: a set number of perfect repetitions for each passage (5 by default — change it below). Reach the goal and that passage retires from the rotation. By default, a mistake sends that passage back to zero — uncheck the box below if you’d rather just tally attempts.
To start: 1) fill in your passages below, 2) decide which “Other Options” you want to engage, 3) click/tap the indigo START INTERLEAVED PRACTICE FOR PERFORMANCE button below (not the green START button on the metronome itself).
Runs by itself — this tool cannot be combined with the other practice tools.
Tip: Once you’ve set up your passages, click/tap “+ Save these passages as an Interleaved Practice for Performance routine…” below and give the routine a name. It is then listed in two places: the MY INTERLEAVED PRACTICE FOR PERFORMANCE ROUTINES dropdown just below, and MY METRONOME SETUPS & PRACTICE ROUTINES near the top of the page, under Interleaved Practice for Performance. From either one, the whole routine is one click away to practice each day.
Show settings & saved routines
No saved routines yet. Set up your passages below, then “Save these passages as an Interleaved Practice for Performance routine.”
Practice like you have your own Personal Practice Coach: run two or even three tools at once.
The tools coordinate automatically: only one runs at a time, while the others wait their turn. Each tool holds its settings and remembers exactly where it left off, then automatically resumes when its turn comes again. Here are some combinations that work especially well:
Practice Ladder + Trouble Spot Rehab. Gradually increase or decrease the tempo of an exercise, piece, or passage with the Practice Ladder while Trouble Spot Rehab pops up a different problem passage or group of passages at widely spaced intervals during your practice session. While the Trouble Spot Rehab runs, the Practice Ladder parks; finish practicing the trouble spot(s), and the Practice Ladder resumes on the rung where it left off.
Practice Ladder + Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice. Gradually increase or decrease the tempo of an exercise, piece, or passage with the Practice Ladder, then pause the Ladder and do intensive interleaved practice on a group of difficult passages. Press “Resume” on the Ladder and it continues exactly where you left off.
Target Tempo Leapfrog + Trouble Spot Rehab or Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice. The Leapfrog pairs with both the same way the Practice Ladder does. Leapfrog between your target and recovery tempos while Trouble Spot Rehab pops up a different trouble spot at widely spaced intervals — while a spot rings, the Leapfrog parks, then resumes exactly where it left off. Or pause the Leapfrog to run a Daily routine (or start the Leapfrog over a running routine), and the two swap the metronome back and forth, each keeping its place.
Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice + Trouble Spot Rehab. Focus on one set of passages with your interleaved practice routine while Trouble Spot Rehab reminds you, at longer intervals, to revisit a different set of trouble spots.
Trouble Spot Rehab + The Seven Levels of Misery. Start a Rehab session, then add intensive block practice on another passage with the Seven Levels of Misery. While you do rehab practice/review on your trouble spot(s), the Misery game will hold. After practicing the Rehab trouble spot(s), or pressing the button with the big check mark on the Rehab panel, the Misery game will count back in at its preset tempo for you to resume your block practice exactly where you left off.
All three: Practice Ladder + Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice + Trouble Spot Rehab. Use all three tools together to manage three different kinds of practice in the same session. Gradually increase or decrease the tempo of an exercise, piece, or passage with the Practice Ladder, and pause it to do your Interleaved Daily Practice on a group of difficult passages. Meanwhile, Trouble Spot Rehab runs in the background and, at widely spaced intervals, interrupts whichever type of practice you are doing so that you can revisit a separate set of trouble spots. Each tool waits its turn and returns to its own tempo. Each tool keeps track of its own job, so you can combine tempo-building, intensive interleaved work, and long-interval trouble-spot practice/review without having to keep track of everything yourself.
Only one tool is active at a time so they don’t confuse you or each other. When a tool is active, its floating panel displays a moving amber border and the word “LIVE”. If another tool is running it will say “HELD”. It will say “PAUSED” if you paused the tool yourself.
Two tools work alone: The Seven Levels of Misery pairs only with Trouble Spot Rehab, and Interleaved Practice for Performance always runs by itself. The Hands-Free Practice Ladder and the Target Tempo Leapfrog also cannot run at the same time — they would both be changing the tempo. If you start a combination that does not work together, the page will tell you, and nothing will be disturbed.
A "setup" is a snapshot of your current metronome settings — save it now and reload it in one click later.
How setups work
A "setup" is a snapshot of your metronome’s settings — tempo, beats per measure, accents, subdivisions, tick volume, Talking Voice Count, Play–Go Silent, Hemiola & Polyrhythm, and Enter Your Own Rhythm. Save one for an exercise, a difficult section of a piece, or a complex rhythm you want back in one click.
Click the "Save current setup" button below and choose exactly which of those settings to include.
To load or manage a setup you’ve already saved, use MY METRONOME SETUPS & PRACTICE ROUTINES in the panel above.
Back up & restore
Covers everything you’ve saved: setups, rhythms, and Practice Tool routines.
Range: 1–12
tap to toggle • hold to change sound
Includes Swing/Shuffle and Notes Inégales
Swing is a broader feel. It can be light, medium, or heavy. The ratio can
change depending on tempo and style. In faster jazz, swing eighths may be only slightly
unequal. In slower swing, they may be closer to triplets. It breathes and is more subtle.
Shuffle is a constant groove or pattern. It is usually more literal and
steadier. The swing 8th notes are very regular and obvious.
Notes inégales — in French Baroque music, pairs of equal written notes are played gently long–short. There’s no single correct ratio; it varies with tempo, character, dance, and national style (roughly 1.3:1 to 1.9:1). Treat it as a feel, not a strict dotted rhythm.
MY METRONOME SETUPS & PRACTICE ROUTINES
Everything you’ve saved, in one place.
Load fills the controls and opens that tool so you can start it there.
Start loads and begins it immediately.
A polyrhythm layers two simultaneous rhythms on top of one another.
For example, in a 3:2 (3 against 2) polyrhythm, there are 2 beats for the underlying primary rhythm on the bottom (the basic or main beat), and 3 beats for the secondary rhythm on the top (the cross rhythm).
When Polyrhythm Mode is turned on, the basic or main beat on the bottom uses a low-pitched tone, and the cross rhythm on top uses a higher-pitched tone.
Tip: To hear the primary beats counted aloud along with the polyrhythm, turn on Talking Voice Count Mode and set it to Quarter notes.
Tip: Turn on the Hands-Free Practice Ladder to raise or lower this polyrhythm's tempo automatically while you play.
SUBDIVIDE BEAT is silenced while polyrhythm is active.
(cross rhythm)
(basic or main beat)
A tongue-in-cheek practice game with a deadly serious purpose: don't practice mistakes. Choose a short passage from a piece you are practicing and set a goal — say, seven perfect repetitions IN A ROW. Each perfect repetition earns a golden note. Make a mistake on number six? You forfeit them all and go back to zero. Hence the misery.
It is an old trick: Mozart's father put ten dried peas in young Wolfgang's left coat pocket, and moved one to the right pocket for each perfect attempt. One slip — even on the tenth repetition — and all the peas went back to the left pocket. Whether or not the story is historically accurate, the practice principle is excellent: don’t count repetitions; count clean repetitions.
Read the full story in Douglas's technique tip, How To Learn A Piece On The Classical Guitar, Part 2.
This type of practice is called “Block Practice.” It helps musicians analyze why they are making mistakes and discover the solutions to fix them. It builds immediate muscle memory. Important: do not use Block Practice exclusively. Combine it with Interleaved Practice, Variable Practice (intentionally changing the rhythms, dynamics, or articulation of a passage), and chunking/chaining for long-lasting results.
Works alongside Trouble Spot Rehab — see “Practice like you have your own Personal Practice Coach” below the practice tools.
More suggestions to improve your practice
- Mark the problems — and the solutions — in your music. Make sure you mark in your music where the problems were or are, and be sure to write in the solution, because it is very probable you won’t remember some of them a few days later, or especially in the months to come. If you keep playing the piece and you start making mistakes in the same passage, it is going to be invaluable to have those solutions written down where you can find them in the future. If you stop playing the piece and then decide to return to it later again, those written comments are invaluable for solutions.
- Use 100% overlearning to master a passage. If it took three tries to get it perfect, shoot for three perfect repetitions in a row to solidify it. If it took six attempts to get it perfect, shoot for six perfect repetitions to make it stick.
- Same mistake three or more times in a row? You haven’t identified clearly or precisely enough what is causing that mistake. Look at it more closely.
- Take a 15-second break. Finally, scientific research shows that taking a 15-second break after three good repetitions may help solidify your mastery of the passage.
To play: choose your options below, then tap START THE GAME (the pink button — not the green main metronome Start button).
TEACHERS! Enter a practice rhythm for a student and share it so they can practice it on their own between lessons.
Practice like you have your own Personal Practice Coach: run two or even three tools at once.
