Metronome for guitar practice

A practice session built around the click

A metronome is most useful when it has a job in every part of the session, not only in the ten minutes you spend chasing speed. The plan below takes about 55 minutes including tuning and works for electric or acoustic. Every block uses a different feature of this metronome, so by the end of the week you know the tool as well as the exercises. This page opens the tool in speed trainer mode, so the plan is one tab away.

The warm-up run is deliberately slow and long. At 80 BPM a 4/4 bar lasts 3 seconds, so the nine stages of the preset add up to 72 bars and roughly 3 minutes with the count-in, and the preset keeps playing at 120 when it gets there, so you stop it yourself when the hands feel ready. That is enough time for them to warm up without any of the stress that speed work brings. The cool-down mirrors it in the other direction: the same step and stage length, but falling, so you finish the session playing slowly and cleanly instead of at your limit.

Alternate picking in sixteenths

Guitarists talk about picking speed in a very specific way: “sixteenths at 160”. The number is the quarter-note tempo and the note value tells you how many notes fall on each click. This metronome keeps that convention. BPM refers to the beat unit of the time signature, so in 4/4 the click is a quarter note and the subdivision setting decides how many extra pulses you hear inside it. Set the subdivision to 4 and you get the classic four-notes-per-click grid; the display still reads 160, which is the number you will find in tabs, lesson videos and your own notes.

Showing the tempo per beat also matters for the trainer. A +1 BPM step at the quarter note adds only four notes per minute in sixteenths, a change small enough for the hands to absorb without noticing. If you set the tempo per note instead (640 BPM with a plain quarter click), every step would be four times as big and you would lose the downbeat in a stream of identical clicks.

When to switch from four clicks per beat to two

The sixteenth-note subdivision is a learning aid, not a permanent setting. Two things tell you it is time to drop to eighth-note clicks (subdivision 2). First, tempo: above roughly 180 BPM the sub-clicks are about 80 milliseconds apart or less, they start to blur into a buzz and they mask your own pick attack, which is exactly the sound you need to hear. Second, progress: once you can hold sixteenths cleanly with four clicks per beat, the next skill is filling the gaps yourself. Go to two clicks per beat, then one, then mute beats 2 and 4. You can also keep the subdivision selected and simply mute the subdivision clicks, which leaves the beat alone and removes the scaffolding in one tap.

A useful daily check: play a one-string 1-2-3-4 pattern in sixteenths at your clean speed with the subdivision audible, then play it again with the subdivision muted. If the second take drifts ahead of the click by the end of the bar, you were leaning on the sub-clicks, and the tempo is not yours yet.

Sweep picking and legato: triplets and sextuplets

Arpeggios and legato lines rarely fall into groups of four. A three-string sweep is six notes per cycle (three down, a hammer-on or pull-off at the top, two back up) and a three-notes-per-string legato pattern is, by definition, triplets. Set the subdivision to 3 and each note gets its own pulse: at 100 BPM in 4/4 that is 300 notes per minute, or 5 per second, which is a sensible tempo for learning a new shape.

For sextuplets, six notes per beat, use the denominator instead of the subdivision. Change the time signature to 8/8, double the BPM and keep the triplet subdivision: 8/8 at 200 BPM with three clicks per eighth is exactly six notes per quarter, the same as sextuplets at 100 in 4/4. Accent beats 1, 3, 5 and 7, or choose the 2+2+2+2 grouping, so the quarter-note pulse still stands out. A three-string sweep then takes one quarter note per arpeggio, and a five-string shape with a hammer-on and pull-off at the top (twelve notes) takes two.

In both techniques evenness matters more than speed, and the click exposes the specific faults. Sweeps tend to bunch: the three downstrokes rush because the pick is falling through the strings, then the top hammer-on sits late. Legato lines do the opposite: hammer-ons arrive early and pull-offs drag. Play the shape with the triplet subdivision audible until every note lands on its own pulse, then mute the subdivision clicks and see whether the spacing survives. A three-string sweep at 100 BPM with six equal notes is worth more than the same sweep at 140 with the first three squashed together, and it also sounds faster to a listener because every note is heard.

Riffs and palm muting

Rhythm playing is where a metronome earns its keep, because a palm-muted riff has nowhere to hide. Muted notes are short and percussive, so when your downstroke and the click line up you hear a single attack, and when they do not you hear a flam. Start with the default accent on beat 1 and the subdivision set to 4 if the riff contains gallops (an eighth followed by two sixteenths): the sixteenth grid makes it obvious whether the two short notes are really sixteenths or a lazy triplet.

Once the riff is learned, take clicks away. Set beats 2 and 4 to mute and you hear only 1 and 3, so the backbeat has to come from you. Then try the reverse and mute beat 1: you hear 2, 3 and 4 and must place the downbeat yourself, which is the hardest test because the downbeat is where riffs rush, especially after a rest or a chord stab. If the click on 2 keeps arriving early relative to your beat 1, you are compressing the bar. The per-beat states are edited by tapping a beat, and a share link keeps the whole pattern if you want to come back to it.

Modern metal spends a lot of time outside 4/4. A 7/8 riff is usually felt as 2+2+3 or 3+2+2 rather than as seven equal beats, and the grouping control puts an accent on the first eighth of every group so you hear the shape instead of counting to seven. Remember that BPM follows the denominator: 7/8 at 240 BPM means an eighth-note click at 240, a bar of 1.75 seconds, and a quarter-note feel of 120. Everything about grouping, odd meters and switching between them is on the odd time metronome page.

