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2) The sound of the click.

You’ll obviously want to get a sound that doesn’t drive you up a wall. You’ll have to get used to annoying sounds as a musician, but if you’re so distracted by the sound of the click that it’s making your practice session frustrating then it would be a good idea to find something else.

As mentioned ealier, there are many types of sounds with many different textures such as clicks and snaps or thuds that emulate drum sounds. Once you’ve found one that you can at least bear, listen to if for a few minutes and see if it’s distinctive enough that you don’t tune it out by accident. The timbre or texture of the sound may be too soft or dull and cause you to drown it out.

3) Multiple sounds.

Some metronomes, especially the newer digital ones allow you to have varying sound files played instead of one single click. This is both a help and a hindrance. The most common use of this feature is playing a sharper attack on the 1 beat of every measure. It’s good to work on knowing where the 1 beat is without having the metronome reinforce it.

For example in a 4/4 time signature a classic metronome would sound like the following over two bars: Click Click Click Click, Click Click Click Click. A digital one with this feature would sound like: Pop Click Click Click, Pop Click Click Click. This is similar to having a drum kit more than a metronome. However when learning time signatures, which we’ll talk about later, it can be helpful to have the 1 Beat or other important beats, like 2, 4, 6, 7 etc in varying time signatures accented until you internalize them to the point where you can play along without them. Metronomes with the ability to turn on or off this ability will usually be a better choice.

4) Analog versus Digital.

This is another one of those never ending battles between analog and digital audio. Many people will swear by the natural sound of a classic popping or clicking metronome, and others will prefer the artificial sounds of the digital speakers, with the ability to adjust volume as well. In terms of function they are usually exactly the same, however many analog ‘pendulum’ style metronomes do not require batteries or a power source to run, just simply a little wind up crank.

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