The tools coordinate automatically: only one runs at a time, while the others wait their turn. Each tool holds its settings and remembers exactly where it left off, then automatically resumes when its turn comes again. Here are some combinations that work especially well:
Practice Ladder + Trouble Spot Rehab. Gradually increase or decrease the tempo of an exercise, piece, or passage with the Practice Ladder while Trouble Spot Rehab pops up a different problem passage or group of passages at widely spaced intervals during your practice session. While the Trouble Spot Rehab runs, the Practice Ladder parks; finish practicing the trouble spot(s), and the Practice Ladder resumes on the rung where it left off.
Practice Ladder + Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice. Gradually increase or decrease the tempo of an exercise, piece, or passage with the Practice Ladder, then pause the Ladder and do intensive interleaved practice on a group of difficult passages. Press “Resume” on the Ladder and it continues exactly where you left off.
Target Tempo Leapfrog + Trouble Spot Rehab or Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice. The Leapfrog pairs with both the same way the Practice Ladder does. Leapfrog between your target and recovery tempos while Trouble Spot Rehab pops up a different trouble spot at widely spaced intervals — while a spot rings, the Leapfrog parks, then resumes exactly where it left off. Or pause the Leapfrog to run a Daily routine (or start the Leapfrog over a running routine), and the two swap the metronome back and forth, each keeping its place.
Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice + Trouble Spot Rehab. Focus on one set of passages with your interleaved practice routine while Trouble Spot Rehab reminds you, at longer intervals, to revisit a different set of trouble spots.
Trouble Spot Rehab + The Seven Levels of Misery. Start a Rehab session, then add intensive block practice on another passage with the Seven Levels of Misery. While you do rehab practice/review on your trouble spot(s), the Misery game will hold. After practicing the Rehab trouble spot(s), or pressing the button with the big check mark on the Rehab panel, the Misery game will count back in at its preset tempo for you to resume your block practice exactly where you left off.
All three: Practice Ladder + Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice + Trouble Spot Rehab. Use all three tools together to manage three different kinds of practice in the same session. Gradually increase or decrease the tempo of an exercise, piece, or passage with the Practice Ladder, and pause it to do your Interleaved Daily Practice on a group of difficult passages. Meanwhile, Trouble Spot Rehab runs in the background and, at widely spaced intervals, interrupts whichever type of practice you are doing so that you can revisit a separate set of trouble spots. Each tool waits its turn and returns to its own tempo. Each tool keeps track of its own job, so you can combine tempo-building, intensive interleaved work, and long-interval trouble-spot practice/review without having to keep track of everything yourself.
Only one tool is active at a time so they don’t confuse you or each other. When a tool is active, its floating panel displays a moving amber border and the word “LIVE”. If another tool is running it will say “HELD”. It will say “PAUSED” if you paused the tool yourself.
Two tools work alone: The Seven Levels of Misery pairs only with Trouble Spot Rehab, and Interleaved Practice for Performance always runs by itself. The Hands-Free Practice Ladder and the Target Tempo Leapfrog also cannot run at the same time — they would both be changing the tempo. If you start a combination that does not work together, the page will tell you, and nothing will be disturbed.
Which to use: Trouble Spot Rehab or Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice?
Intersperses a trouble spot or set of trouble spots at wide intervals throughout a longer practice session. For example, while you are memorizing a piece or learning a new one, the Trouble Spot Rehab will pop up the trouble spot(s) one at a time at wide gaps throughout the session for focused, spaced practice.
Pops up selected difficult passages one after the other for intensive practice on that group of passages, but for a limited amount of time. For example, you might be practicing a new piece or practicing exercises. Stop and turn on Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice and do intensive practice on that group of difficult passages for a set amount of time. Then resume your regular practice.
Which to use: Hands-Free Practice Ladder or Target Tempo Leapfrog?
The traditional way to speed up a passage or exercise: Starts below your target tempo and gradually raises (or lowers) the tempo a few BPM at a time as you keep playing. Good for exercises. Also good for passages that are still being learned and are not yet ready to be played at their final tempo.
Starts at your target tempo from the very first pass and keeps returning to it, dropping to a much slower recovery tempo in between so you can identify problems and make corrections. Best when you are already close to the target tempo and are making the final push to play at full speed cleanly and consistently.
SAVE MY METRONOME SETTINGS (BASIC SETUP)
A "setup" is a snapshot of your metronome’s settings — tempo, beats per measure, accents, subdivisions, tick volume, Talking Voice Count, Play–Go Silent, Hemiola & Polyrhythm, and Enter Your Own Rhythm. Save one for an exercise, a difficult section of a piece, or a complex rhythm you want back in one tap.
Tap the "Save current setup" button below and choose exactly which of those settings to include.
To load or manage a setup you’ve already saved — load, start, rename, edit, share, or delete it — use MY METRONOME SETUPS & PRACTICE ROUTINES in the panel above. Practice routines such as the Hands-Free Practice Ladder, the Target Tempo Leapfrog, The Seven Levels of Misery, Trouble Spot Rehab, and the Interleaved tools are saved both in their own sections and also appear in the panel above.
Tap to preview & select • Tap outside sheet to close
Tap to select • Tap the gray bar at top, or outside the sheet, to close
Tap to select • Tap the gray bar at top, or outside the sheet, to close
Tap to select • Tap the gray bar at top, or outside the sheet, to close
Editor controls land here in Task #4 (measure tabs, time signature, note palette, modifiers, entered notes, fill meter) and Task #5 (tuplet + polyrhythm sub-builders).
Tap any notation example to select that ratio. All examples in a row sound identical at the same BPM — pick the one that looks like your music.
THE SEVEN LEVELS OF MISERY
INTERLEAVED PRACTICE FOR PERFORMANCE
How to Use the Metronome Controls
- Set a tempo.
- Type a number into the box in the top right corner in place of the default value of 120.
- Press Enter on your keyboard. (Values from 15-480 may be entered.)
- Or, drag the knob on the green vertical bar.
- Fine-tune your tempo choice with the up/down arrows to the right of the BPM number.
- Use the up/down arrows on your computer keyboard.
- Or set the tempo by ear: as you listen to a piece of music, click (or tap, on a touchscreen) in the "Click a tempo" box in time with the beat, and the tempo will appear in the BPM box.
- Set the number of beats per measure. Drag the knob on the horizontal yellow bar.
- Select the sound YOU want for each beat.
- Click on a beat number (in the large black fields) and a menu will pop up.
- Select a sound (over 40 choices!) from the dropdown menu and click SAVE.
- You can select a different sound for any or every beat for improved rhythmic clarity.
- For example, if you have four beats in a measure, you could set a snare drum to play on beat #1 and a conga on beat #3, or choose a different instrument for each beat!
- Choose beat or beats to accent (for use with the default metronome tick sound).
- Click the "Clear all accents" button or uncheck the boxes individually if you want all the ticks to sound the same (with no accents).
- Click any box or boxes to accent those beats.
- Or, uncheck the boxes (or click the "Clear all accents" button) and set the "Beats per measure" to 1 (that will also stop the flashing numbers).
- To choose a higher-pitched click, set the "Beats per measure" to 1 and click the box under beat #1.
- Start the metronome.
- Press the big button labeled START. Press the same button to stop.
- Once you have started the metronome, you can also press the spacebar on your keyboard to stop/start.
- Metronome Tick Volume Control. Drag the knob clockwise or counterclockwise. As a tribute to Spinal Tap, our volume knob now goes to 11! This fantastic knob is by Yoav Kadosh — coding geeks, be sure to check out his outstanding work.
- Subdivide Beat. This feature divides each main beat into smaller, evenly-spaced ticks — eighth notes, triplets, sixteenth notes, and a whole library of dotted and syncopated rhythm patterns. Hearing the beat subdivided helps you place notes precisely between the main beats, lock in tricky rhythms, and develop a rock-solid internal pulse.
How to Use Subdivide Beat:- Click the "SUBDIVIDE BEAT" selector to open the menu. Each choice is shown in standard music notation, so you can spot the rhythm you want at a glance.
- Choose a subdivision — for example, "8th notes," "Triplets," or "16th notes" — or one of the rhythm patterns farther down the list, such as a dotted eighth-and-sixteenth, the "Scotch snap," or offbeat sixteenths.
- Press "START." The main beat ticks as usual, with the subdivision ticks sounding lightly in between.
- To turn the feature off, choose "Off (no subdivision)" at the top of the menu.
- Note: Subdivide Beat is silenced automatically while Polyrhythm Mode is on — the two cannot run at the same time.
- Talking Voice Count Mode. A recorded voice counts the beats out loud, right along with the metronome. This is wonderful for beginners learning to count time, and for players of any level who want to internalize subdivisions — you hear exactly how the counting lines up with the pulse.
How to Use Talking Voice Count Mode:- In the "TALKING VOICE COUNT MODE" section, click the "TURN ON/OFF" button.
- Use the "COUNT:" menu to choose what the voice counts:
- "Quarter notes" — counts the beats: "1, 2, 3, 4."
- "Eighth notes" — counts "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and."
- "Sixteenth notes" — counts "1 e and a, 2 e and a…"
- "Triplets" — counts "1-trip-let, 2-trip-let…"
- The voice counts up to whatever you set for "beats per measure," then starts over at 1.
- Press "START."
- At very fast tempos the voice cannot say that many syllables per second, so it automatically counts a simpler subdivision, and a brief on-screen note tells you when this happens. For example, when sixteenth-note counting gets too fast, the voice switches to counting eighth notes instead.
