Use Click Left as just a metronome
Open Metronome with no setlist, what LOCKED means from the stool, and nudging the tempo by 1 BPM while the click plays.
Published 17 September 2026
You do not have to build a setlist to get a click. Open Metronome on its own when you only need a tempo, then put the iPad where you can see it from the stool.
How to open it
Three ways in, all the same metronome:
- Metronome in the sidebar.
- Open metronome on an empty library.
- The library menu.
It is a full-screen metronome. It does not add a row to the library. Last tempo, time signature and sound stay on the iPad.
It does not use a song slot
The free version holds six songs and one setlist. Opening Metronome on its own does not count toward that six and does not create a library song. Adding a Metronome song to a setlist still counts as a song, the same as a track.
What LOCKED means
The stage player starts LOCKED. While it is locked you get the readouts only: tempo, beat lamps, bars. A stick cannot retune the click from kit distance. Play locks it again. Unlock is a two-position slider, so a stick cannot flip it.
The tempo wheel sits recessed. The beat lamps sit in their own well. Compound time groups in threes. Silent beats are empty sockets. While the click runs, a scan line crosses the lamps. That motion respects Reduce Motion and Pulse. With Reduce Motion off, the pulse moves with the beat. Time signature, subdivision, sound, count-in and ending are on that screen.
Nudge the tempo while it plays
Set tempo with the dial, tap tempo, or a typed BPM. While the click plays, nudge the tempo by 1 BPM and the change lands on the same bar and beat. Time signature, subdivision, sound and count-in still need a stop. Stop, change them, then play again.
Live tempo is for click tracks. A backing track plays at the tempo it was recorded.
When you still want a setlist
Live numbers that sit between backing tracks still belong in the running order. Add a Metronome song to the set, hit the pad like any other song, and you get the same locked stage player and the same click in your ears. It runs until you stop it, because the click cannot know when the band has finished. When you add that song you can tap Look up song for a title, artist and tempo from Apple Music, plus cover art that is stored on the iPad. Off until you ask. Long-press any song in the library and it opens on the stage alone, armed. Nothing plays until you hit Play. A normal tap still opens the song record.