Takt for iPhone and iPad: What's Free and What Pro Adds

A click can tell you where the beat should be. A tempo tracker asks a different question: where is your playing actually going? Takt brings both to iPhone and iPad, with free rhythm and practice tools and an optional subscription for unlimited live tempo tracking.

Takt is our app. This guide explains the iOS version, including the free/paid boundary and a few ways to use it in an ordinary practice session. You need an iPhone with iOS 16 or later, or an iPad with iPadOS 16 or later. There is no Takt account to create.

What is free, and what does Takt Pro add?

The free download includes the metronome, polyrhythms, tempo trainer and saved-practice tools. Listen, which follows your playing through the microphone, includes limited free use. Takt Pro makes Listen tempo tracking unlimited. You do not need Pro to practise with a click, work on a cross-rhythm or build a routine.

Pro is an auto-renewing monthly subscription. The price appears before purchase and varies by region; manage or cancel it through your Apple account's subscriptions. The current App Store listing sets out the offer and renewal terms. These details apply to version 1.0, checked 13 November 2026.

Start with the passage, then set the click

Suppose four bars become untidy whenever you reach the last beat. Start at a pace where you can hear the problem clearly. Turn the tempo dial, enter a number directly, or tap the pulse you have in mind. Tap tempo is useful when you can already hear the desired pace but do not know its number.

The meter and rhythm controls answer separate questions. Meter sets the recurring beat pattern; the rhythm control adds divisions within it. Extra subdivisions can help you place a note between beats. They can also make a small passage feel busier than it is, so start with the least complicated click that helps.

You can choose from six click sounds and adjust the mix. Find a sound you can distinguish from your instrument at a comfortable level. If a sharp click disappears inside a bright piano register or a drum sound, changing its character may help more than turning everything up.

Play the four bars, then listen back to what happened rather than automatically raising the number. Did the last beat stay in place? Did the articulation remain deliberate? A faster setting is useful only when the passage still does what you wanted. For the larger musical question, see how to practise with a metronome without making the phrasing rigid.

Use the tempo trainer when changing speed becomes a distraction

The trainer moves from a starting tempo toward a target in steps. You choose the change in BPM and how many bars to play before each change. That saves reaching for the screen after every repetition.

For example, an exercise could begin at 72 BPM, add 2 BPM every four bars, and stop increasing at 84. Those are illustrative settings, not a recommended speed for every passage. Choose a starting point at which the movement is comfortable and a target that leaves room to listen.

The useful decision is what happens when a step stops working. If the same join fails at 80, repeating the entire climb is unlikely to explain why. Pause the trainer, isolate that join, and decide whether the difficulty is fingering, coordination or the rhythm itself. Our guide to recognising a rhythm problem gives ways to separate those tasks.

Listen measures the tempo you play

Listen uses the microphone to estimate live BPM and draw a tempo graph. You can set a target and save a session to review later. This is useful when the phrase feels steady under your hands but seems to gather speed when you hear it back.

Start with a short passage that has a clear pulse. Decide which note value counts as one beat, allow the reading to settle, and look for a sustained change rather than chasing every movement in the number. If you want to hear a target click while tracking, use headphones so that the microphone can hear your playing without the device's loudspeaker click competing with it.

A tempo reading cannot tell you everything about rhythm. Notes can be uneven inside a beat while the overall BPM remains close to the target. A half-time or double-time reading can also describe another level of the same pulse. And an intentional ritardando should make a graph fall: that is part of the music, not automatically a mistake.

Use the graph to locate something worth hearing again. A repeated rise at the start of a difficult run is a reason to examine that run; it is not a verdict on the whole performance. A recording remains useful for the sound, balance and detail that a BPM estimate cannot show. Takt's saved tempo session is not an audio recording.

According to Takt's privacy description, microphone audio is processed on the device and is never saved or uploaded as a recording. Microphone access is needed for Listen, rather than for an ordinary metronome click.

Two ways to practise independence from the click

Silent bars and Drift ask different things of you. With silent bars in a routine, the click disappears while you continue, then returns. The landing tells you whether you kept the same pace through the gap. Begin with a short silence and a simple pattern so that you can hear the return clearly.

In Drift, the click gradually moves away from the starting tempo while you try to maintain the original pulse. Following the changing click defeats the purpose. This is a more demanding listening task: the external reference is present but deliberately unhelpful.

Neither mode needs to occupy an entire practice. A short check can reveal something that constant clicking hides. If the silent return is consistently late or early, shorten the gap and try again. If the exercise makes you tense or uncertain about the rhythm, return to the ordinary click. Choosing when to use a metronome matters as much as choosing its settings.

Hear both sides of a polyrhythm

The polyrhythm tool plays two parts with a synchronized visual guide. You can hear either part alone, then combine them. For three against two, first listen for the common beginning of the cycle. Hear the two evenly spaced events on one side and the three on the other before attempting both yourself.

That separation is particularly useful when a cross-rhythm has become a memorised sequence of hand movements. Hearing one line by itself restores its shape. Playing both voices accurately also involves coordination and musical balance, so the visual guide is a reference rather than a substitute for listening.

Save the setup you will actually want next time

The Library holds saved metronome setups and practice material. A setup saves the click you need; a routine can arrange sections, repeats and rests. You can also play saved material as a set and revisit practice history.

A useful saved name might be “bars 17–20, eighth notes, 76” rather than “exercise 2.” It gives the next session a starting point. A routine is worth creating when the sequence itself repeats, such as a rhythm exercise, a short rest and a second exercise with fewer audible beats.

Light and dark appearance, visual beat feedback, fullscreen view and the option to keep the screen awake let you adapt the display to the room. Background metronome playback is available too. These conveniences matter most when the phone is sitting on a stand and you want to keep your hands on the instrument.

Is Pro useful for your practice?

If you need a flexible click, subdivisions, a gradual tempo climb or polyrhythm practice, the free tools cover that work. Try them with one real passage before building a large library.

Pro makes sense when measuring tempo becomes a regular part of your practice and you want unlimited Listen use. Try the limited free access with your own instrument and room first. The question is whether seeing a tempo trend helps you make a better decision about the passage.

Start with the free tool that solves today's problem; the subscription is there if regular tempo tracking earns its place.

Feature photo: Jean Pierre / Pexels, used under the Pexels licence. App screens: Takt, captured 29 October 2026.