- "Play—Go Silent" Mode (and random beat silencing). Set the metronome to tick for X measures and then go silent for Y measures. This feature will develop your inner pulse, so you can improve your ability to "hold a tempo"—to maintain the same speed over the course of several measures or an entire piece.
How to Use the "Play—Go Silent" mode:- Click the "TURN ON/OFF" button.
- Enter numbers in the “PLAY for X beats” and “GO SILENT for Y beats” fields.
- Click the “START” button.
- Play along with the metronome for your selected “PLAY for X beats.”
- The metronome will go silent for the number of beats you selected in “Go silent for Y beats.” Continue to play at an unwavering, steady tempo.
- When the metronome begins ticking again, if you held the tempo successfully, your playing and the first re-entry tick of the metronome will be perfectly in sync. If your playing and the metronome tick are not together, you failed to hold the tempo.
- Click "RANDOM MODE" (random beat silencing) to have the metronome play and go silent at random intervals.
- Polyrhythm Mode. A polyrhythm is two rhythms played at the same time — for example, "3 against 2," where one voice plays 3 evenly-spaced notes while another plays 2 notes in the same span of time. Polyrhythms turn up in all styles of music, and they are famously hard to feel. This mode lets you hear both rhythms locked perfectly together at any tempo, so you can internalize the pattern and play it cleanly and confidently.
The lower rhythm — the "basic" or "main" beat — plays on a low-pitched tone. The upper rhythm — the "cross rhythm" — plays on a higher-pitched tone. Sounded together, they create the polyrhythm.
How to Use Polyrhythm Mode:- In the "POLYRHYTHM MODE" section, click the "TURN ON/OFF" button.
- Click the "RATIO" button and choose the polyrhythm you want to practice — for example, 3:2, 4:3, or 5:4. A window of notation examples will open. The examples in each row all sound identical, so simply pick the one that looks the way your music is written. (The "beats per measure" setting adjusts automatically to match.)
- A small notation panel then shows your chosen polyrhythm. You can drag it out of the way, or close it with the "×" and bring it back later with "Show notation panel."
- Press "START." You will hear the basic beat (low tone) and the cross rhythm (higher tone) playing together.
- Use the "PRIMARY BEAT VOLUME (BASIC OR MAIN BEAT)" and "SECONDARY BEAT VOLUME (CROSS RHYTHM)" sliders to balance the two voices. Tip: turn one all the way down to isolate and master the other rhythm by itself, then bring it back to put the two together.
- Turn on "ACCENT DOWNBEAT OF CYCLE" to mark the first beat of each cycle, which helps you hear where the pattern starts over.
- Note: "SUBDIVIDE BEAT" turns off automatically while Polyrhythm Mode is on — the two features cannot run at the same time.
How to Use “Enter Your Own Rhythm”
Type in a tricky passage from a piece you are working on — a syncopated phrase, a complex tuplet, an unusual time signature, anything not built into the standard metronome — and the metronome will play it back. A steady "primary" tick marks each beat, and a higher "secondary" tick fires on every note you enter, so you hear both the underlying pulse AND the rhythm you're trying to feel. Loop through one measure or a whole sequence of measures, save your favorites as named presets, and share them with students or fellow players by sending a link.
How to Use “Enter Your Own Rhythm”
- In the "ENTER YOUR OWN RHYTHM" section, turn on "PLAYBACK CONTROLS" to engage the mode.
- Set the time signature for the measure: type the number of beats in each measure (top number) and pick the beat unit (bottom number, e.g., 4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note).
- Add notes by clicking values from the "Add a note" palette — whole, half, quarter, 8th, 16th, 32nd, 64th. Each click drops one note into the measure.
- Modify the last-entered note with "Make rest" (turn it into a rest), "Add dot", "Add double dot", or "Tie to next" (don't re-strike the next note; sustains across).
- Track your progress with the fill meter, which shows how much of the measure is filled and what's still needed. A measure must be exactly full before the metronome will start.
- Edit entered notes: click a note in the entered-notes display to delete it; click "undo" to remove the last note; click "clear measure" to wipe the entire measure.
- Add a measure(s) with the "+ Add a measure" button.
- Once you have added more than one measure, pay attention to the orange "Measure #" buttons to select which measure you're editing.
- The "Duplicate" button creates a copy of the active measure.
- The "Delete" button removes an active measure when there are two or more measures.
- For special figures, use the sub-builders:
- Build a tuplet for triplets, quintuplets, septuplets, etc. Then add the tuplet to the measure you are editing.
- Build a polyrhythm for even-ratio polyrhythms (e.g., 3:2, 5:4). Then add the polyrhythm to the measure you are editing.
- Build a custom polyrhythm for two voices with any rhythm. Then add the custom polyrhythm to the measure you are editing. Note that the two voices must have the same number of beats.
Playback Controls
- Turn On/Off: To go back to the normal metronome after practicing a custom rhythm, turn PLAYBACK CONTROLS to Off.
- Volume balance: drag "Volume of the primary beats" to set how loud the steady pulse is, and "Volume of the rhythm you entered" to set the volume of the notes you entered. Tip: adjust each independently to find the best balance so that you can hear or follow the rhythm you entered.
- Accent the first beat of each measure (deepest tick tone): This is on by default. However, you may find it easier to hear some cross rhythms by turning this off.
- Count-in before starting: turn on to have the metronome speak/tick a few preparatory beats. Usually, it will speak the count-in, but at fast tempos it will tick. It defaults to the active measure's beats-per-measure, but you can override with your own number.
- Pause between repetitions: turn on to add a silent rest of N seconds between each loop, so you can think/recover between each repetition.
- Score popup: when you press START, a floating panel pops up showing your full sequence in standard music notation, highlighting each note as it plays. Drag it to a comfortable spot. If you close it with the "×", a "Show score popup" button appears so you can bring it back into view.
How to Save Presets
- Save your rhythm as a preset — click "+ Save the current rhythm in “Build a Rhythm Here” as a named preset." You'll be prompted for a name. Saved rhythms appear in your "MY RHYTHMS" list.
- Click a saved rhythm's name to load it instantly (this also turns PLAYBACK CONTROLS ON so you can press START immediately).
- Rename any saved rhythm with the "Rename" button on its row. Delete removes it (with a confirmation). Rhythms are stored in your browser, so they persist across visits on the same device.
- Share a rhythm with anyone — click "Share" on a saved rhythm's row to get a link. Send it via text, email, or chat. The recipient opens the link on any device (phone, laptop, tablet), gets a "Load shared rhythm?" prompt, and one tap brings up your rhythm in their editor. They can play it, edit it, or save it to their own list.
Important Information on Presets — Don't Lose Your Presets!
- If your preset is only on desktop/laptop:
- ✓ Survives: page refreshes, browser restarts, computer restarts, OS updates.
- × Lost if: you clear browser data (Settings → Privacy → Clear browsing data → "Cookies and other site data" or "Site data"), switch browsers (Chrome → Firefox = different storage), uninstall the browser, use the page in incognito/private mode (private storage is wiped on session end), or your hard drive dies.
- If your preset is only on phone:
- Same rules — survives refreshes, app/browser restarts, phone restarts.
- × Lost if: you clear browser data, switch browsers (Safari → Chrome), uninstall the browser, factory-reset the phone, delete the PWA from home screen and clear data, use private browsing.
- If your preset is on phone AND desktop/laptop:
- They're completely independent. Saving on one does NOT save on the other.
- But losing on one device doesn't affect the other.
- The easy bridge between them: a backup file. On the device that has your presets, use “Download a backup file”, move the file to the other device (email it to yourself or use a cloud drive), then “Restore” there — that copies everything across at once. (A per-preset Share link still works too for moving one at a time.)
Back up your presets: in the “SAVE MY METRONOME SETTINGS” section, use Download a backup file of everything I’ve saved to save all your rhythms and setups to a single file. Keep it somewhere safe (a cloud drive, or email it to yourself), and use Restore from a backup file to bring everything back — on this or any other device or browser. (You can still use a preset's Share link to send one preset to someone else.)
How to Save Your Metronome Settings: Make and Save Metronome Presets
Once the metronome is set up the way you like it — tempo, beats per measure, accent pattern, beat sounds, subdivisions, talking voice count, polyrhythm, Play–Go Silent, and more — you can capture the whole configuration as a named preset (a "setup") and return to it instantly. Save a preset for each exercise you practice, for a tricky passage in a piece, or for each student you teach, and share any preset with others by sending a link. This is separate from the rhythms you build in “Enter Your Own Rhythm” above: here you are saving the metronome's overall settings.
How to Make and Save a Preset
- Set up the metronome exactly how you want it — choose your tempo, beats per measure, accent pattern, beat sounds, subdivisions, talking voice count, polyrhythm, Play–Go Silent, and so on.
- Open the “SAVE MY METRONOME SETTINGS” section and select “+ Save current setup as a named preset…”.
- In the pop-up, check the boxes for the settings you want this preset to remember (you don't have to include all of them), type a name, and save. Your preset then appears in the list of saved setups in that section, and a blue “Active” badge marks whichever preset is currently loaded.
