Rhythm Trainer
Tap along with the click and find out exactly how good your timing is — in milliseconds, note by note.
One tap per beat, with the click. Simple to describe and harder than it sounds to do dead on time.
Count: 1 2 3 4
Latency
Not calibrated. Speakers and especially Bluetooth headphones play sound late, which makes you look late. Calibrate once per device.
How a Round Works
- Pick a rhythm and a tempo. Each rhythm starts at a sensible speed.
- Press Start. Four clicks count you in, with the first one accented.
- Tap the pad — or press Space — on every note for four bars. Tap in time with the rhythm, not just the click.
- Read the results. Each note on the timeline turns green, amber or red depending on how close your tap was, and you get your score, your average lean and your spread.
Taps are timed from the moment your browser received them, not from when the page got round to handling them, and measured against the audio clock that the clicks are scheduled on. After calibration, the remaining error is mostly yours — which is the point.
The Rhythms
They are ordered roughly by difficulty. The counts below are what to say out loud while you tap — counting is the most reliable way to keep your place.
| Rhythm | Level | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter notes | Beginner | 1 2 3 4 |
| Eighth notes | Beginner | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & |
| Off-beat eighths | Beginner | & & & & |
| Dotted quarter + eighth | Intermediate | 1 & 3 & |
| 3-3-2 (tresillo) | Intermediate | 1 & 4 |
| Eighth-note triplets | Intermediate | 1 trip let 2 trip let 3 trip let 4 trip let |
| Sixteenth notes | Intermediate | 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a |
| Gallop | Advanced | 1 & a 2 & a 3 & a 4 & a |
| Reverse gallop | Advanced | 1 e & 2 e & 3 e & 4 e & |
| 3-2 son clave | Advanced | 1 & 4 2 3 (2 bars) |
Rushing, Dragging, and How to Fix Them
Rushing— arriving before the beat — is the most common timing problem, especially on notes that follow a rest or a long note, and on the “&” of a beat. It usually comes from tension: the hand wants to get the next note over with. Breathing out, relaxing the shoulder, and deliberately “waiting” for each note fixes most of it.
Dragging — arriving after the beat — often means you are reacting to the click instead of anticipating it. The motion of a strum or pick stroke has to start before the beat for the sound to land on it. Try feeling the click as the moment your pick hits the string, not the moment you decide to move.
A large spreadwith a small average means your timing is uneven rather than biased. That is a tempo problem: slow down until every note scores green, then raise the tempo 5 BPM at a time. The “Try faster” button appears after a round of 90 or more for exactly this reason.
From Tapping to Playing
Once a rhythm is reliable here, put it on the guitar. Play it on one muted string with the metronome, then on chords with the strumming trainer, then over a backing loop from the chord progression builder. Every completed round counts as a practice day on the practice routine, so a few minutes here keeps your streak going.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why calibrate latency?
Every device plays sound a little after it is told to — a few milliseconds through wired headphones, and often 150 to 250 milliseconds through Bluetooth. You tap to what you hear, so without correction you look late by that much. Calibration plays eight clicks, measures how far behind them your taps land, and subtracts that from every round. Do it again if you switch speakers or headphones.
What is a good score?
Above 90 means nearly every note landed within about 25 milliseconds — tight enough that a listener would hear it as locked to the click. 70 to 90 is solid playing with some drift. Below 70, slow the tempo down; timing improves fastest at a speed where you can be accurate.
What do the average and spread mean?
The average tells you which way you lean: negative means you are ahead of the beat (rushing), positive means behind it (dragging). The spread is how much your taps vary around that average. A player can be on the beat on average but uneven, or consistently 20 milliseconds late but very steady; the two numbers tell those apart.
Should I keep the rhythm guide on?
Use it to learn a new rhythm, then turn it off. With the guide on you can follow the sound; with only the click you have to hold the rhythm yourself, which is the skill you need when playing with other people.
Is tapping a button really like playing guitar?
It is the same timing skill without the technique getting in the way. Once a rhythm scores well tapped, play it on the guitar with the metronome or the strumming trainer — any remaining unevenness is then down to your picking hand, not your sense of time.
Why does tapping on a phone feel less accurate?
Touch screens add their own small, variable delay, and some phones process audio in large blocks. Calibrating helps with the fixed part. For the most precise results use a laptop keyboard with wired headphones.