Building speed without tension

Your clean speed is the highest tempo at which you can play a passage three times in a row with no wrong note, no string noise from the muted strings and no tightening in the forearm, wrist or shoulder. Not your best take; three in a row. Spend 80 to 90 percent of your speed work at or just under that number and only short bursts above it. Speed is a by-product of playing the passage correctly thousands of times, and every tense repetition above the clean speed teaches the hands the wrong movement at the worst possible tempo.

Steps of 1 BPM near the ceiling

Far below the clean speed, +5 steps are fine. In the last 10 BPM before the ceiling use +1 steps every 4 bars, because that is where the movement changes: the wrist takes over from the arm, the pick stroke shortens, and a 5 BPM jump forces all of that at once. The built-in High-speed guitar preset is the template: 220→240 in +1 steps every 4 bars, 21 stages, 84 bars plus one count-in bar, about a minute and a half. Retype the start and target to your own range, for example 150→160, and you have an 11-stage, 44-bar run of roughly 70 seconds. The speed trainer page explains every field, and the [ and ] keys let you repeat a stage that fell apart or skip ahead.

Endurance, rest and honest feedback

• Endurance runs. The Endurance preset holds one tempo for 5 minutes. Set it to 85 to 90 percent of your clean speed and play the passage or a riff without stopping. If the tone thins out or the muting gets sloppy in minute three, that is your real limit, whatever the four-bar bursts say.
• Rest. The hand and forearm muscles are small and fatigue in minutes, so take a full minute between trainer runs and stop the moment you feel burning rather than effort. Pain is never a training signal on the guitar.
• Record yourself. A phone voice memo with the click audible is the cheapest teacher there is. Rushing that felt fine while you played is obvious on playback, and so is the difference between the first and the third repetition.
• Use the history as a tempo journal. The session history keeps the last 50 sessions longer than 10 seconds with their time, bar count and BPM range, stored only in this browser. Compare Monday with Monday, not today with yesterday; a clean speed that moves 3 to 5 BPM per month is normal and adds up to roughly 36 to 60 BPM in a year.

Using a phone on a music stand

Most guitar practice happens with the phone propped on a stand at arm’s length, and the tool is laid out for that. Focus mode (the F key on a laptop, or the Focus mode button on the phone) switches to a fullscreen view with only the essentials. While the metronome runs the screen stays on where the browser supports a wake lock (Firefox does not). On an iPhone keep the page in the foreground: iOS pauses Web Audio when the screen locks or another app takes over the audio, and the click resumes only when you come back. The very first start needs a tap because of autoplay rules; after that Space, the quick-controls bar and the keyboard all work.

When you scroll down to read while the click plays, a bar with the current BPM, −1, +1 and Start/Pause stays at the bottom of the phone screen, so you never have to scroll back up between repetitions. On a laptop the keyboard is faster than the mouse: Space starts and pauses, S stops, ↑/↓ change the tempo by 1, ←/→ by 5, Shift+↑/↓ by 10, T taps the tempo, [ and ] move between trainer stages and ? shows the full list.

If you practise in the same room every day, install the app from the browser menu. It runs offline after the first visit, the clicks are synthesised locally so nothing is downloaded during practice, and your settings, presets and history stay in this browser with no account. The complete description of tempo, time signature, sounds and sharing is on the main metronome page.

Frequently asked questions

What BPM should I practise a lick at?

Start at the tempo where you can play it three times in a row with no wrong note and no tension, which for a new lick is usually 50 to 60 percent of the goal. If you want sixteenths at 160, that means starting around 90 and raising the tempo in +2 to +5 steps until the last 10 BPM, where +1 steps every 4 bars work best.

How long should a speed session be?

Ten to fifteen minutes of genuine speed work per day is plenty, inside a longer session that also covers warm-up, technique and repertoire. Three trainer runs of about a minute and a half with a minute of rest between them is a complete speed block; stop early if the tone gets thin or the forearm tightens.

Should I always practise with a metronome?

No. Use it for technique, for learning parts and for checking your time, and switch it off for phrasing, improvising and playing along with records. A good middle ground is to keep the metronome on but mute beats 2 and 4, or the downbeat, so it checks you without carrying you.

How do I practise with the click on 2 and 4?

Choose 4/4, then set beats 1 and 3 to mute and leave 2 and 4 as normal or accented beats. You now hear only the backbeat and have to place the downbeat yourself. Copy a share link once it sounds right, because the link stores the time signature and the per-beat states.

Does the metronome keep playing in a background tab?

Yes. Clicks are scheduled through the Web Audio API and the scheduler runs in a worker timer, so switching to a tab with the sheet music or a lesson video does not throttle the click. The exception is iOS, where locking the screen or letting another app take over audio pauses Web Audio until you return to the page.

How do I get six notes per beat?

Set the denominator to 8, double the BPM and choose the triplet subdivision. Sextuplets at 100 BPM in 4/4 become 8/8 at 200 BPM with three clicks per beat, which is 600 notes per minute. Accent beats 1, 3, 5 and 7, or group the bar as 2+2+2+2, so you still hear the quarter-note pulse.

Which click sound cuts through a distorted guitar?

Try all three at your normal practice volume, because it depends on the amp and the room. Digital is pitched highest of the three and usually stays audible over a distorted rhythm guitar without turning the metronome up; classic is the neutral choice and wood is the softer alternative for clean or acoustic work. Whichever you pick, the accented beat is louder and higher than the others, so keep accents on.

Is there a drone or a backing track?

No. Every sound is synthesised in the browser and nothing is downloaded during practice, which is what makes offline use and background tabs work. On a desktop you can run a drone in another tab alongside the click.