How it works
A 172 metronome clicks on the first number two tempo words can claim. Wikipedia's list of tempo markings gives Vivacissimo and Allegrissimo only 172 to 176, glosses them as very fast, lively and bright, and calls its figures very rough.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space. At 172 no click is louder or higher than its neighbours, which leaves the bar unmarked. Tap the pad again when you are done.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad and type a tempo, or use minus and plus.
Questions and answers
How many tempo words fit 172 BPM?
Four words on three lines of Wikipedia's list: Vivace (156 to 176), Presto (168 to 200), and Vivacissimo with Allegrissimo. From 172 to 176 all apply. The list's own comment: a tempo word often expresses a style or feeling as well as a speed.
Is 172 inside the competition range for jive?
Yes, at its centre. The World DanceSport Federation prints 42 to 44 bars a minute for the Jive (Rule E.3.2, 2026), and Wikipedia's Ballroom dance article writes jive in 4/4. In beats that is 168 to 176, our sum, with 172 at 43 bars.
Is 172 BPM a drum and bass tempo?
It falls within the genre's usual speeds. Wikipedia's Drum and bass article says tempos have mainly kept to 170 to 180 since about 1996, having begun near 130 at the start of that decade, and names the mid-170s as a hallmark of the style.
Why do some metronomes skip 172?
A pendulum model usually has notches at 168 and 176 and none in the gap. Wikipedia's Metronome article lists that layout, eight apart all the way from 144 to 208, as the most common one for a wind-up scale. Most common, it says, not universal.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
Sound that never arrives is usually stopped at the phone: by the ring switch, by a volume slider at the bottom, or by Bluetooth sending it elsewhere. The 172 can be followed without it, on the pad's pair of alternating dots.