Loading and Managing Your Presets
- Select a saved preset's name to load it instantly — the metronome jumps to those exact settings.
- Use the buttons on each preset's row: “Rename” to change its name, “Edit” to change which settings the preset includes, and “Delete” to remove it (with a confirmation). Presets are stored in your browser, so they persist across visits on the same device.
- Share a preset with anyone — the “Share” button gives you a link. Send it via text, email, or chat. The recipient opens the link on any device, gets a prompt, and loads your settings into their metronome with a single tap or click.
Back to Normal: the Reset Buttons
- Reset to a plain metronome — returns everything to 120 BPM, 4/4, with all modes off.
- Turn off all modes — switches off subdivisions, voice count, polyrhythm, and the other modes, but keeps your current tempo and beats.
Don't lose your presets! Your saved setups live in this browser's storage on this device. They survive refreshes and restarts, but are lost if you clear browser data, switch or uninstall browsers, or use private/incognito mode — and phone and desktop storage are completely separate. Back them up: in the “SAVE MY METRONOME SETTINGS” section, use Download a backup file to save all your rhythms and setups to one file, then Restore from a backup file to bring them back on any device or browser. (The same storage rules detailed under “Enter Your Own Rhythm” above apply here.)
How to Use the Practice Tools
The Practice Tools go beyond simply keeping time — they structure how you practice. The Hands-Free Practice Ladder ramps the tempo of one passage or exercise; the Target Tempo Leapfrog alternates between your target tempo and a much slower recovery tempo; the Seven Levels of Misery drills a single spot until it is solid; Trouble Spot Rehab brings one trouble spot — or several, taking turns — back at spaced intervals across a session; and the two Interleaved tools rotate you among a set of passages the way an effective daily practice routine and real stage performance demand. You'll find them in the PRACTICE TOOLS section below the metronome. Here's what each one does and how to use it.
Hands-Free Practice Ladder (Graduated Tempo Practice)
An automatic tempo trainer. It raises (or lowers) the tempo for you in steps while you keep playing — the easy way to bring an exercise or a tricky passage up to speed without stopping to touch the metronome. It controls the main tempo (along with mandatory rest periods if you want them), but you can also incorporate subdivisions, talking voice count, polyrhythms, and your own rhythms along with it.
- Turn On/Off to enable the Ladder.
- Change by — how many BPM to add (or subtract) at each step.
- Every — how long to hold each step, set in minutes & seconds or in measures.
- Start tempo and Target tempo — where the ladder begins and ends. Set the target lower than the start to ramp downward.
- When target reached — stop the metronome, keep playing at the target tempo, or loop back and repeat.
- When you press stop — resume from where you stopped, or restart at the start tempo.
- Optional: Warning ticks (a four-beat voice countdown before each change) and Rest (pause a set number of seconds between steps, then count you back in).
- Set everything, then start the metronome. The Ladder does the rest, hands-free.
Tip: once you've dialed in a ladder for a particular exercise, use the “SAVE MY METRONOME SETTINGS” section (right under the metronome) to save it as a setup — the Ladder settings are included, so the whole routine is one click away every day.
Target Tempo Leapfrog (Alternating Tempo Practice)
The Practice Ladder turned inside out: instead of climbing gradually toward your goal, you play at your target tempo from the very first pass — and the target never moves. Between visits, the metronome drops to a much slower recovery tempo so you can identify problems, make corrections, and reinforce the right movements, then immediately test the fix back at full speed. Best when you are already close to the target tempo and are making the final push to play at full speed cleanly and consistently.
- Target tempo — your performance tempo. It never moves; you keep leapfrogging back to it.
- Recovery tempo — much slower, so you have time to observe and repair. 60% of the target is recommended, and the tool warns you above 80% — that close to the target, a pass is just “slightly under tempo,” not true recovery. Three ways to set it: Fixed (one recovery tempo, every time), Random (a fresh, unpredictable tempo from a range you set for every recovery pass — variable practice — with the option of two passes between visits, one slow and one near the target, in the order you choose), or Rising (the recovery tempo creeps up toward the target by a set step after each visit and stops rising where you say). The target never moves in any of them.
- Play target tempo for / Play recovery tempo for — how long each pass lasts, set separately in minutes & seconds.
- Begin with — the target tempo (recommended: hear what breaks at speed first, so the recovery pass has something to repair), or a recovery pass to warm into it before your first visit to the target.
- Visits — stop after a set number of visits to the target (a session always ends at the target), or keep leapfrogging until you stop it.
- Optional Rest at each tempo change — the metronome pauses so you can reset, then a voice countdown brings you in at the new tempo. Recommended: the jump between tempos is big by design.
- Click the dark green START THE LEAPFROG button (not the big bright-green START button on the metronome itself). A floating panel shows which tempo you're on — TARGET or RECOVERY — with Pause, “Leap to the other tempo now,” and Close.
- Save this setup as a Target Tempo Leapfrog routine to reuse later, and share it with students or fellow players.
The Seven Levels of Misery (Block Practice)
A practice game with a serious purpose: don't practice mistakes. Pick a short, troublesome passage and set a goal — say, seven perfect repetitions in a row. Each flawless repetition earns a golden note; one slip and (depending on the misery level you choose) you forfeit them all and start over at zero. It's a focused, motivating way to do block practice — drilling one spot until it's solid — and it trains you to play accurately and deliberately instead of mindlessly repeating errors. The game runs in its own full-screen window: after each attempt you tell it whether the repetition was perfect or had a mistake, and it tracks your streak, celebrates when you conquer all your levels, and offers a practice tip whenever you slip.
- Set How many levels of misery can you tolerate? — the number of perfect repetitions in a row you're aiming for.
- Choose your misery level: Gentle (no resets — just tallies your good and bad attempts), Conventional misery (a mistake resets your streak to zero), or Maximum misery (a mistake resets you to zero and raises your goal by one).
- Turn on Use the metronome (recommended) and set a starting tempo — start slow; playing too fast is the chief cause of mistakes. With the metronome on, START THE GAME also starts the beat at that tempo.
- Optional: Rest a set number of seconds between attempts (the rest counts down, then a four-tick count-in and a “beep” to begin — the metronome pauses for the rest if you have it on; after a mistake you get that same pause to read the tip and think before you can resume), Kick it up a notch to raise the tempo each time you reach your goal, and Game sounds (a ding for perfect reps, a “wah” for mistakes, a fanfare when you win).
- Click the pink START THE GAME button (not the green main Start button). The full-screen game opens.
- Play your passage, then click Perfect or Mistake. A perfect rep earns a golden note and advances your streak; a mistake (in Conventional or Maximum) sends you back to zero, the metronome stops, and a coaching tip pops up — read it, work out what went wrong, then click RESUME to try again.
- After 15 minutes the game pauses and reminds you to rest your hands, and again every 10 minutes after that. Block practice is repetitive by design — take the break. Fatigue causes mistakes, and injuries.
- Reach your goal to conquer the levels and win. Use Kick it up a notch or Play again for another round, or close the window to exit (which also stops the metronome).
Trouble Spot Rehab (Spaced Interval Practice)
A spaced-interval trainer for the spots that keep tripping you up. Pick a passage you just can't seem to nail — or up to eight of them — set your total practice time, and the timer brings them back one at a time at spaced intervals across your session for short bursts of focused repair work, with time in between to practice something else or rest. Each spaced return makes you rebuild the passage from a slightly cold start, which is exactly what turns the fix into reliable muscle memory. Dr. Molly Gebrian, a music practice expert with a background in neuroscience, calls this “interval-timer practice.”
- Name your trouble spot — and use + Add another trouble spot if you’re working on several (up to eight). They take turns, one per bell.
- Optional, and set separately for each spot: check Metronome and give it a BPM so each repetition starts the beat for you — or leave it unchecked and work the metronome by hand. Add a Count-in, a Practice limit (how long to spend on that spot before the timer moves on by itself — leave the minutes and seconds blank for no limit), an image or PDF, and Practice Notes.
- Set your Total practice time — the whole stretch your trouble spots sit inside, not just one passage. That clock runs continuously and ends the session when it runs out.
- Choose how often a spot comes up: Even spacing (every set minutes & seconds) or Random spacing (at random intervals between two limits). With several spots that gap is the time between bells, so a line underneath tells you how often each individual spot comes back.
- With more than one spot, take them Serial (the order you entered them) or Random (reshuffled each round, so every spot gets its turn before any repeats).
- Click the violet START THE REHAB button. The first repetition begins right away; a floating panel names the spot so the metronome and your other tools stay live while you work.
- When you finish a repetition, click “I’m done practicing…”. The panel counts down the time to the next repetition and your practice time remaining while you practice something else or rest, then brings the next spot back.
- Phone call? Doorbell? Pause stops every clock and the metronome until you are ready; Resume picks up exactly where you left off, so an interruption costs you none of your practice time.
- Save this setup as a Trouble Spot Rehab routine to reuse later, and share it with students or fellow players.
Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice (Time-Constrained, Focused Practice)
A hands-free timer that rotates you through several passages so your daily practice keeps moving and you never get stuck in a rut on one spot. Spend a few minutes on each passage; when its time is up, the routine moves to the next, cycling until your total practice time runs out. Dr. Molly Gebrian calls this “time-constrained practice”: limited time on each section forces sharp focus, which makes your practice more effective.
How this differs from Trouble Spot Rehab above: Trouble Spot Rehab intersperses a trouble spot or set of trouble spots at wide intervals throughout a longer practice session — while you are memorizing a piece or learning a new one, a trouble spot pops up one at a time at wide gaps, then leaves you alone again. Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice pops up selected difficult passages one after the other for intensive practice on that group of passages, but for a limited amount of time. Stop what you were practicing, run the routine, then resume your regular practice.
- Add 3–15 passages (from one piece or several). Give each a name and how long to spend on it (5 minutes by default). Optionally check the Metronome box and give it a tempo, add an image or PDF, and jot down Practice Notes.
- Passages with the Metronome box checked start the metronome for you at that tempo. Passages without it leave the metronome alone — run it yourself if you want it. When the routine moves off one of those passages it stops the metronome again, since it was the one that started it; a metronome you started by hand keeps running.
- Pause on the player is not the same as the metronome’s Start/Stop. Pause stops your session — both clocks and the rotation — and silences the metronome with it; Resume brings the metronome back only if it was running when you paused. To temporarily use the metronome independently of this routine, press Pause and use the main START/STOP button on the metronome itself. On a passage without the Metronome box checked, the metronome is yours as usual.
- Set your total practice time (60 minutes by default) and choose Serial (in order) or Random order.
- Save these passages as an Interleaved Routine for Daily Practice to reuse the whole set later, and share it with students or fellow players.
- Click the teal START DAILY INTERLEAVED PRACTICE ROUTINE button (not the green START button on the metronome itself). A floating player shows the current passage and counts down its time, hands-free.
- Pair it with the Hands-Free Practice Ladder, Play–Go Silent, or Hemiola and Polyrhythm Practice if you like.
Interleaved Practice for Performance (First-Try Reliability Practice)
In a performance, each moment happens only once — there are no do-overs. This tool trains first-try reliability: instead of drilling one passage over and over, you give each passage a single attempt, then move on, then cycle back. Coming to a passage cold, forces your brain to rebuild the movement from scratch — just like in a live performance. Use it to test and strengthen passages you've already built with block practice (the Seven Levels of Misery).
- Add 3–15 passages (from one piece or several). Optionally attach a tempo and an image or PDF to each.
- The metronome shows one passage at a time. Play it once, then mark it Perfect ✓ or X, and it advances to the next.
- Goal — the number of perfect reps that retires a passage from the rotation (5 by default). By default a mistake sends that passage back to zero; uncheck the box to simply tally attempts instead.
- Choose Serial or Random order, and optionally Rest between rounds once only a few passages remain — so each one feels like a fresh attempt.
- Save your passages as a routine to reuse later, then click the indigo START INTERLEAVED PRACTICE FOR PERFORMANCE button (not the green START button on the metronome itself).
How to Use the Tuner & Waveform Feature
The tuner sounds a steady reference pitch so you can tune by ear. It works for any instrument, and it includes one-click presets for the open strings of the guitar.
- Reference pitch (A = ___). This sets the tuning standard — the frequency of the note A. It starts at the modern standard of A = 440 Hz, and most players can leave it there.
- Click the field to type any value from 380 to 500 Hz. The field clears when you click it, so you can enter a fresh number right away.
- Or click a Common preset: Baroque (415), Verdi (432), Standard (440), or European (442).
- Every pitch the tuner plays is figured from this reference, so changing it retunes everything at once — the frequencies shown in the tuning-pitch list update to match.
- Tuning pitch. Click the selector to choose the note you want to hear; each choice shows its frequency in Hz, and the selected note's frequency stays in view once chosen. As soon as you pick one, it begins to sound.
- A — reference plays the A you set above.
- Standard guitar tuning lists the six open guitar strings with their octaves: 1st — E4, 2nd — B3, 3rd — G3, 4th — D3, 5th — A2, and 6th — E2.
- Alternate guitar tunings includes Drop D (6th string — D2), the lute/vihuela 3rd string (F#3), and a lowered 5th string (G2).
- To change the pitch while it is sounding, simply pick another one — it retunes instantly.
- Custom pitch. Enter any frequency from 20 to 5000 Hz to hear a pitch that isn't in the list. It overrides the tuning pitch above; select a string or preset to return.
- Waveform. The four buttons change the tone color (timbre) of the pitch, not the pitch itself. Click a waveform to play the selected pitch in that tone; click the same button again to stop.
- Sine is the purest, smoothest tone. Triangle, Square, and Sawtooth are progressively brighter and richer.
- Low notes — below G3 (196.00 Hz) especially — can be hard to hear on small or built-in laptop speakers, most of all with the Sine wave, which has no upper harmonics to carry them. If a low string sounds faint, switch to Triangle, Square, or Sawtooth.
How to Use the Metronome Controls
- Set a tempo.
- Drag the tempo ring to spin up a new tempo.
- Tap in the center of the ring to type in a tempo.
- Fine-tune your tempo choice with the −10, −1, +1, +10 buttons.
- "Tap a Tempo" feature. As you listen to a piece of music, tap the button with the beat of the music. The tempo will display in the tempo ring.
- Beats per measure. Tap the – or + buttons to adjust the number of beats in each measure.
- Accent beats. Tap one or more of the numbers. The accented beat(s) will sound as a higher-pitched click.
- Select individual sounds for each beat.
- Long-press one or more of the accent numbers to select a specific sound for that beat. A menu will pop up. Select a sound (over 40 choices!) from the menu.
- You can select a different sound for any or every beat for improved rhythmic clarity.
- For example, if you have four beats in a measure, you could set a snare drum to play on beat #1 and a conga on beat #3, or choose a different instrument for each beat!
- Tap the accent number to delete the sound and return to the normal click sound.
- Subdivide Beat. This feature divides each main beat into smaller, evenly-spaced ticks — eighth notes, triplets, sixteenth notes, and a whole library of dotted and syncopated rhythm patterns. Hearing the beat subdivided helps you place notes precisely between the main beats and lock in tricky rhythms.
How to Use Subdivide Beat:- Tap the "SUBDIVIDE BEAT" selector to open the menu. Each choice is shown in standard music notation, so you can spot the rhythm you want at a glance.
- Tap a subdivision — for example, "8th notes," "Triplets," or "16th notes" — or one of the rhythm patterns farther down the list, such as a dotted eighth-and-sixteenth, the "Scotch snap," or offbeat sixteenths.
- Tap "START." The main beat ticks as usual, with the subdivision ticks sounding lightly in between.
- To turn the feature off, choose "Off (no subdivision)" at the top of the menu.
- Note: Subdivide Beat is silenced automatically while Polyrhythm Mode is on — the two cannot run at the same time.
- Metronome tick volume. Drag the slider.
- Talking Voice Count mode.
- Tap to open.
- Tap Off/On.
- Tap the COUNT field to select quarter, eighth, sixteenth, or triplet notes.
- Voice volume. Drag the slider. It adjusts the voice volume independently of the metronome tick volume.
- "Play—Go Silent" Mode (and random beat silencing). Set the metronome to tick for X measures and then go silent for Y measures. This feature will develop your inner pulse, so you can improve your ability to "hold a tempo"—to maintain the same speed over the course of several measures or an entire piece.
How to Use the "Play—Go Silent" mode:- Tap the Off/On button.
- Tap in the “Play for” and “Silent for” fields to enter the number of beats to play and go silent.
- Tap the “START” button.
- Play along with the metronome for your selected “Play for (X) beats.”
- The metronome will go silent for the number of beats you selected in “Go silent for (Y) beats.” Continue to play at an unwavering, steady tempo.
- When the metronome begins ticking again, if you held the tempo successfully, your playing and the first re-entry tick of the metronome will be perfectly in sync. If your playing and the metronome tick are not together, you failed to hold the tempo.
- Tap “Random mode” (random beat silencing) to have the metronome play and go silent at random intervals.
- Polyrhythm Mode. A polyrhythm is two rhythms played at the same time — for example, "3 against 2," where one voice plays 3 evenly-spaced notes while another plays 2 notes in the same span of time. Polyrhythms turn up in all styles of music, and they are famously hard to feel. This mode lets you hear both rhythms locked perfectly together at any tempo.
The lower rhythm — the "basic" or "main" beat — plays on a low-pitched tone. The upper rhythm — the "cross rhythm" — plays on a higher-pitched tone.
How to Use Polyrhythm Mode:- Tap the "POLYRHYTHM MODE" card to open it, then tap Off/On.
- Tap the "Ratio" button and choose the polyrhythm you want to practice — for example, 3:2, 4:3, or 5:4. A sheet of notation examples slides up. The examples in each row all sound identical, so pick the one that looks the way your music is written. (The beats-per-measure setting adjusts automatically to match.) You can also enter your own custom ratio at the bottom of the sheet.
- Your chosen polyrhythm appears in a small notation panel inside the card.
- Tap "START." You will hear the basic beat (low tone) and the cross rhythm (higher tone) playing together.
