Can You Play at 208 on the Metronome?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m asking: Can you play at 208 on the metronome? Metronomes have all kinds of speeds, typically starting at 40 and going to 208. There are metronome applications that you can put on your phone where any number can be selected. But there’s a reason why these numbers exist in the first place. I’m going to show you that to begin with, and then I’m going to explain some things about the metronome that you probably don’t know.

The slowest speed on most metronomes is 40, and the fastest is 208.

Any speed slower than 40 would be very difficult to follow because it wouldn’t feel like a pulse anymore. Any speed faster than 208 would be very hard to follow as well. Now, how to set a metronome is a whole other issue. Metronomes have guides on them for how to set the tempo showing the range of speeds for Adagio, Andante, Allegro, etc. I’m going to show you how farcical that whole idea is by demonstrating it for you. I’m going to play the famous Mozart C-major Sonata K. 545. I’m going to set the metronome at 208. Can I play this piece at 208!? Watch the video to see for yourself!

It depends on what note value you assign the ticks.

I let the metronome tick sixteenth notes. It wasn’t fast at all! On the flip side, I set the metronome on 40 and let the ticks equal whole notes. That is a very fast tempo! With a beat that slow, trying to feel the pulse is difficult. So really, you must choose the note value that makes the most sense.

You don’t need accented beats on your metronome.

All the metronome apps have accented beats, and it’s really unnecessary for most purposes. The reason why I don’t like that, aside from it being completely unnecessary, is that when you’re practicing with the metronome, you have to wait for that first beat. You can’t just go in on the next beat. If you were playing a slow piece in six, it would take up a lot of time waiting for the first beat. So a simple quartz metronome is your best bet. The other problem with many digital metronomes is that they have every numeric value. You don’t need every single number. If you’re going from 116 to 117, it’s an infinitesimally small increment. 116 to 120, which is what a metronome has, makes more sense. So you should find a metronome or metronome application that has the true numbers of a traditional metronome, not every number.

So yes, you can play at 208 on the metronome!

You can play at 208, but it depends on what note value you select. You must select a note value that makes sense. In that Mozart, for example, 208 was ridiculous. Having the 16th note tick doesn’t make sense. So what would make sense? I think having quarter notes tick at about 132 would be fine. That would be more reasonable. You could perhaps have it at half that speed and have half notes ticking. So those are a couple of reasonable subdivisions of the beat that make sense. But sometimes it can help to put the metronome on a faster speed to make sure everything is quantized correctly. Or you might take a very slow speed so you get the feel of the pulse where you want to have a little bit more freedom within the beat for rubato. And I recommend ignoring the tempo indications on your metronome because it really depends on the note value you have ticking. I hope this is helpful for you! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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