Metronome

Keeping time

The key is practicing with a metronome.

Set it to 75 BPM, so you hear 75 clicks per minute, and treat each click as one beat. In 4/4, four clicks make one measure.

• Quarter notes: one note on each click (4 per measure).
• Eighth notes: two evenly spaced notes per click (8 per measure). Count “1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and.”
• Sixteenth notes: four notes per click (16 per measure). Count “1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a…”

Tip: quarter notes at 100 BPM sound the same as eighth notes at 50 BPM. If eighths at a fast tempo are hard, set the click to half speed and play two notes per click.