How it works
A 2/2 metronome counts the half note, two to a bar, beat one higher. It opens at 100, and since a bar holds four quarter notes, as in 4/4, those pass at 200 a minute.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space, and count one, two from the higher click. A second tap stops it.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad to type another tempo; 60, 90 and 105 go in as easily as 100. Minus and plus shift it by one.
Questions and answers
What is cut time on a metronome?
Two clicks to a bar, each a half note. Open Music Theory gives cut time as the equivalent of 2/2, a simple duple metre whose beat is the half note. Its sign, per Wikipedia's Alla breve article, is a C crossed by an upright stroke.
How to set a metronome for cut time?
No setting is needed: 2/2 time on a metronome is two clicks a bar, which is how this page opens. Type the half-note figure from your music. Where the mark counts quarter notes, halve it first, so quarter note = 180 is typed as 90.
Why is music written in cut time and not 4/4?
For speed and easier reading. Wikipedia's Alla breve article says the signature now suggests a fairly quick tempo, hence its use for military marches, and that fewer beats make short notes cleaner to read. Between about 1600 and 1900 it did not always mean quick.
What does a cut time metronome marking look like?
A half note, an equals sign and a number. Wikipedia's article on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony tables the last two sections of its finale in 2/2, at half note = 120 and then half note = 132. A figure like that is typed as printed.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
On a phone the ring switch comes first, then the volume, then any Bluetooth speaker or headphones that may be playing the click somewhere else. The pad's two dots trade the beat regardless, the larger one on beat one.