How it works
A 5/4 metronome counts the quarter note, five to a bar. This one splits the bar three then two, the order Wikipedia's Metre article puts first when it treats 5/4 as a bar of 3/4 followed by one of 2/4.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space. Beat one is the highest click and beat four the next highest; two, three and five sound alike. Another tap stops it.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad and enter the tempo your music gives for the quarter note: 110, 115 and 212 play as readily as 120. Minus and plus shift it by one.
Questions and answers
How is 5/4 time counted?
One two three, one two, leaning on each one. Wikipedia's Time signature article counts a bar written in groups that way, starting again at one for every group. Counted straight to five, the weight falls on one and four.
Is 5/4 three plus two or two plus three?
Either. Wikipedia's Metre article gives both orders. This page clicks three then two and no other pattern, so in a piece that runs two then three its second marked click lands a beat late: follow beat one alone.
Which pieces are in 5/4?
Few from before the 20th century: Wikipedia's Quintuple meter article calls five-beat bars rare in European concert music until then. Its Time signature article names the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony as a notable orchestral example of 5/4.
Is 5/4 an odd time signature?
Yes. Wikipedia's Time signature article puts signatures that fit neither the simple nor the compound pattern under the name complex, with asymmetric, irregular, unusual and odd as other words for them. Open Music Theory calls 5/4 an asymmetrical metre: its beats are grouped unequally.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
A silenced phone is the first thing to rule out: its ring switch, its volume, and whether a pair of Bluetooth headphones has quietly taken the click. The five dots go on lighting in turn, larger on beats one and four.