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Metronomes in teaching and practise

cjR

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I guess this is the place for this. I'm working on some software for rhythm training just wondered what features people would look before beyond a standard metronome, both to work through with students and for solo practise?
 
Flexibility to program beats in a bar, length of beat, accent beats, swing the eighths, triplets and other multiplets

Is this gonna be for iPad
 
I guess this is the place for this. I'm working on some software for rhythm training just wondered what features people would look before beyond a standard metronome, both to work through with students and for solo practise?

Well,
if it's for sax players, make sure it is loud enough. Many standard metronomes are not loud enough to be heard, especially when practising soloing. Also, make sure it has a pleasant sound. It should be a deep "clack" rather than something that reminds you of the alarm on your digital watch. There are some credit-card-sized metronomes out there around 20 Euros that have that kind of sound. I don't know anybody who is really pleased with them.

As for features: I like the accent on the first beat in a bar, adjustable volume, different bar measures, LEDs in addition to the sound. The rest does not interest me so much. I had a Boss Dr. Beat in the 80s. It spotted off-beats, triplets, eights and sixteenths. I never really used these features. They were rather distracting. The good thing was that it started at 35 bpm and went up to 250. And it was loud enough.

I'd focus on usability, that is, avoid multifunctional keys, whether real or virtual ones. Also, a smart phone does not seem to be the device that you can get a pleasant sound out of, just because the speaker is too small. Furthermore, I would not like to boot a laptop or tablet PC, then launch a program or an app to get my metronome started. Just too much hassle to get going.

Functions beyond those found in most metronomes today: nothing really.

I hope this helps.
 
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Thanks for the replies, the aim is to have this on smartphone and tablet, volume and sound are definite problems
 
the option to show the mid-beats clearly - maybe a different colour, or sound - useful for trying to practice syncopation. My biggest problem is counting quaver rests.
 
Another vote for indicating the first beat in the bar for unusual time signatures.

Mandy, regarding volume most digital metronomes have an ear piece, I use that to plug it through either an amp if I am at school or my stereo at home. I also use a free metronome, if you google digital metronome there are loads that you can download for free, some have to be connected to the internet but others are standalone programs.

Having said that they still dont give the unusual time sigs, so that would be useful please.
Dave
 
This is a stand alone metronome but I like it so much that I always recommend it when this question comes up. I like the Korg KDM-2. It is very loud but has a volume control. It has a number of controls and the earphone outlet has a volume control. I used to use the KDM-1 and liked it a lot but this is even better.
http://www.korg.com/kdm2
 
One useful thing I don't see that would come in handy is a way to save several user-defined tempos and access them quickly. Could be useful on some gigs.
 
As a feature, I would like to see some kind of a progress bar, with the number of beats represented along it. Some people are fine with the traditional three or four LEDs flashing up, but some people may want to actually see how much time is left until the next beat and prepare for it. The Ludwig iPad metronome app is kind of what I had in mind with regards to this.

I've also got an android app which just has two flashing lights, left and right. This is perfect for me as I don't have to think about four lights/LEDs, just the 1-2-1-2-1-2 out of the corner of my eye.
 

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