How it works
A grave metronome has to go slower than a wind-up one usually does: Wikipedia's list of common tempo markings gives Grave, very slow and solemn, as 24 to 40 beats a minute, and calls such figures very rough approximations.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space, and wait: at 32 the second click is nearly two seconds behind the first. A tap on the pad ends it.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad and type a whole tempo, or use minus and plus. Eight presses of minus reach 24, the slow end of the range, and eight of plus reach 40, because 32 is its exact middle.
Questions and answers
How many beats a minute is grave?
24 to 40 in Wikipedia's list of common tempo markings, which gives Adagissimo the same figures. It is the slowest range in the list with two ends: all that lies below is Larghissimo, extremely slow, at 24 and under.
Is grave slower than largo and adagio?
Today, yes. The list ends Grave at 40, where Largo and Lento begin, and starts Adagio at 44. Wikipedia's article on the marking adds that 17th and 18th-century usage was looser: some scores marked grave were described at speeds nearer a modern largo or adagio.
Can a mechanical metronome be set to grave?
Only just. Wikipedia's Metronome article puts a mechanical metronome's usual reach at 40 to 208 beats a minute, and 40 is the one tempo that reach shares with this range. Everything slower, the 32 on this page included, needs a metronome that takes any number.
What does grave mean as a tempo marking?
Solemn, heavy or serious in Italian, by Wikipedia's article on the marking. It first described a piece, as in a Ballo grave of 1616, and by the 1680s was a common tempo word in Italy. The Tempo article's French Grave reads slowly and solemnly.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
Clicks this slow leave long gaps, so give it two seconds. If nothing follows, the usual causes are a phone's ring switch, a volume set to nothing, or Bluetooth headphones holding the sound. The pad's two dots mark every beat anyway.