- Use the "Secondary beat volume (cross rhythm)" and "Primary beat volume (basic or main beat)" sliders to balance the two voices. Tip: turn one all the way down to isolate and master the other rhythm by itself, then bring it back to put the two together.
- Turn on "Accent downbeat of cycle" to mark the first beat of each cycle, which helps you hear where the pattern starts over.
- Note: "SUBDIVIDE BEAT" turns off automatically while Polyrhythm Mode is on — the two features cannot run at the same time.
- Start. To start the metronome, tap the big button labeled START. Tap the same button to stop.
How to Use “Enter Your Own Rhythm”
Type in a tricky passage from a piece you are working on — a syncopated phrase, a complex tuplet, an unusual time signature, anything not built into the standard metronome — and the metronome will play it back. A steady "primary" tick marks each beat, and a higher "secondary" tick fires on every note you enter, so you hear both the underlying pulse AND the rhythm you're trying to feel. Loop through one measure or a whole sequence of measures, save your favorites as named presets, and share them with students or fellow players by sending a link.
How to Use “Enter Your Own Rhythm”
- In the "ENTER YOUR OWN RHYTHM" section, turn on "PLAYBACK CONTROLS" to engage the mode.
- Set the time signature for the measure: type the number of beats in each measure (top number) and pick the beat unit (bottom number, e.g., 4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note).
- Add notes by tapping values from the "Add a note" palette — whole, half, quarter, 8th, 16th, 32nd, 64th. Each tap drops one note into the measure.
- Modify the last-entered note with "Make rest" (turn it into a rest), "Add dot", "Add double dot", or "Tie to next" (don't re-strike the next note; sustains across).
- Track your progress with the fill meter, which shows how much of the measure is filled and what's still needed. A measure must be exactly full before the metronome will start.
- Edit entered notes: tap a note in the entered-notes display to delete it; tap "undo" to remove the last note; tap "clear measure" to wipe the entire measure.
- Add a measure(s) with the "+ Add a measure" button.
- Once you have added more than one measure, pay attention to the orange "Measure #" buttons to select which measure you're editing.
- The "Duplicate" button creates a copy of the active measure.
- The "Delete" button removes an active measure when there are two or more measures.
- For special figures, use the sub-builders:
- Build a tuplet for triplets, quintuplets, septuplets, etc. Then add the tuplet to the measure you are editing.
- Build a polyrhythm for even-ratio polyrhythms (e.g., 3:2, 5:4). Then add the polyrhythm to the measure you are editing.
- Build a custom polyrhythm for two voices with any rhythm. Then add the custom polyrhythm to the measure you are editing. Note that the two voices must have the same number of beats.
Playback Controls
- Turn On/Off: To go back to the normal metronome after practicing a custom rhythm, turn PLAYBACK CONTROLS to Off.
- Volume balance: drag "Volume of the primary beats" to set how loud the steady pulse is, and "Volume of the rhythm you entered" to set the volume of the notes you entered. Tip: adjust each independently to find the best balance so that you can hear or follow the rhythm you entered.
- Accent the first beat of each measure (deepest tick tone): This is on by default. However, you may find it easier to hear some cross rhythms by turning this off.
- Count-in before starting: turn on to have the metronome speak/tick a few preparatory beats. Usually, it will speak the count-in, but at fast tempos it will tick. It defaults to the active measure's beats-per-measure, but you can override with your own number.
- Pause between repetitions: turn on to add a silent rest of N seconds between each loop, so you can think/recover between each repetition.
- Score popup: when you press START, a floating panel pops up showing your full sequence in standard music notation, highlighting each note as it plays. Drag it to a comfortable spot. If you close it with the "×", a "Show score popup" button appears so you can bring it back into view.
How to Save Presets
- Save your rhythm as a preset — once you've built it in the editor, tap the “+ Save the current rhythm… as a named preset” button (it sits with your saved rhythms). You'll be prompted for a name. Saved rhythms appear in your "MY RHYTHMS" list.
- Tap a saved rhythm's name to load it instantly (this also turns PLAYBACK CONTROLS ON so you can press START immediately).
- Rename any saved rhythm with the "Rename" button on its row. Delete removes it (with a confirmation). Rhythms are stored in your browser, so they persist across visits on the same device.
- Share a rhythm with anyone — tap "Share" on a saved rhythm's row to get a link. Send it via text, email, or chat. The recipient opens the link on any device (phone, laptop, tablet), gets a "Load shared rhythm?" prompt, and one tap brings up your rhythm in their editor. They can play it, edit it, or save it to their own list.
Important Information on Presets — Don't Lose Your Presets!
- If your preset is only on desktop/laptop:
- ✓ Survives: page refreshes, browser restarts, computer restarts, OS updates.
- × Lost if: you clear browser data (Settings → Privacy → Clear browsing data → "Cookies and other site data" or "Site data"), switch browsers (Chrome → Firefox = different storage), uninstall the browser, use the page in incognito/private mode (private storage is wiped on session end), or your hard drive dies.
- If your preset is only on phone:
- Same rules — survives refreshes, app/browser restarts, phone restarts.
- × Lost if: you clear browser data, switch browsers (Safari → Chrome), uninstall the browser, factory-reset the phone, delete the PWA from home screen and clear data, use private browsing.
- If your preset is on phone AND desktop/laptop:
- They're completely independent. Saving on one does NOT save on the other.
- But losing on one device doesn't affect the other.
- The easy bridge between them: a backup file. On the device that has your presets, use “Download a backup file”, move the file to the other device (email it to yourself or use a cloud drive), then “Restore” there — that copies everything across at once. (A per-preset Share link still works too for moving one at a time.)
Back up your presets: in the “SAVE MY METRONOME SETTINGS” section, use Download a backup file of everything I’ve saved to save all your rhythms and setups to a single file. Keep it somewhere safe (a cloud drive, or email it to yourself), and use Restore from a backup file to bring everything back — on this or any other device or browser. (You can still use a preset's Share link to send one preset to someone else.)
How to Save Your Metronome Settings: Make and Save Metronome Presets
Once the metronome is set up the way you like it — tempo, beats per measure, accent pattern, beat sounds, subdivisions, talking voice count, polyrhythm, Play–Go Silent, and more — you can capture the whole configuration as a named preset (a "setup") and return to it instantly. Save a preset for each exercise you practice, for a tricky passage in a piece, or for each student you teach, and share any preset with others by sending a link. This is separate from the rhythms you build in “Enter Your Own Rhythm” above: here you are saving the metronome's overall settings.
How to Make and Save a Preset
- Set up the metronome exactly how you want it — choose your tempo, beats per measure, accent pattern, beat sounds, subdivisions, talking voice count, polyrhythm, Play–Go Silent, and so on.
- Open the “SAVE MY METRONOME SETTINGS” section and select “+ Save current setup as a named preset…”.
- In the pop-up, check the boxes for the settings you want this preset to remember (you don't have to include all of them), type a name, and save. Your preset then appears in the list of saved setups in that section, and a blue “Active” badge marks whichever preset is currently loaded.
Loading and Managing Your Presets
- Select a saved preset's name to load it instantly — the metronome jumps to those exact settings.
- Use the buttons on each preset's row: “Rename” to change its name, “Edit” to change which settings the preset includes, and “Delete” to remove it (with a confirmation). Presets are stored in your browser, so they persist across visits on the same device.
- Share a preset with anyone — the “Share” button gives you a link. Send it via text, email, or chat. The recipient opens the link on any device, gets a prompt, and loads your settings into their metronome with a single tap or click.
Back to Normal: the Reset Buttons
- Reset to a plain metronome — returns everything to 120 BPM, 4/4, with all modes off.
- Turn off all modes — switches off subdivisions, voice count, polyrhythm, and the other modes, but keeps your current tempo and beats.
Don't lose your presets! Your saved setups live in this browser's storage on this device. They survive refreshes and restarts, but are lost if you clear browser data, switch or uninstall browsers, or use private/incognito mode — and phone and desktop storage are completely separate. Back them up: in the “SAVE MY METRONOME SETTINGS” section, use Download a backup file to save all your rhythms and setups to one file, then Restore from a backup file to bring them back on any device or browser. (The same storage rules detailed under “Enter Your Own Rhythm” above apply here.)
How to Use the Practice Tools
The Practice Tools go beyond simply keeping time — they structure how you practice. The Hands-Free Practice Ladder ramps the tempo of one passage or exercise; the Target Tempo Leapfrog alternates between your target tempo and a much slower recovery tempo; the Seven Levels of Misery drills a single spot until it is solid; Trouble Spot Rehab brings one trouble spot — or several, taking turns — back at spaced intervals across a session; and the two Interleaved tools rotate you among a set of passages the way an effective daily practice routine and real stage performance demand. They live in the PRACTICE TOOLS section — tap a card to open it. Here's what each one does and how to use it.
Hands-Free Practice Ladder (Graduated Tempo Practice)
An automatic tempo trainer. It raises (or lowers) the tempo for you in steps while you keep playing — the easy way to bring an exercise or a tricky passage up to speed without stopping to touch the metronome. It controls the main tempo (along with mandatory rest periods if you want them), but you can also incorporate subdivisions, talking voice count, polyrhythms, and your own rhythms along with it.
