MusicReasonRhythm, Tempo, Meter, and Practice Timing
Give me a dependable pulse to practice with
Start an audible and visible metronome after a click, with tempo, meter, and accent controls, scheduled against the Web Audio clock rather than a UI timer.
Play
Beat: —
Quarter-note beat duration at this tempo: 500.0 ms.
Want to learn more? Tempo, Meter, Beat Units, and Subdivision
Understand
"BPM" here always refers to the beat unit you selected, quarter note by default: switching to an eighth-note beat unit at the same numeric BPM doubles the actual click rate, since it now represents twice as many beats per minute of that shorter value. Browser and device scheduling can be affected if the tab is backgrounded or the device is under heavy load; this tool schedules a rolling window of upcoming clicks against the audio clock specifically to stay musically usable even when the visual thread lags, but it never claims measurement-grade, sample-accurate performance assessment.
Worked example
At 120 BPM with a quarter-note beat, each click is scheduled 500 milliseconds after the previous one: durationMs = 60000 / BPM for a quarter-note beat unit. Changing the beat unit to an eighth note at the same 120 BPM halves that interval to 250 ms, since an eighth note is half the duration of a quarter note.
Method and limitations
Clicks are scheduled against AudioContext.currentTime in a rolling 100 ms look-ahead window, not by a per-click JavaScript timer, which is what keeps the pulse steady even when the browser's main thread is briefly busy. Playback only begins after your click, and pausing or changing tempo replaces the schedule rather than layering a second one on top of it. This tool cannot guarantee audio continues while a browser tab is fully suspended by the operating system, and its visual beat indicator follows the scheduled event, not a separate, independently measured clock.
A note on safe listening levels
A metronome click is a short, sharp transient, which can read as louder than its average level suggests, especially through headphones. Start at a low volume and raise it only as needed, and prefer speakers over in-ear headphones for extended practice sessions where that's practical. The volume control here only affects this browser tab's own click sound; it has no effect on your system or headphone volume.