How it works
An 81 BPM metronome is one beat past two tempo words. Wikipedia's list of tempo markings stops Adagietto (from 46) and Marcia moderato (from 66) at 80, leaving 81 to Andante (56 to 108). It calls every figure very rough.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space. Nothing marks a first beat at 81: the clicks are equal and two dots take turns. Tap the pad a second time to stop.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad and type a tempo, or press minus and plus. One press of minus gives 80, a notch on the most common wind-up scale in Wikipedia's Metronome article; its next notch up is 84.
Questions and answers
Is 81 BPM andantino?
By two sources, yes. Wikipedia's list of tempo markings starts Andantino at 80, and a 21st-century Japanese metronome pictured in German Wikipedia's Tempo article prints Andantino over 76 to 84. The list adds that the word sometimes means slightly slower than Andante.
Why does an old French metronome print larghetto at 81?
Dials place the words differently. The 19th-century French dial pictured in German Wikipedia's Tempo article stretches Larghetto from 70 to 98; its German dial stops Larghetto at 66 and reads Andante at 81. The article singles out Larghetto to show how far dials part.
What does 81 BPM come to in bars of 3/4?
Exactly 27 bars a minute, by our sum, because 81 is three 27s: no beat is left over. This pad marks no bar; the 3/4 metronome on this site takes 81 under its pad and raises the first click of every three.
Can this metronome click triplets at 81?
Not this page, which clicks the beat alone. Triplets at 81 are 243 notes a minute, one every 246.9 ms by our sum; the triplet metronome here plays all three when 81 is typed there. An eighth note is 370.4 ms, a sixteenth 185.2 ms.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
Usually the phone, not the page: a ring switch on silent, the volume slid to nothing, or Bluetooth sending the click to earphones. The two dots keep trading the light at 81, so the tempo can be read without it.