Metronome trainer – muted bars and a tempo that speeds up

A metronome that always clicks can carry you without you noticing. grooph has two trainer modes that make you keep the time yourself or push your tempo bit by bit. Both are in the settings (gear icon) and work with any rhythm, the rhythm generator and its endless mode included.

Gap click: muted bars

Under Gap Click, switch on Mute bars. grooph then plays some bars and leaves others silent, and you keep playing through the gap. When the click comes back you hear at once whether you rushed or dragged.

• Pattern plays a number of bars, then mutes a number of bars, for example 2 on and 2 off.
• Random mutes each bar with the chance you set. The first bar always sounds.
• Click only keeps the notes of your rhythm and only mutes the metronome. Click and notes silences everything.

A muted bar is dimmed on the staff, so you can see the silence is meant. The count-in is never muted. With timing practice your hits in muted bars still count, so the result shows how well you kept the time on your own.

Tempo ramp: speed trainer

Under Tempo Ramp, switch on Change the tempo while playing. The ramp starts at the BPM in the main menu and goes towards the target tempo in steps, for example 5 BPM every 4 bars or every loop of the rhythm. The tempo only changes at the start of a bar, and the tempo being played is shown next to the BPM field.

At the target the ramp can hold the tempo, start over from the beginning or go back down and up again. Tick Keep the reached tempo after stopping if the next run should start where this one ended.

Tips

• Start a ramp at a tempo you can play cleanly and use small steps. If it falls apart, stop, and let the next run start a little lower.
• Begin with short gaps. One muted bar after three audible ones is a good start; stretch the gap once it feels safe.
• Count during the gap, out loud or in your head. The counting guides help with subdivisions.