A captivating property of music is to generate the desire to move. Over the last two decades, finger-tapping tasks have been extensively used in laboratory settings to portray a broad picture of the mechanisms underlying musically-synchronized behaviours (Drake et al., 2000). However, a methodological disconnection exists between (a) academic studies of motor timing that use finger-tapping paradigms and metronomes (Repp & Su, 2013), and (b) applied studies that focus on the impact of motor-timing difficulties on real-life behaviors (e.g., Parkinson’s disease; Rodger & Craig, 2016). The aim of the present study was to bridge the gap between timing and intervention studies by directly comparing the effects of metronome and musical cue types on motor-timing abilities across three naturalistic-voluntary actions (i.e., finger tapping, toe tapping, and stepping on the spot). Thirty six participants (18 young and 18 old adults) were involved in the study, and pacing cues (i.e., metronome and music) were presented at slow, medium, and fast tempi. The results showed that the task of stepping on the spot enabled better timing performances than tapping both in young and old adults. The best performances were observed in the medium and fast tempi in each movement type. Finally, music provided an entrainment effect that enabled better motor timing than classically reported using a metronome. Our findings detail the importance of translational research for a better understanding of motor timing. Finger tapping combined with metronome is a good laboratory-set task. However, it is too far removed from everyday-life activities to facilitate direct application. Future research must turn to more complex whole-body activities in order to get a true picture of how the brain controls motor timing, but also to provide guidance to the construction of rehabilitating-training programs for pathological populations.