Free · in Adam's Academy
The Metronome & Rhythm Trainer
A metronome that swings, plays odd meters, brings a drum kit, and listens back to check whether your time is actually solid.
Try it in the Academy → How to use it
Most metronomes tick. This one plays the feel you are working on — quarter notes, eighths, triplets, sixteenths — with a swing you can dial to where the music actually sits, and a drum kit when a click is too dry to play along with.
Then it does the two things a metronome never did: the gap trainer drops the click out for a few bars and brings it back, so you find out whether you drifted; and Listen to me play turns the microphone on and tells you where your strums are landing against the beat.
Who it is for. Anyone whose time is 'pretty good' and wants to know for sure — and every student of The Art of Rhythm Guitar, whose Four Feels this is built around.
What opens it. The click, the feels and the tempo are free. The drum kit comes with a free account. Swing, five to nine beats, multi-bar patterns, Adam's library and the gap trainer come with The Art of Rhythm Guitar or the membership.
How to use it
- 1
Set a tempo and a feel
Type the tempo, drag the slider, press −5 and +5, or press TAP in time. The Feel row picks what the metronome plays inside each beat: quarter notes, 8th notes, triplets, 16th notes or 16th triplets. These are the Four Feels from The Art of Rhythm Guitar, and the line under the row says which one you are in.
- 2
Dial the swing
Swing is a percentage, not a triplet button. Straight is 0%; 67% is the true long-short shuffle; everything between is where players actually live. The presets — 33%, 50%, Shuffle, 85% — are places to start. Move the slider while it plays and listen to the feel lean.
- 3
Shape the bar
The grid is the bar. Each beat has its subdivisions, and each cell cycles through silent, ghost, normal and accent as you press it — so you can write a syncopated pattern, put the accent on 2 and 4, or leave the 'and' of 3 empty. Under BAR you set how many beats: 4/4, 3/4, or five to nine beats for the odd meters. Multi-bar figures loop across two or four bars.
- 4
Bring the drum kit
Press Drum kit and the grid becomes kick, snare and hat rows. Write a groove or start from one of the patterns. It plays on the same clock as the click, so a groove you write here is the groove behind the Progression Lab too.
- 5
Adam's pattern library
PATTERNS opens the library — the Four Feels group first, then the grooves and figures Adam teaches from. Pick one and the grid fills with it; change any cell and it is yours.
- 6
Test yourself with the gap trainer
TRAINER is the gap trainer. Set how many bars it plays and how many it goes silent for. The click drops out, you keep playing, and it comes back. If it lands where you are, your time is solid. If it does not, you have found the thing to practise.
- 7
Let it listen to you play
Put headphones on — the microphone has to hear your guitar, not the click — and press Listen to me play. It marks where each strum lands: early, late or on it. Play a page of The Art of Rhythm Guitar into it and you will know which feel needs the work.
- 8
Share the rhythm
Share this rhythm makes a link that opens the metronome exactly as you have it — tempo, feel, swing, the grid — and anyone can open it without an account. Send a student the pattern instead of describing it.
Adam's tips
- Space taps a tempo, Enter starts and stops, ↑ and ↓ move the tempo by five.
- Practise a feel slower than you can play it, until the swing sits without you thinking. Then move the tempo up in fives.
- With the gap trainer, start with four bars on and one off. Move to two off when one is easy.
- The drum kit's hat row is the subdivision. If you lose the pulse, mute the kick and snare and play to the hat alone.
Questions people ask
- Why is the swing a percentage?
- Because real players sit between straight and triplet. 67% is the textbook shuffle; a lot of music lives at 55 to 62%. The slider lets you find the place a record sits rather than choosing between two.
- What do I need for the odd meters and the gap trainer?
- The Art of Rhythm Guitar or the Academy membership. The metronome grew out of that course, so its deeper features come with it.
- Does Listen to me play record me?
- No. It reads onset timing in your browser and keeps nothing.
- Can I use it on my phone?
- Yes, and it fits sideways too. The drum kit and patterns are all there.
Try it now
The click, the feels and the tempo are free. The drum kit comes with a free account. Swing, five to nine beats, multi-bar patterns, Adam's library and the gap trainer come with The Art of Rhythm Guitar or the membership.
Open Metronome & Rhythm in the Academy → What the membership includes
Already a member? Go straight to the tool.
Share this guide
The caption and the teaser below are written to be lifted as they are.
A metronome with a real swing percentage, five to nine beats in a bar, a drum kit, and a gap trainer that goes silent for a bar to see if you drift. It even listens to you play and shows where your strums land. Free to start, in Adam's Academy.
Is your time actually solid? This will tell you.
The Academy's metronome does what a click never did: it swings by percentage, plays the Four Feels, drops out for a bar to test you, and listens back through the mic. Here is how to use every part of it.
The video walkthrough
Coming — it follows this script, about 2 minutes.
- 10sOpen. Tools, Metronome and Rhythm Trainer. Set 100 with the slider or tap it in.
- 20sThe feels. Quarter notes, eighths, triplets, sixteenths — the Four Feels. Press eighth notes. Now slide the swing up to 60 and listen to it lean.
- 20sThe grid. Every cell is a subdivision. Press one: silent, ghost, normal, accent. Put accents on 2 and 4. Under Bar, try seven beats.
- 15sDrum kit. Drum kit swaps the click for kick, snare and hat. Write a groove or take one from Patterns.
- 25sGap trainer. Trainer: four bars on, one off. Play through the silence. When it comes back — were you there?
- 20sListen to me play. Headphones on, press Listen to me play, and strum. Early, late, on it — it shows you.
- 10sInto the Academy. The click and the feels are free. The swing, the odd meters and the trainer come with The Art of Rhythm Guitar — which is the course this metronome was built for.
The other tools
The Progression LabWrite any chord progression and hear it played back — with a strum pattern, swing, and a drummer behind you.
The Guitar TunerPluck a string and wait. The needle settles on the note and tells you sharp or flat — or tune by ear against a tone.
The Scale TrainerEvery scale, in every key, in the positions Adam teaches them in — played back at your tempo while the neck shows you where you are.