Clef Notes

Help! This Metronome App Thing Is Confusing!

Note to readers: This post is geared towards Level 1 Students of Crescendo Music System but others should find it useful as well.

Don’t worry. Just breathe. We’re here to help.

By now you should have downloaded and installed the free version of the Pro Metronome from either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store on your phone or tablet. But just in case you haven’t, get them here: Apple App Store Google Play Store Go ahead and open the app. You should see something like this: At this point you only really need to set the following:

1. The time signature;
2. The tempo;
3. The audio click sound;
4. Starting and stopping the metronome.

Setting the Time Signature

You can access the time signature settings via two methods: 1. By tapping on T.S. near the top of the screen, or 2. By tapping on the bottom left of the screen where it shows the current time signature setting. After you do either of those a pop-up window appears. To set the beats per measure (the top number of the time signature) tap on the ‘–’ or ‘+’ button below where is says ‘BEAT’ until you arrive at the correct number. For instance, if the music or chart shows that the time signature is 3/4, tap on the + or – until the display shows a ‘3’ as the top (or left) number.

To set the type of note that receives one beat (the bottom number of the time signature) tap on the – or + below where is says ‘NOTE’ until you arrive at the correct number. Right now, as a Level 1 Student, you will only be dealing with time signatures where a quarter note gets one beat (with a 4 on the bottom).

Once you’ve set the time signature, you can close the pop-up window by tapping away from it.

Setting the Tempo

There are two ways of setting the tempo. You can either: 1. Tap where it says ‘Tempo’ near the top of the screen. A window will pop up and you can manually enter the tempo by using the keypad. Once you’ve entered the correct tempo just tap on ‘SET”. 2. Tap and hold your finger down on the virtual wheel in the middle of the screen. ‘Spin’ the wheel with your finger while keeping an eye on the number in the ‘TEMPO’ section near the top left of the screen. Spinning the wheel clockwise increases the tempo. Counter-clockwise decreases the tempo. Once you’ve set your tempo just take your finger off the screen.

Setting up the audio click sound

You should set up the click sound so that each beat is audible, with the first beat of each measure being accented. There are two ways of doing this but I will only show you one for now, because it is easy. There are several rectangles below where the app displays the tempo and time signature; each rectangle represents one beat. Each of these rectangles is subdivided into 3 parts. Tap on the first large rectangle (the farthest left) until the 3 smaller rectangles within are filled in with a pinkish purple color. Then, tap the other rectangles until only the bottom third is pinkish purple. It should end up look something like these examples:

Starting & stopping the metronome

The start and stop button is in the middle of the virtual wheel. All you need to do is press it. Easy Peasy.

Now go out there and do the voodoo that you do so well!