How it works
Metronome 160 is the mark over Chopin's Etude Op. 10 No. 12 in the Peters edition, as the Mutopia Project typesets it: Allegro con fuoco, quarter note = 160. Each click of this pad is one of those quarter notes.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space, and 160 starts with a higher click on the first beat of every four. A second tap ends it.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad to type a slower or faster tempo, or nudge it one beat a minute with minus and plus.
Questions and answers
Is 160 BPM vivace or presto?
Vivace. Wikipedia's list of tempo markings gives Vivace, lively and fast, as 156 to 176. Allegro stops at 156 and Presto does not start until 168, so no other marking in the list holds 160. Its figures are very rough, by its own account.
What does metronome = 160 mean?
It is a metronome mark: a note value, an equals sign and how many of that note pass in a minute. Wikipedia's Metronome article shows the form, often after the letters M.M. Quarter note = 160 asks for 160 quarter notes in a minute.
Is this metronome 160 BPM in 4/4?
Yes: four clicks to a bar, the first higher and its dot larger. The etude's score opens with the common-time sign, which Wikipedia's Time signature article gives as another way to write 4/4, so the pad's bar is the etude's bar.
Is 160 on a mechanical metronome's scale?
Yes, in the most common arrangement. Wikipedia's Metronome article lists it climbing in eights from 144 to 208, so 160 is a notch, with 152 below it and 168 above. That arrangement is the usual one, not the only one.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
If a phone stays silent, try its ring switch first, then the volume, then any Bluetooth headphones that may hold the sound. The four dots carry on lighting in order, the larger one at the start of each bar.