About
A Pulse to Practise With
This free online metronome counts taal cycles or bars of four in your browser. Its 554 rhythms span eleven regions and sixty-six traditions.
The rhythm catalogue
The 68 Indian taals cover Hindustani and Carnatic music, including the thirty-five suladi talas. Other traditions span the Middle East, Persia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Greece, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Cuba, Brazil, Latin America, East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Practice patterns cover guitar strums, piano accompaniment, drum rudiments and konnakol. Popular presets include backbeat, swing, four on the floor, 7/8 and 5/4.
Counting a taal
A taal cycles through matra counts in vibhag groups. Sam is the first count, clapped ×, while other tali claps are numbered and the khali wave is marked 0. Teentaal has sixteen matras in 4+4+4+4, marked × 2 0 3. Laya means speed: vilambit slow, madhya middle, drut fast.
What a rhythm carries
Each preset carries a count, note value, grouping, accents, silent counts, marks, tempo range and subdivision. Accents include sam and tali, Arabic iqa' dums and gamelan gongs. Clave gaps and iqa' rests remain silent. Marks include D T k for iqa' and D U for strumming.
Choosing and editing a rhythm
Tap beat-strip boxes to toggle accents, or hollow counts to restore sound. Editing meter, grouping, accents or subdivision clears the rhythm chip's name. The globe opens regions, traditions and rhythms, loading your selection without changing tempo.
Tempo and playback
Set the dial from 20 to 500 by finger, mouse or wheel, or use tap tempo, then press Play. The readout names the unit: quarter, eighth or dotted quarter in 6/8. The time signature sheet's wheels set meter, tempo unit and grouping, with Custom offering plus and minus for each group's counts. Subdivision chips offer none, eighths, triplets, sixteenths and dotted values for dotted units.
The page and panel volume faders control a sharp click with louder accents. Playback continues across site pages, and the right-hand panel shows a playing row with a stop button. On phones, the dial fills the screen or takes the right half sideways. Settings follow accounts or stay in the browser. Every rhythm also starts from its regional page in Learn.
Where the metronome came from
Indian music counted with hands before Dutch organ builder Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel devised his unpatented pendulum in Amsterdam around 1814. Johann Nepomuk Maelzel copied it after failing to buy it, patenting it in 1815, though one source gives 1816. Beethoven's earliest known marking is on a corrected copy of Cantata op. 112, dated December 1815. Maelzel added a numbered scale and the name “metronome”, selling the pyramid-shaped box under his name in 1816. He reportedly admitted he would never have built it without seeing Winkel's. Beethoven later supplied symphony markings.
- c. 1814AmsterdamDietrich Nikolaus Winkel builds a pendulum timekeeper for music and never patents it.
- 1815The patentJohann Nepomuk Maelzel copies the design, patents it and names it the metronome.
- Dec 1815BeethovenThe earliest known metronome marking, on a corrected copy of the Cantata op. 112.
- 1816On saleThe pyramid box with its numbered scale, sold under Maelzel's name.
The theka is the drum's spoken taal pattern. Konnakol uses Carnatic syllables such as ta ka di mi. Concert audiences count along. Speak teentaal's theka while keeping claps and wave against the click.