- Turn On/Off to enable the Ladder.
- Change by — how many BPM to add (or subtract) at each step.
- Every — how long to hold each step, set in minutes & seconds or in measures.
- Start tempo and Target tempo — where the ladder begins and ends. Set the target lower than the start to ramp downward.
- When target reached — stop the metronome, keep playing at the target tempo, or loop back and repeat.
- When you press stop — resume from where you stopped, or restart at the start tempo.
- Optional: Warning ticks (a four-beat voice countdown before each change) and Rest (pause a set number of seconds between steps, then count you back in).
- Set everything, then start the metronome. The Ladder does the rest, hands-free.
Tip: once you've dialed in a ladder for a particular exercise, use the “SAVE MY METRONOME SETTINGS” section to save it as a setup — the Ladder settings are included, so the whole routine is one tap away every day.
Target Tempo Leapfrog (Alternating Tempo Practice)
The Practice Ladder turned inside out: instead of climbing gradually toward your goal, you play at your target tempo from the very first pass — and the target never moves. Between visits, the metronome drops to a much slower recovery tempo so you can identify problems, make corrections, and reinforce the right movements, then immediately test the fix back at full speed. Best when you are already close to the target tempo and are making the final push to play at full speed cleanly and consistently.
- Target tempo — your performance tempo. It never moves; you keep leapfrogging back to it.
- Recovery tempo — much slower, so you have time to observe and repair. 60% of the target is recommended, and the tool warns you above 80% — that close to the target, a pass is just “slightly under tempo,” not true recovery. Three ways to set it: Fixed (one recovery tempo, every time), Random (a fresh, unpredictable tempo from a range you set for every recovery pass — variable practice — with the option of two passes between visits, one slow and one near the target, in the order you choose), or Rising (the recovery tempo creeps up toward the target by a set step after each visit and stops rising where you say). The target never moves in any of them.
- Play target tempo for / Play recovery tempo for — how long each pass lasts, set separately in minutes & seconds.
- Begin with — the target tempo (recommended: hear what breaks at speed first, so the recovery pass has something to repair), or a recovery pass to warm into it before your first visit to the target.
- Visits — stop after a set number of visits to the target (a session always ends at the target), or keep leapfrogging until you stop it.
- Optional Rest at each tempo change — the metronome pauses so you can reset, then a voice countdown brings you in at the new tempo. Recommended: the jump between tempos is big by design.
- Tap the dark green START THE LEAPFROG button (not the big bright-green START button on the metronome itself). A floating panel shows which tempo you're on — TARGET or RECOVERY — with Pause, “Leap to the other tempo now,” and Close.
- Save this setup as a Target Tempo Leapfrog routine to reuse later, and share it with students or fellow players.
The Seven Levels of Misery (Block Practice)
A practice game with a serious purpose: don't practice mistakes. Pick a short, troublesome passage and set a goal — say, seven perfect repetitions in a row. Each flawless repetition earns a golden note; one slip and (depending on the misery level you choose) you forfeit them all and start over at zero. It's a focused, motivating way to do block practice — drilling one spot until it's solid — and it trains you to play accurately and deliberately instead of mindlessly repeating errors. The game runs in its own full-screen window: after each attempt you tell it whether the repetition was perfect or had a mistake, and it tracks your streak, celebrates when you conquer all your levels, and offers a practice tip whenever you slip.
- Set How many levels of misery can you tolerate? — the number of perfect repetitions in a row you're aiming for.
- Choose your misery level: Gentle (no resets — just tallies your good and bad attempts), Conventional misery (a mistake resets your streak to zero), or Maximum misery (a mistake resets you to zero and raises your goal by one).
- Turn on Use the metronome (recommended) and set a starting tempo — start slow; playing too fast is the chief cause of mistakes. With the metronome on, START THE GAME also starts the beat at that tempo.
- Optional: Rest a set number of seconds between attempts (the rest counts down, then a four-tick count-in and a “beep” to begin — the metronome pauses for the rest if you have it on; after a mistake you get that same pause to read the tip and think before you can resume), Kick it up a notch to raise the tempo each time you reach your goal, and Game sounds (a ding for perfect reps, a “wah” for mistakes, a fanfare when you win).
- Tap the pink START THE GAME button (not the green main Start button). The full-screen game opens.
- Play your passage, then tap Perfect or Mistake. A perfect rep earns a golden note and advances your streak; a mistake (in Conventional or Maximum) sends you back to zero, the metronome stops, and a coaching tip pops up — read it, work out what went wrong, then tap RESUME to try again.
- After 15 minutes the game pauses and reminds you to rest your hands, and again every 10 minutes after that. Block practice is repetitive by design — take the break. Fatigue causes mistakes, and injuries.
- Reach your goal to conquer the levels and win. Use Kick it up a notch or Play again for another round, or close the window to exit (which also stops the metronome).
Trouble Spot Rehab (Spaced Interval Practice)
A spaced-interval trainer for the spots that keep tripping you up. Pick a passage you just can't seem to nail — or up to eight of them — set your total practice time, and the timer brings them back one at a time at spaced intervals across your session for short bursts of focused repair work, with time in between to practice something else or rest. Each spaced return makes you rebuild the passage from a slightly cold start, which is exactly what turns the fix into reliable muscle memory. Dr. Molly Gebrian, a music practice expert with a background in neuroscience, calls this “interval-timer practice.”
- Name your trouble spot — and use + Add another trouble spot if you’re working on several (up to eight). They take turns, one per bell.
- Optional, and set separately for each spot: check Metronome and give it a BPM so each repetition starts the beat for you — or leave it unchecked and work the metronome by hand. Add a Count-in, a Practice limit (how long to spend on that spot before the timer moves on by itself — leave the minutes and seconds blank for no limit), an image or PDF, and Practice Notes.
- Set your Total practice time — the whole stretch your trouble spots sit inside, not just one passage. That clock runs continuously and ends the session when it runs out.
- Choose how often a spot comes up: Even spacing (every set minutes & seconds) or Random spacing (at random intervals between two limits). With several spots that gap is the time between bells, so a line underneath tells you how often each individual spot comes back.
- With more than one spot, take them Serial (the order you entered them) or Random (reshuffled each round, so every spot gets its turn before any repeats).
- Tap the violet START THE REHAB button. The first repetition begins right away; a floating panel names the spot so the metronome and your other tools stay live while you work.
- When you finish a repetition, tap “I’m done practicing…”. The panel counts down the time to the next repetition and your practice time remaining while you practice something else or rest, then brings the next spot back.
- Phone call? Doorbell? Pause stops every clock and the metronome until you are ready; Resume picks up exactly where you left off, so an interruption costs you none of your practice time.
- Save this setup as a Trouble Spot Rehab routine to reuse later, and share it with students or fellow players.
Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice (Time-Constrained, Focused Practice)
A hands-free timer that rotates you through several passages so your daily practice keeps moving and you never get stuck in a rut on one spot. Spend a few minutes on each passage; when its time is up, the routine moves to the next, cycling until your total practice time runs out. Dr. Molly Gebrian calls this “time-constrained practice”: limited time on each section forces sharp focus, which makes your practice more effective.
How this differs from Trouble Spot Rehab above: Trouble Spot Rehab intersperses a trouble spot or set of trouble spots at wide intervals throughout a longer practice session — while you are memorizing a piece or learning a new one, a trouble spot pops up one at a time at wide gaps, then leaves you alone again. Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice pops up selected difficult passages one after the other for intensive practice on that group of passages, but for a limited amount of time. Stop what you were practicing, run the routine, then resume your regular practice.
- Add 3–15 passages (from one piece or several). Give each a name and how long to spend on it (5 minutes by default). Optionally check the Metronome box and give it a tempo, add an image or PDF, and jot down Practice Notes.
- Passages with the Metronome box checked start the metronome for you at that tempo. Passages without it leave the metronome alone — run it yourself if you want it. When the routine moves off one of those passages it stops the metronome again, since it was the one that started it; a metronome you started by hand keeps running.
- Pause on the player is not the same as the metronome’s Start/Stop. Pause stops your session — both clocks and the rotation — and silences the metronome with it; Resume brings the metronome back only if it was running when you paused. To temporarily use the metronome independently of this routine, press Pause and use the main START/STOP button on the metronome itself. On a passage without the Metronome box checked, the metronome is yours as usual.
- Set your total practice time (60 minutes by default) and choose Serial (in order) or Random order.
- Save these passages as an Interleaved Routine for Daily Practice to reuse the whole set later, and share it with students or fellow players.
- Tap the teal START DAILY INTERLEAVED PRACTICE ROUTINE button (not the green START button on the metronome itself). A floating player shows the current passage and counts down its time, hands-free.
- Pair it with the Hands-Free Practice Ladder, Play–Go Silent, or Hemiola and Polyrhythm Practice if you like.
