Lesson 10
Tempo, metronome & groove
Make your beat faster or slower, give it a swing, and switch a click track on and off.
- A Move that is switched on
- The drum beat you made in Lesson 9
The idea
The tempo is how fast the music goes. It’s measured in BPM, short for beats per minute: how many beats fit into one minute. A resting heartbeat is around 60 to 80 BPM, which suits a slow, calm song. A brisk walk is closer to 120, a common speed for pop and house music. Fast drum and bass runs at around 170. Changing the tempo speeds up or slows down everything in your Set together, but the notes stay where you put them.
A metronome is a steady click that marks the beats. Musicians use it to stay in time, especially when they record. It’s there to help you keep time, not to be part of the beat.
Groove changes how the music feels. A beat played by a computer can sound stiff, because every hit lands exactly on the grid. Move’s groove is a swing: it takes every second step and plays it a little late. Short, even notes become a long-short, long-short pattern, like the bounce in a shuffle or a hip-hop beat. You can hear swing best on sounds that play on the in-between steps, so first you’ll add a few hi-hats there.
Press Play to start the beat from Lesson 9.
Didn’t work?
No sound? Check that you’re on the drum track in Note Mode, with its clip from Lesson 9. The step lights of the selected pad should show your notes.You should hear: Your beat from Lesson 9 playing in a loop.
Tap your hi-hat pad so that it’s the selected pad. The step lights now show only the hi-hat’s notes.
Didn’t work?
Not sure which pad it was? Tap the drum pads until you hear the short, crisp tss again, and tap that one last. Lesson 9 explains how selecting a pad works.You should hear: The hi-hat on top of your beat.
Press Step 4, Step 8, Step 12 and Step 16. These even-numbered steps are the ones that swing will move.
Didn’t work?
If the hi-hat already sat on one of these steps, your press removed it and the light went dim. Press that step once more to bring it back.You should hear: Extra hi-hats squeezed in between: a busier, running pattern.
Hold Shift and press Step 5. This opens the Tempo setting.
You should see: The display switches to the Tempo setting, ready to change.
Turn the wheel one way, then the other, and listen: one direction speeds the beat up, the other slows it down. Try something very slow, then something very fast.
Didn’t work?
For small changes, hold Shift while you turn the wheel. The tempo then moves in much finer amounts.You should hear: The beat speeds up or slows down as you turn.
When you like the speed, press the wheel to confirm it.
You should see: Move keeps your new tempo, and the beat carries on at that speed.
Hold Shift and press Step 7 to open the Groove setting.
You should see: The display switches to the Groove setting, ready to change.
Turn the wheel slowly to raise the groove amount, and listen to the hi-hats. At 0% there’s no swing at all. At 100% you get a full, classic shuffle swing. Going beyond 100% makes the effect even stronger.
Didn’t work?
Hear no change? Swing only moves notes on even-numbered steps. Check that your hi-hats are on Steps 4, 8, 12 and 16, as you set them up at the start of this lesson.You should hear: The hi-hats start to bounce: long, short, long, short.
Pick an amount you like and press the wheel to confirm it. To compare with and without, open the groove again later and turn it back to 0%.
You should see: The groove screen closes. While a groove is on, its icon stays visible under Step 7.
Hold Shift and press Step 6. This opens the Metronome setting and switches the click on. Count along with the clicks: one, two, three, four.
Didn’t work?
While the click is switched on, a small metronome icon shows under Step 6. That’s a quick way to check whether it’s on.You should hear: A steady click on top of your music.
Switch the click off the same way: hold Shift and press Step 6 once more.
You should hear: The click stops, and only your beat is left.
Lesson complete! Try the challenge below, or keep going.
Next lesson →When you’re done, press Play to stop the music.
Try it yourself
Play with speed and feel together:
- Set your beat to around 90 BPM with lots of swing, then to around 128 BPM with none. The same notes can sound like two different styles of music.
- Switch the metronome on, and play the snare pad along with the click, trying to land right on the beat.
- Find the swing amount where the hi-hats sound relaxed but not sloppy. Every beat has its own sweet spot.
Good to know
- Tempo and groove belong to the whole Set: every track follows the same speed and the same swing.
- The groove only changes when notes play, not where they sit. Your steps stay exactly where you placed them.
- The metronome is especially handy when you record yourself playing, which you’ll do in Lesson 11.