How Metronomes Work

Video Transcript

"Hello my name is James Manuele, I'm a guitarist and instructor here at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington. And today we will discuss how metronomes work. As you might remember the older metronomes work on the basis of a pendulum, which would rock back and forth keeping time. Very often having different Italian words indicating the tempo of the metronome such as adagio, moderato, allegro. The metronome is a very important tool, it is a learning tool for musicians who are just learning an instrument, and working to keep proper time. Or also if you are a more of an advanced player, and are an ensemble setting it is very important tool to have always. Today this metronome that I have with me is a small quartz electronic metronome that of course keeps time, and has many other different functions that go with it. As you can see here this metronome is keeping one sixteen in four beat time. But I can also raise the tempo by raising the number, and it will give me a much faster beat in four four time. Many metronomes come with a screen such as this one, and as you can see the pendulum rocking back and forth. So it is a very visual device as well. The red light beeping off and on indicates the down beat of every meter. I can also change that to a three beat meter per measure, and now I am only having three beats per bar. This will also change to a different device for a tuning device in four forty tuning, which is standard tuning. This is a D. I can indicate, I can press this arrow on top here, change it to a D sharp, and an E and so on. So chromatically every pitch I can tune does not matter what instrument you play. So the newer metronomes come with a lot of different devices that comes in, which is a very valuable tool to musicians. So whether you are learning to play your first instrument, or have been playing for many years. The metronome is a very valuable tool to have, and to have and to use always."