How CleanSpeed works

CleanSpeed is built around four simple things:

1. Clean speed

   The fastest tempo at which you can play a passage cleanly and consistently. It is the reference point for everything else.

2. Metronome

   A basic metronome that lets you quickly switch between percentages of your clean speed.

   Instead of calculating BPM every time, you can quickly jump between values like 50%, 70%, 100%, or 120% of your current clean speed.

3. Exercises

   Saved passages with their own clean speed and pattern.

   A pattern is a sequence of practice steps, each with its own percentage and duration.

4. Sessions

   Groups of exercises that run one after another, allowing you to build and follow a complete practice routine.

The basic idea is simple: find your real clean speed, use it as a reference, and build your practice around it.

What clean speed means

Your clean speed is the fastest tempo at which a passage still feels clean and controlled.

That means accurate notes, precise timing, and no unnecessary noise or tension. Basically, it is a tempo at which you can play almost without thinking and keep going consistently.

Not the maximum speed you can somehow survive with dying fingers, struggling and making tons of noise :)

Finding your clean speed

Set a clean speed on the Metronome tab and test the passage at 100%.

Play the passage.

If it starts to fall apart, lower it.

If it feels easy, controlled, and repeatable, raise it.

The goal is to find the fastest tempo that still feels genuinely clean.

Do not fool yourself! If you set the speed higher than your real clean speed, you will simply train yourself to make mistakes and put them in your muscle memory instead of training yourself to play cleanly.

Practicing at percentages

Once your clean speed is set, CleanSpeed lets you practice around it as a percentage.

For example, with a clean speed of 120 BPM:

• 50% - 60 BPM, for clarity and control
• 70% - 84 BPM, for comfortable repetition
• 100% - 120 BPM, your current clean speed
• 120% - 144 BPM, briefly pushing beyond the edge

This keeps slow practice, working tempo, and push tempo connected to the same reference point.

The real fun starts with exercises and sessions.

Exercises

An exercise is a passage that you can save and reuse.

Each exercise can have:

• a name
• a clean speed
• a pattern

A pattern is an ordered list of practice steps.

Each step uses a percentage of the exercise's clean speed and a duration.

When you run an exercise, CleanSpeed moves through those steps in order and shows the current tempo and remaining time.

For example, with a clean speed of 110 BPM, the default pattern looks like this:

• Warmup - 70% - 77 BPM - 2:00
• Control - 80% - 88 BPM - 2:00
• Build - 90% - 99 BPM - 2:00
• Clean Test - 100% - 110 BPM - 2:00
• Push - 110% - 121 BPM - 1:00
• Overload - 120% - 132 BPM - 1:00
• Recovery - 95% - approximately 105 BPM - 1:00

Each step can run for its own set duration, letting you move through the whole practice pattern automatically.

Sessions

A session is an ordered group of exercises.

Use sessions when you want to run a full practice routine from start to finish without manually setting up each exercise again.

Each exercise keeps its own clean speed and pattern.

Ratings and recommendations

After a run, you can rate the result as Clean, Solid, or Messy.

CleanSpeed uses that result to suggest whether the clean speed should change for the next run.

The recommendation is still yours to accept or ignore.

History and progress

Completed practice is recorded in History.

This gives you a record of what you actually practiced and makes it easier to see how your tempos change over time.

Exercises also keep their own progress history, so you can follow improvement for each exercise instead of relying on memory.

Accounts

The metronome itself can be used without signing in.

An account is intended to keep your practice data connected to your account and available across devices.

More about why CleanSpeed is built this way is on the About page.