Interleaved Practice for Performance (First-Try Reliability Practice)
In a performance, each moment happens only once — there are no do-overs. This tool trains first-try reliability: instead of drilling one passage over and over, you give each passage a single attempt, then move on, then cycle back. Coming to a passage cold, forces your brain to rebuild the movement from scratch — just like in a live performance. Use it to test and strengthen passages you've already built with block practice (the Seven Levels of Misery).
- Add 3–15 passages (from one piece or several). Optionally attach a tempo and an image or PDF to each.
- The metronome shows one passage at a time. Play it once, then mark it Perfect ✓ or X, and it advances to the next.
- Goal — the number of perfect reps that retires a passage from the rotation (5 by default). By default a mistake sends that passage back to zero; uncheck the box to simply tally attempts instead.
- Choose Serial or Random order, and optionally Rest between rounds once only a few passages remain — so each one feels like a fresh attempt.
- Save your passages as a routine to reuse later, then tap the indigo START INTERLEAVED PRACTICE FOR PERFORMANCE button (not the green START button on the metronome itself).
How to Use the Tuner & Waveform Feature
The tuner sounds a steady reference pitch so you can tune by ear. It works for any instrument, and it includes one-tap presets for the open strings of the guitar.
- Reference pitch (A = ___). This sets the tuning standard — the frequency of the note A. It starts at the modern standard of A = 440 Hz, and most players can leave it there.
- Tap the field to type any value from 380 to 500 Hz. The field clears when you tap it, so you can enter a fresh number right away.
- Or tap a Common preset: Baroque (415), Verdi (432), Standard (440), or European (442).
- Every pitch the tuner plays is figured from this reference, so changing it retunes everything at once — the frequencies shown in the tuning-pitch list update to match.
- Tuning pitch. Tap the selector to choose the note you want to hear; each choice shows its frequency in Hz, and the selected note’s frequency stays in view once chosen. As soon as you pick one, it begins to sound.
- A — reference plays the A you set above.
- Standard guitar tuning lists the six open guitar strings with their octaves: 1st — E4, 2nd — B3, 3rd — G3, 4th — D3, 5th — A2, and 6th — E2.
- Alternate guitar tunings includes Drop D (6th string — D2), the lute/vihuela 3rd string (F#3), and a lowered 5th string (G2).
- To change the pitch while it is sounding, simply pick another one — it retunes instantly.
- Custom pitch. Enter any frequency from 20 to 5000 Hz to hear a pitch that isn’t in the list. It overrides the tuning pitch above; tap a string or preset to return.
- Waveform. The four buttons change the tone color (timbre) of the pitch, not the pitch itself. Tap a waveform to play the selected pitch in that tone; tap the same button again to stop.
- Sine is the purest, smoothest tone. Triangle, Square, and Sawtooth are progressively brighter and richer.
- On phones and other small speakers, low notes — below G3 (196.00 Hz) especially — can be hard to hear, most of all with the Sine wave, which has no upper harmonics to carry them. If a low string sounds faint, switch to Triangle, Square, or Sawtooth.
Some Quick FAQs About How to Use an Online Metronome
Is your metronome cursed? Do you want to throw it across the room?
MAKE THE METRONOME YOUR FRIEND!
Read my amazing: Complete Guide to How to Use a Metronome.
The guide explains all the points listed below.
How do I use a metronome to improve my playing?
The metronome can be used in three ways to improve your playing.
- Function #1. To set an absolute tempo.
- Function #2. As a tool to help us develop and improve our inner pulse. This enables us to play "in the pocket" or groove and to accurately hold a precise and steady tempo.
- Function #3. As a practice and diagnostic tool to improve the efficiency of our practicing and therefore, the quality of our final performance.
What are common uses for a metronome?
- Use the metronome to play a piece at the performance tempo intended by the composer.
- Use the Tap a Tempo feature on the metronome to determine the tempo that other musicians play a piece.
- Use the metronome to check the tempo consistency of your own playing. Record yourself playing a piece. Listen back and use the Tap a Tempo feature to check the consistency of your tempo from beginning to end. Be sure to check it within several different sections of the piece. Many times, a player will discover they are speeding up in the most difficult parts of a piece or passage. What a relief to discover the difficult passage should be played slower! Unfortunately, it can work the other way around too.
- Use the metronome to internalize tempo memory and relative tempos.
- Use the metronome to establish the approximate tempos of Italian notations.
- Use the metronome with subdivision to even out arpeggios, scales, tremolo, and to play complex rhythms.
How can I use the metronome to practice my pieces?
- Use the metronome to pinpoint problem spots. Record yourself playing the piece with the metronome set at a slightly challenging speed. You will notice certain problem spots and "stress points" begin to appear. The metronome's unforgiving nature helps you identify these spots.
- Use the metronome to determine the precise final performance tempo of your piece.
- Pinpoint spots where you unknowingly speed up or slow down.
- Shift the accents to the offbeats. This will help you to get into the groove or pocket of very rhythmic pieces.
- Use the metronome to detect rushed beats. Beginning and intermediate guitarists often rush the conclusion of a phrase that ends in a long note.
- Use the metronome to practice beginning a piece at the correct tempo. Many performance problems are caused simply by beginning a piece at the wrong tempo.
- Use the metronome to keep track of your progress.
- Practice with different subdivisions at performance tempo. This promotes rhythmic precision.
What general musical skills can I improve with a metronome?
- The metronome can be strategically used to improve your rubato and other changes of tempo.
- The metronome can be used to improve the control and fluency of your vibrato.
- The metronome can be used to improve the control and evenness of your tremolo and arpeggios.
- The metronome can be used to improve the precision and speed of shifts.
- Practice with a metronome can help prevent rhythmic problems caused by ornaments.
- The metronome can help you improve your performance of ensemble music, duets, and chamber music.
What is Target Tempo Leapfrog (alternating tempo practice)?
Instead of gradually climbing toward your goal the way a metronome ladder does, alternating tempo practice starts at your target tempo and keeps returning to it, dropping to a much slower recovery tempo in between so you can identify problems and make corrections — then immediately test the fix at full speed. The target never moves. The Target Tempo Leapfrog tool runs this for you hands-free: set a target tempo, a much slower recovery tempo (60% of the target is recommended), how long to play each, and how many visits to the target — then it conducts the alternation, with an optional rest and voice count-in at each tempo change. The recovery tempo can be fixed, random within a range you set (variable practice, optionally with two recovery passes between visits), or rising step by step toward the target after each visit.
Can I use the practice tools at the same time?
Yes. The practice tools coordinate automatically: only one runs at a time, while the others wait their turn, and each resumes exactly where it left off.
- The Hands-Free Practice Ladder, Trouble Spot Rehab, and Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice can run together — any two, or all three at once.
- The Target Tempo Leapfrog can run alongside Trouble Spot Rehab and Interleaved Routines for Daily Practice. (The Practice Ladder and the Leapfrog cannot run at the same time — they would both be changing the tempo.)
- The Seven Levels of Misery can run alongside Trouble Spot Rehab.
- Interleaved Practice for Performance always runs by itself.
- Only one tool drives the metronome at a time, and each tool’s floating panel shows LIVE, HELD, or PAUSED so you always know which one is active. See “Practice like you have your own Personal Practice Coach” just below the practice tools for combinations that work especially well.
No sound? Check these first
- Is it running? The status line above says Sounding and the waveform button turns dark blue and pulses when a tone is playing. If it does, the tuner is working and the silence is on the audio side below.
- Tuner volume. Make sure the TUNER VOLUME slider below is not at zero — it is separate from the metronome’s volume.
- System volume and output. Check your computer’s volume, and which output it is using — if headphones or a Bluetooth speaker are connected, the tone is playing there.
- Sound permission. Click the icon at the left of the address bar → Site settings → Sound → Allow.
- Still silent? Reload the page to replace an older saved copy, then try again.
No sound? Check these first
- Is it running? The status line above says Sounding and the waveform button turns dark blue and pulses when a tone is playing. If it does, the tuner is working and the silence is on the audio side below.
- Media volume. Start a tone first, then press volume up. Your phone’s volume buttons change the ringer, not media, unless something is already playing — so media volume can sit at zero without you knowing.
- Tuner volume. Make sure the TUNER VOLUME slider below is not at zero — it is separate from the metronome’s volume.
- Bluetooth. If headphones or a speaker are connected, the tone is playing there, not on the phone.
- Sound permission. In Chrome, tap the icon at the left of the address bar → Site settings → Sound → Allow.
- Still silent? Reload the page to replace an older saved copy, then try again.
More Free Tools from Douglas Niedt
More free classical-guitar apps to take your playing further.
The Classical Guitar Technique Wizard
Get expert answers about classical guitar technique, performance, and practicing — from Doug’s cutting-edge, generative-AI app.
Try it free → FreeThe TremoloMASTER Wizard
The only app that gives precise, personalized feedback to perfect your classical guitar tremolo — from the ground up or refining an advanced technique.
Try it free → FreeThe Ultimate Fretboard Trainer
The most in-depth fretboard course on the planet. Learn the notes’ locations on the fretboard and how they look on the musical staff — once and for all.
Try it free → FreeThe Ultimate Note Recognition Trainer
The most in-depth note-recognition course on the planet, plus an intro to music notation. Learn to read the notes on the staff and the basics of reading music.
Try it free →