Compás y palmas — a flamenco metronome
Flamenco is not counted in bars of four. Each palo has its own compás — a twelve-beat cycle with accents in particular places for soleá and alegrías, a different cycle for tangos, another for seguiriyas. Palmas plays those cycles, with the instruments that actually keep them: palmas, cajón, jaleo, pitos and more. Set the tempo, choose which instruments sound, and practise against a rhythm that is the real thing rather than a click.
The full app, free and open source, in any modern browser — nothing to buy, nothing to install. Choose a palo, set the tempo, mix the instruments, and watch the compás as dots, a counter, or a clock. Your settings stay on your own device.
It also installs as an app, with its own icon and window — and once installed it works with no connection at all, which is what a rehearsal room tends to offer. See Install it as an app.
Free & open source — runs in your browser
Open the web app Source on GitHubThe same app also builds as a desktop application for macOS, Windows and Linux, and as an Android and iOS app. These are not published yet — for now, the repository builds all of them, and the setup script installs what each one needs.
On Android there is nothing to wait for: install the web app to your home screen and you have the whole thing, offline included.
Build it yourself
Source on GitHubAn App Store release is in preparation. Until it is there, the browser app works on iPhone and iPad — open it in Safari and use Share → Add to Home Screen for an icon, a standalone window and offline practice.
In preparation
Coming to the App StorePalmas runs perfectly well in a browser tab. Installing it as a Progressive Web App gives it an icon, a standalone window with no browser furniture around the compás, and — the part that matters for practice — it keeps working with no network. The app and every sample are stored on your device the first time you open it, so a rehearsal room with no signal makes no difference.
Once installed, launch it like any other app rather than from a browser tab — the home-screen icon or app drawer on a phone, the Start menu or Spotlight on a computer, and chrome://apps (edge://apps) if you have mislaid it.
Installing also protects your settings. Tempo, swing, instrument mix and any beats you have silenced are stored on your own device and nowhere else, and Safari clears a website's storage after about a week without a visit — on both macOS and iOS. An installed app is not treated that way.
Palmas covers the flamenco repertoire and several related traditions — among them:
Alongside the flamenco palos there are Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian rhythms, and a tuning fork for good measure.
Accents where they belong for each palo, not an even click — with a prestart count-in, adjustable swing, and a humanise option so it breathes.
Three ways to watch the beat: dots around the compás, a plain counter, or a clock face. Whichever makes the cycle legible to you.
Palmas, cajón, jaleo, pitos and more — turn each on or off, set its volume, and choose whether it plays eighths. Adjust the reverb decay to suit the room you are practising in.
Nine languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Arabic, Persian, Japanese and Chinese.
No accounts, no analytics, no tracking of any kind. Nothing about your practice leaves your device.
Licensed under the AGPL. Read the source, build it yourself, or send a patch.
Palmas is a modified version of A Compás by Olivier Ricordeau and Jérémie Sieffert, who wrote the great majority of it and hold copyright from 2014 to 2023. It is distributed under the same AGPL-3.0 licence, which is what makes this version possible — and it carries a different name because the changes here are not theirs to answer for. Please report anything about Palmas on its own repository, not to them.
The jaleo recordings are by Aziz Andry.