Using a metronome with chords

A metronome does one job. It marks time so your changes have a place to land. It does not play the song for you.

On ChordJoy the click lives on the song player. Metronome with chords opens that player on Amazing Grace. The sound is the same tick the rest of the instrument already uses.

Use the click with your own tapping, not with auto-play. Auto-play already walks the chart. Two clocks in one room will fight.

Start below the printed tempo

Amazing Grace lists about 80 BPM. That is a walking three. If your G to C is late, set the click lower. A clean slow bar teaches more than a messy printed bar.

Are You Sleeping is even smaller. Use it when Grace still feels long. One change, many repeats, a click you can hum.

Count the beats in the bar out loud for a minute. Three or four. Then stop counting and let the click hold the number.

Where the change belongs

Prepare the next shape on the last beat of the old chord. Land on beat one of the new cell. If you start the motion on beat one, you will sound late.

Three-chord Song makes this obvious because every chord can last a whole bar. The Four Chords is the same drill with one extra minor shape.

If a song changes twice in a bar, slow the click until those two motions are early. Speed is a prize you give the hand after it is honest.

Keys, feel, and stopping

Stay in G major or C major until the click feels like a friend. Then move a page and keep the same BPM so only the letters are new.

Ode to Joy and When the Saints Go Marching In are good second pages. They have a clear pulse. A waltz page teaches a different body feel than a march.

Turn the click off for the last pass. If the form still stands, the click has done its work. If the form leans, turn it back on and do not scold yourself.

There is no extra metronome app to install. If the click is silent, check the same sound path you use for chords. The tick is not a second engine.

A click that you can ignore is the aim. When the hand arrives early without watching the number, you can put the metronome away for that song.

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