

Standing above the drum with a white ball on a long black stick would be a man who would move the ball over the appropriate word in time with the song. Instead the words were painted onto a large drum. "It's interesting to note that originally this series wasn't animated at all. Sadly, it can't yet play the tune, though this is in the wish list for the future. The metronome plays the beats of the rhythm as the ball bounces. The red highlight shows the word to sing right now, and the next word to sing is highlighted in blue. The shadow helps you to anticipate the next beat exactly. Bounce Metronome has a few extra refinements to help you keep in time In the earliest films the ball itself wasn't animated, instead they filmed a ball which was bounced on the lyrics by an assistant in the studio. It was first introduced for the song "My bonnie lies over the ocean" in 1925. The ball bouncing on the lyrics helped the audience to sing along with the movie. This technique was used in the " Car tunes" movies in the late 1920s - towards the end of the silent movies era and for the first movies with sound.
