Percussion Trainer

Rudiments on the pads, notes on the bars

Percussion Trainer has two sections. Rudiments shows a rudiment with its sticking and gives you two pads, left and right. Tap along with the click on a phone, tablet, or keyboard (A for left, L for right), and every note is marked on time, early, late, wrong hand, or missed.

Before a chair test, use Tempo Ladder: it starts slow and moves the tempo up each time you get 90% of the notes on time with the right hands, and it remembers your best tempo for each rudiment. Rudiment ID plays a rudiment and asks you to name it.

Mallets has Find the Bar, where a note appears on the staff and you tap its bar in the right octave, and Scales, where you play concert-pitch scales up and back down on bells, xylophone, marimba, or vibraphone, with an optional click and tempo ladder.

How to practice

1. 01Press Hear it first, then say the sticking out loud before you tap.
2. 02Start the Tempo Ladder slow enough that the first pass is clean.
3. 03Hold the device flat on a table or your lap so both thumbs or hands reach the pads.
4. 04If good taps keep showing as late, calibrate tap timing in settings.
5. 05Play the same rudiment on a practice pad right after, at the tempo you reached.

What tapping can and can't check

Tapping checks sticking and timing well. Grace notes are faster than a touchscreen can measure, so flams count when both pads are hit almost together, and drags count when the other pad is tapped twice just before the main note. Buzz rolls are listen-only.

Bells sound two octaves higher than written and xylophone one octave higher. Marimba and vibraphone sound as written. Scales are named in concert pitch, so the whole band can work on the same scale. See key signatures and the chromatic scale for the theory behind each one.

Who it's for

Beginning and intermediate percussionists preparing for chair tests, students switching to percussion, and directors who want a quick rudiment and mallet check for home practice.