How it works
Metronome 55 clicks at the last whole tempo below Andante and the exact middle of Adagio. Wikipedia's list of tempo markings opens Andante at 56 and runs Adagio from 44 to 66, eleven beats either side. Rough approximations, it warns.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space. The clicks at 55 are level and the pad's two equal dots take turns, so no bar is counted. Another tap stops it.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad to type a tempo, or press minus and plus. One press either way reaches 54 or 56, neighbouring notches on the most common wind-up scale in Wikipedia's Metronome article, which has no 55. At double speed, 110, there is a page of its own; half of 55 is 27.5, and the field plays whole tempos only.
Questions and answers
Is 55 BPM too slow for andante?
By one beat, in Wikipedia's list of tempo markings: Andante begins at 56. Four other slow words still hold 55 beside Adagio: Lento until 60, Largo and Larghetto until 66, Adagietto until 80. Larghetto shares Adagio's figures, and so its midpoint.
Do metronomes agree on a tempo word for 55 BPM?
Not quite. Of three dials pictured in German Wikipedia's Tempo article, a 21st-century Japanese one prints Adagio at 55 (54 to 58); a 20th-century German one (40 to 60) and a 19th-century French one (42 to 70) print Largo. All bands are approximate, it says.
How far apart are the clicks at 55 BPM?
Just over a second: eleven beats fill twelve seconds, by our sum. Dividing one beat ourselves, a dotted eighth lasts 818.2 ms, an eighth note 545.5 ms, a triplet eighth 363.6 ms and a sixteenth 272.7 ms; four beats take 4.36 s.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
Count to two first, since clicks at 55 are over a second apart. Silence after that is usually a phone's ring switch set to silent, its volume at zero, or Bluetooth playing the click elsewhere. The pad's two dots mark every beat regardless.