Practicing tempo and time signature changes with a metronome

An ordinary metronome gives you one tempo and one meter. Much music doesn’t work that way: the tempo changes gradually while the time signature switches from bar to bar. Maestronoom plays exactly that — measure by measure, as it is written in the score.

The problem with an ordinary metronome

Take a passage where the music broadens from ♩⁠= 88 to ♩⁠= 70 while the meter changes between 3/4, 5/8 and 7/8. With a normal metronome you have to stop, change the setting, and start again — or guess. You never hear the passage as one continuous line, and the gradual slowing down is exactly the thing you can’t practice.

This is useful when you practise on your own, but it becomes really valuable when you study such a complex passage together, because nobody plays the same thing.

A real example: Bartók, String Quartet No. 3

In the Prima parte of Bartók’s Third String Quartet, measures 54–63 (rehearsal numbers 7 and 8) are marked poco a poco allargando. Over ten measures the tempo slows from ♩⁠= 88 to ♩⁠= 70, and the time signature changes six times:

Measures	Time signature	Tempo
54–57	3/4	♩⁠= 88♩⁠88 → 70 (gradual)♩⁠= 70
58–59	5/8
60	3/4
61	5/8
62	3/4
63	7/8
64 (Più lento)	3/4

How it looks in Maestronoom

Maestronoom showing Bartók String Quartet No. 3, Prima parte, with the measure groups 54–59 and 60–63 selected — The Prima parte in Maestronoom. Each line represents a group of measures and follows the division printed in the sheet music: a new group starts at a rehearsal mark or a change of tempo or time signature. The two highlighted lines, 54–59 and 60–63, are the passage on this page. “3/4+” means the group contains more than one time signature.

You download a piece from the shared library or you enter the music yourself, measure group by measure group. Then you tap a line — or type a start measure — and press play. Maestronoom counts you in and plays every bar in its own meter, with the tempo sliding smoothly where the score says allargando or ritardando. Want it slower first? Set the percentage of tempo to 80% and the whole passage, including the slowing down, scales with it.

Listen to measures 54–63

About 27 seconds, including the spoken count-in in English. The timing of every tick was calculated by Maestronoom. The higher click marks the first beat of each measure; 5/8 and 7/8 bars tick in eighth notes.

Practice tips for passages like this

Start a few measures earlier (here: measure 47) so you arrive at the allargando already in the tempo.
Begin at a lower percentage of tempo and raise it as the meter changes become automatic.

Drilling one passage at a steady tempo

Sometimes you want to repeat a single spot over and over without the tempo changing along the way. For that, Maestronoom has a simple metronome — one tempo, one meter. Tap the metronome icon while a piece is playing and the simple metronome starts right away, at exactly the tempo the Maestronoom was playing at that moment. It then keeps that tempo steady while you practice the passage as many times as you like.

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Source: Bartók, String Quartet No. 3, Prima parte, following the Henle edition, used with Henle’s permission. Tempi follow the score markings (♩⁠= 88, Più lento ♩⁠= 70); the intermediate value 77 at rehearsal number 8 is a practice setting chosen by the person who entered the piece, so that the measure groups follow the rehearsal marks in the score as closely as possible.