Hi everybody.
I'm one of those people that doesn't really have a real piano to play at home, but I have a keyboard with weighted keys. So, it pretty much serves my needs for now. My keyboard doesn't really have a metronome, per se, but one of its auto-rhythm sequences is just a plain ol' click. So, I can use it as a metronome when I want one. The rhythm accompaniment section has an LED which flashes for the downbeat, and one that flashes for each quarter note. The quarter note LED flashes twice for every click in this metronome-like pattern. Thus, it seems to me that the click is really a half note interval. But, when I practice with it, I hear it as a quarter note. (the downbeat is not accented). Does this mean that the BPM shown on the display is actually half of the real BPM that I am playing? Are you confused yet For instance, I've been working on the first Bach 2-part invention in C, and practicing it at a relatively slow tempo. The display says 69 BPM, and I'm hearing the click as a quarter note. I really don't know anything about BPM, sinc I'm just used to approximating tempo based on tempo words like andante, etc. But I'm just curious, and want to get a feel for what range of numbers the words can mean. Thanks.

Well, BPM is very literal, and it generally applies to quarter notes unless otherwise marked on your score. But since you're playing Bach, you don't have a tempo marked on your score - you're just allowing your keyboard to confuse you.

69 does seem like a nice slow tempo to practice that invention, though.

I too have a keyboard, too bad I never use the metronome. My metronome is listening to professionals play and then try to mimic their tempo but tailored to my abilities, if that makes sense.


Listen to Ms. Terez, she's one of the many teachers on the site. (But the teacher who visits the most; Nicole being the second though she rarely visits)

Ha, you must have me confused for someone else. I'm in school to teach, but not to teach piano - more likely theory or musicology. I'm a book nerd more than I am a performer.

But one of the things my teacher has made me do is to get a feel for metronome tempi without the metronome. She makes me snap them off for her at lessons.