How it works
A 128 BPM metronome in 4/4 turns over 32 bars a minute, the fastest a competition cha-cha-cha may go. The World DanceSport Federation's rules allow 30 to 32, and Wikipedia's article on the dance gives its bar as 4/4.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space. The higher click and the larger dot are beat one, so each pass through the four dots is one bar. Tap again to stop.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad and type a tempo: 120 is the same dance's slow limit, 30 bars. Minus and plus change it a beat at a time.
Questions and answers
What dance is 32 bars a minute?
Cha-cha-cha at its competition limit, and formerly West Coast Swing: Wikipedia's article on that dance reports a speed once given as 32 measures a minute, 128 BPM. The World DanceSport Federation's Rule E.3.2 (2026) prints bars only, so cha-cha-cha's 128 is our sum.
Which style of house music is 128 BPM?
Funky house, according to Wikipedia's article on the genre: it says the tracks are usually made at about 128 BPM, and contrasts that with deep house at 115 to 125. The figure is a habit of the style and not a rule.
Is 128 BPM allegro vivace?
By number, yes. Wikipedia's list of tempo markings opens Allegro at 120 and its livelier forms, Molto allegro or Allegro vivace, at 124, and closes both at 156: 128 sits four beats inside the second. The list calls every figure a very rough one.
Is 126 or 132 closer to 128 on a metronome?
126, by two beats. The most common wind-up scale, as Wikipedia's Metronome article sets it out, goes in sixes between 120 and 144 (126, 132, 138) and has no 128. Dials vary, and this pad is on 128 already.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
Usually the phone is muted at its ring switch, the volume is all the way down, or a Bluetooth speaker has the click. The bar can still be read off the pad: its dots light one to four, the first of them larger.