Click Tracks

This page provides links to MIDI files that are "click tracks" - basically "1 2 3 4" type clicks for counting beats and measures. These tracks are useful for:
  • Playing a song at an even cadence and at a given pace
  • Coordinating music done by different people at different times who want to keep in sync. This is particularly useful if you want a solo flute part that is preceeded by a lead-in or intro on other instruments.

To use these tracks:

  1. You need a MIDI device. Most sound cards serve as a midi device, as well as most electronic synthesizer keyboards. If you click on the MIDI tracks below and hear no sound, you will need to diagnose this problem.
  2. Click one of the links below, and save the midi file to your system.
  3. Play the file on your system. You will be limited to the tempo of the midi file, which ranges from 90 beats per minute (BPM) to 150 BPM. OR
  4. Load the MIDI track into a midi sequencer (a software component that lets you modify the contents of a midi file). If you use this option, you will be able to change the length of the click track, as well as the tempo. You can, for example, shorten the track to provide just the lead in to the song.

Each track ranges in time, depending on the tempo, from 4 to 8 minutes. The structure of each track is:

  1. One measure of silence.
  2. Two measures of lead in. The last beat of the second of these measures is missing.
  3. Repeated 4-bar patterns. Each 4-bar pattern has a distinctive woodblock for the first beat of the first bar. This lets you easily count measures in groups of 4.

Four / Four Time Click Tracks

Three / Four Time Click Tracks

If you have any comments on these pages, or would like to see other versions, please email me your suggestions.

Web site by Clint Goss - Last updated September 19, 2008.