How to use the Korg MA-30 Metronome

Many musicians are afraid of the dreaded metronome- but learning how to operate one will make things incredibly easy! Just watch the video below!

One of my students once joked, “I hate metronomes, they tick me off!”

Although I thoroughly enjoyed his clever pun, I still have him using his metronome. Here is how to work the Korg unit!

Features:

On/Off

Operating the the Korg MA-30 Metronome is simple, just press the red On/Off button to fire it up!

Tempo

The Beat function allows you to set anything from 0 (no beat accent) to 7 beats per measure. When using any number from 1-7 it will play a high-pitched click for beat one and a lower pitched for all other beats. In addition to beats per measure, they also included several articulations including eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes. These definitely come in handy as you move into more difficult music!

You can change the tempo by pressing the up or down buttons, or holding them to skip to the nearest interval of 20. The Korg MA30 Metronome has range in tempo of 40-200.

Beat/Tap

You can also press the Beat/Tap button a second time to pull up the tap tempo function. Using this you can tap your finger on the “Tap In” button to determine your tempo by feel rather than deciding on a number. The metronome will adjust to you!

Sound

Note/Calibrate

This button allows the metronome to act as a pitch pipe so you can tune your instrument. When you enter this mode first the selection will be on “Calib” which lets you set the frequency at which “A” vibrates. The most commonly used is 440, so it is best to leave it set there. Pressing the Note/Calib button again will let you use the up/down buttons to change the note being played.

Mute

The mute button does exactly what it promises- it mutes the volume! You can also use the volume knob located on the side.

Ear Phone Jack-

If you prefer to have the metronome piped into your ear, you can plug a set of earphones into the jack located on the side!

The Korg MA-30 Metronome is by far my favorite metronome to date. For its price it delivers the most options, with the least annoying click. It also will last you up to/over 250 hours on two AAA batteries (not included).

While pendulum metronomes may look nice, they aren’t as easy to set- and only move in large intervals between tempos (beats per minute). Also- you can’t set them on your music stand without them falling off tempo. They also can’t do articulations or mark beat one. A digital metronome such as the Korg is an incredible tool that any studying instrumentalist should always have in their case!

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