Keeping The Beat
What fits in your pocket? Never drops a beat, and doesn’t drool everywhere? It isn’t your drummer. (All kidding aside. We all know how valuable a good drummer is.) It’s the Korg MA-30 digital metronome.
I know what you are thinking. Big deal! A metronome, is a metronome, is a metronome. Well, the answer to that is yes and no. All metronomes perform the same basic function. Whether, they are simple, mechanical ones, or high end digital ones, they all keep a steady beat at a variety of speeds. (You can even download free ones off the internet.)
So if all metronomes are essentially the same, what makes this one stand out? For me it was a combination of several features.
Portability: I needed a metronome that was easy to take anywhere with me. Especially, since I like to do some rhythm and strumming exercises at work, when I have time. The Korg MA-30 isn’t much bigger than a pocket calculator.
Volume Control & Quiet Operation Modes: Both of these are essential to me so that I don’t annoy co-workers. (I annoy them anyway, but that’s another matter.) The MA-30 has a volume control with a dynamic speaker, which puts out quite a bit of sound for its small size. It also has a mute button and an earphone jack. The latter I found invaluable for when I want to turn up the amp at home, but don’t want to drown out the metronome.
Wide Tempo Range: With a tempo range from 40-208 BPM. The MA-30 fits the bill nicely. No matter what style of music you play.
Available Beats: This is where the MA-30 begins to shine. You get a standard setting from 0-7 beats. Yes, some metronomes have more beats available. But, they only offer them with the standard steady click, or beep in that 1,2,3,4 count. Useful, but it makes learning to play triplets difficult at best. The MA-30 has settings for duplets, triplets, triplets with the middle beat omitted, quadruplets, and quadruplets with the middle beats omitted. All of which are useful for the budding guitarist.
Reference Tones: So there you are playing and it all sounds out of whack. You’re out of tune and you don’t have a tuner handy or it’s not working. Not a problem. The MA-30 comes with 12 available reference tones, and is set to concert A at 440hz. All of which is adjustable by you.
One other feature I found very useful is the Tap Tempo button. So there you are, playing along with your favorite song on cd. It doesn’t sound bad but you want to play it without the cd to be able to hear what you need to work on. Except your not quite sure how fast or slow the song is in BPM. No problem. Push one button and set the MA-30 for Tap Tempo. Start the song and tap along with the beat and the MA-30 sets the tempo for you. It’s not necessarily perfect but it will get you in the ballpark.
The only drawbacks I can point out are the plastic casing, and the lack of an external power supply option. Even with those two drawbacks, at $30 USD the Korg MA-30 metronome is a very useful piece of equipment for any guitarist.
