Practicing music with a metronome is one of my favourite ways to improve. The metronome doesn’t lie: if your timing starts to go, you’ll know. But if you give it your keen attention as you practice, the metronome will help you build your rhythm skills, your nimbleness as you change from chord to chord and note to note, and in a band context it’ll help your group get tighter than ever. Metronomes are great.

But…

What happens when you turn the metronome off? Some of the most important moments in music aren’t going to have a metronome clicking away in the background (think performances and songwriting). Can you keep the beat when the pressure’s on—and the metronome’s off? That was one of the reasons I built BeatMirror. To help other musicians know when they are sticking to their target tempo, and when they start to drift.

The latest update to BeatMirror has two big changes. I made a video recently highlighting both: a new (and easier) way to change your target tempo, and bright, coloured visual feedback to let you know when your tempo drifts. Check out the video above to see the new features in action with some live guitar.

“I love this app! I don’t like drumming to traditional metronomes with flashing/pulsing lights, I find it difficult and end up making weird adjustments trying to get back in the beat, all very stressful. This app is perfect – I can glance at it and see my tempo and then gradually (and stress free) come back to the correct tempo. I use [BeatMirror] all the time now and it’s perfect for me!” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
–TIm_1000 , Mar. 10, 2022

But that’s not all. Users email me occasionally asking if there’s an online manual somewhere for BeatMirror. I try to make the app easy enough that you don’t need one—and there is an in-app tutorial that covers the basics—but there’s something kind of special about traditional software documentation. It lets users dive into each feature in detail and really get excited about everything they can do with the app. Maybe perusing software manuals isn’t for everyone, but I totally get it. And so, here’s BeatMirror’s new online “how-to guide.” Enjoy!

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