Best Free Metronome Apps For iPhone And Android (2024)
The best way to improve your timing as a musician is by using a metronome. I remember using a large traditional metronome as a child while learning to play the piano and guitar. While they work quite well, they can be expensive. They’re often too bulky and awkward to take with you if you travel, too.
Digital metronomes solved a lot of these issues, but they still cost money and take up space in your gig bag. Thanks to the advent of smartphones, there’s now a free and convenient alternative.
Metronome apps often cost nothing, and they’re always with you when you need to practice. Here are seven of the best free metronome apps that you can download right now.
Best Free Metronome App For Guitar, Piano & Drums
Bridging the gap between traditional metronomes and their digital counterparts, these free but best metronome apps for iPhone and Android provide musicians with a portable and cost-effective solution for improving their timing on guitar, piano, and drums.
Let’s dive in and explore these remarkable tools.
1. Metronome By Soundbrenner
The Metronome by Soundbrenner app was my absolute favorite of the seven. The interface is simple and intuitive enough to use almost immediately.
The longer I did use it, the more I discovered. This app works equally well for beginners and more advanced musicians that know exactly what they want out of a metronome.
I really loved the customization options of this app. You can select from 21 different sounds for the beats. The timing and rhythm are fully customizable as well. You can switch between dark and light themes. You can even add visual cues from your phone’s camera flash. The app also allows you to create specific playlists.
A count-in feature allows you to start exactly on time. I appreciate that the app works equally well for both iOS and Android smartphones. I personally couldn’t find a single fault with this app, though I’ve heard some users experience occasional lag when using it on a laptop.
While there are some advanced features that require in-app purchases, the basic metronome settings and all the essential features are included in the free app version.
2. Metronome Beats
Metronome Beats is another simple metronome app that’s free to use, yet packed with features. One of the things that makes this app unique is that it doubles as a drum machine.
This makes it an excellent choice for musicians that play in a band. You can practice with a standard metronome or play along with a realistic-sounding set of drums.
As a guitar player, I enjoyed the speed-training mode that this app offers. It’s a great feature to play scales over, gradually increasing your speed as you go. I suspect this app would be a favorite of other guitarists and bass players as well.
Once again, the interface is simple and easy enough to figure out. There are specific layouts for phones or tablets, which is a nice feature.
The downsides to this app are the in-app advertisements and the data collection. These are unfortunate negatives to most free apps nowadays.
3. Pro Metronome
Pro Metronome is another great, free app that is suitable for beginning, intermediate and advanced music students. It has features to help you tackle routine practice or live shows.
The free version has 13 different tones to choose from. It wasn’t hard for me to find something I liked here. This app also has a high degree of accuracy.
One of the downsides to the free version is that there are no visual cues. You only get sounds to keep you at the right tempo.
While the app is available for both iOS and Android, it’s worth noting that the Android version for free users hasn’t received recent updates and may not support newer Android versions such as Android 13. In my own testing, I encountered several bugs, particularly when using the app on Android 13.
Overall, this is a great, basic app for iOS devices, but it does lack the number of features you can find on the previous two apps on our list. This one gets updated regularly, however, so it may move up in my rankings in the future.
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