Percussion Trainer
Tap rudiments with a click, climb the tempo ladder, name rudiments by ear, find notes and scales on the bars, and play drum set grooves.
Rudiments on the pads, notes on the bars, grooves on the kit
Percussion Trainer has three 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.
Drum set shows a groove on the staff and a drum set you tap or play from the keyboard, with each key letter on its drum. Pick a time signature (4/4, 3/4, 6/8, or 12/8), one of 27 styles (from rock and swing to samba, mambo, and dembow), and a tempo, or get a random groove. Play-along plays the groove with you, On your own gives you only a click, and Free play is the kit with no music and no score. Turn on Fills for four-bar phrases that end in a fill, and Brushes to hear the groove played with brushes, the way drummers play ballads and other soft tunes. To work on one part at a time, set You play to Hands, Feet, or the parts you pick. The trainer plays the rest, and only your parts count toward the score.
Each rudiment shows its PAS number: its place on the Percussive Arts Society's list of 40 International Drum Rudiments, the standard set most band method books and audition lists use. For example, PAS #16 is the Single Paradiddle.
How to practice
- 01Press Hear it first, then say the sticking out loud before you tap.
- 02Start the Tempo Ladder slow enough that the first pass is clean.
- 03Hold the device flat on a table or your lap so both thumbs or hands reach the pads.
- 04If good taps keep showing as late or early, calibrate tap timing in settings.
- 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.
On drum set, every note in the groove is checked against the drum you hit, and hits that match no note count against the score, so playing extra notes to catch the right one doesn't help. See how to read drum set music for where each drum sits on the staff.
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.