How it works
A 5/8 metronome clicks every eighth note, five to a bar, at the eighth-note tempo shown. This one groups them two then three, the split Wikipedia's Quintuple meter article writes as 2+3 over 8.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space. Five clicks make a bar: the highest opens the pair and the next highest opens the three. Tap once more to stop.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad, then key in how many eighth notes a minute you want: 60, 158 and 208 work the same way as 120. Minus and plus move one at a time.
Questions and answers
Does 5/8 have two beats or five?
Two, and uneven. Open Music Theory's chapter on twentieth-century rhythm describes 5/8 as two beats, one of two eighth notes and one of three, so a bar feels short then long, or long then short. The signature's 5 counts eighth notes, as this pad does.
Is 5/8 counted 2+3 or 3+2?
Both occur. Open Music Theory shows one example each way, and Wikipedia's Quintuple meter article describes a fast Bulgarian dance in five, the paidushko, counted two then three. This page clicks two then three only; the 5/4 page opens three then two.
How does 5/8 differ from 5/4?
In the note, which is half as long; the five are the same. A click here is an eighth note, so a quarter-note mark is doubled before typing: quarter note = 60 is 120 on this page, and quarter note = 79 is 158.
Is 5/8 a simple or a compound metre?
Simple, in Wikipedia's Quintuple meter article, which lists 5/8 with 5/4 as simple quintuple signatures: five beats, each dividing in half. Open Music Theory treats it as asymmetrical, two unequal beats. Compound quintuple, five beats of three, is usually written 15/8.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
Look at the phone's settings before the page: a ring switch on silent, volume at nothing, or sound routed to Bluetooth earbuds. The pad still shows the bar, five dots lighting in turn with the first and third larger.