metronome clicks

[MapexQR]

This might be a stupid question but can someone tell me what each click represents on the metronome like 1 click is a whole note or 4 clicks is a 16th note help would be great.

[Naigewron]

The standard setting is that one click equals a quarter note. Many metronomes can be set to different note values though.

[Pocket-full-of-gold]

Generally speaking.....1 click = quarter note. 2 notes per click = 8ths, 4 notes per click = 16ths

[dairyairman]

you hear people talk about bpm a lot when they're telling you how fast they can play rolls, rudiments, double bass, etc. if someone says they can play a single stroke roll at 200 bpm, that means they're hitting the drum 4 times per metronome click for 800 actual drum hits per minute. that's assuming each hit is a 16th note, which is typical.

[Boomka]

As said above, the "beats" in "beats per minute" often refers to quarter notes, but only because 4/4 is the most common time signature in Western music. In actuality, the "beats" refers to the value of the bottom figure in the Time Signature. So, if the Time Signature is 4/4 and the tempo is 120, there would be 120 quarter notes in a minute - i.e. one quarter per click. If the time signature were 7/16, and the tempo were 120, there would be 120 sixteenth-notes in a minute - i.e. one 16th per click. That said, this is usually indicated on the score.


That said, you can use your metronome to pulse any compound note or subdivision you want. For instance, it's common when practicing very bright jazz tempos to set the click to half notes to give the tempo a feeling of space. Or, if you're working on getting your 16th-note grooves really tight, you might put the click on every 16th note and try to bury it. Additionally, certain compound time signatures (like 6/8) are often marked at tempos equalling one click for a group of notes. I.e. 6/8 is often counted/clicked/conducted in "2". Again, this is usually marked on the score. In this particular case, the MM (metronomic marking) would be Dotted-Quarter = x, whereas most scores have Quarter Note = x (where x is the tempo).

Does that follow?