Drum Rudiment Trainer

The Drum Rudiment Trainer give you an interactive practice pad that will help develop your timing and hand independence. By clicking either side of the pad with your mouse or using the F and J keys if you prefer quicker reaction, you are able to play along. It then measure the accuracy of your strike against the rhythm pattern shown on screen.

To play the left lane, press the F key; right lane: J key. The buttons of the pad is clearly marked with these letters, meaning you don’t need to take your eyes off the screen. Hit P to activate (or deactivate) the sticking cycle. This cycle highlights each note when it come in and plays the corresponding audio pattern. Alternatively, you can tap the pads on the left or right using your finger or mouse instead of keyboard.

How to Use the Drum Trainer

To select your pattern, pick a rudiment from the lower cabinet, underneath the main display. Each card show the sticking notation, where upper case letters represent primary stroke sounds and lower case letters represent the grace note. Accent marks is noted by a red corner bead. Ghost notes are shown in smaller characters. Choosing a card reloads the pattern into the tape display while also resetting coaching metrics.

Changing the subdivision rail alters placement of the pattern within the bar. Changing this from eights to triplets, sixteenth notes or sextuplet notes will change them to suit a range of musical situations. Accent choreography allows you to choose which stroke is given importance. This might be to crown the phrase or draw attention to lead hand for example. The ordering of the sticks doesn’t alter with these settings but it does changes the dynamic feel of the audio cue.

Left-Hand or Right-Hand Pattern Leader: Swap this and you have each hand playing a different role balancing the workload across both hands.

Floor Tempo Slider: Set here at whatever speed you wish to start at. Climb Ceiling means that if it is enabled, the tempo will rise up to this number as you play through it. For example, it increase by 4 BPM every full rotation of the pattern. And it challenges you to keep your finger on target as it accelerates.

Clicking on the ladder button starts a guided exercise which will take you step by step through five rudiment patterns. To continue to the next level, you has to loop them twice without mistakes. Your progress is indicated in the side bar as well as marked off when you finish one. This is great for doing set work-outs because you can cycle through multiple technique.

The timing coach panel tracks how you’re doing. The timing needle move to show whether you are early or late. The timing needle moves to show whether you are early or late. There’s also a heat map showing your left/right hand balance, and the clean-hand chain keeps count of the number of strikes in a row that you’ve made correctly. Tap the brush button to erase all these markings and begin again without having to reset your pattern or tempo settings.

To adjust the volume of the pads, simply drag the pad volume slider and set it to what is comfortabley for you in the space where you’re playing. The coaching cue volume is controlled by the same main volume as the practice pad voice. To enlarge the widget so there’s more room to view the metrics and animation, just click the fullscreen button.

During play, you can use the bracket keys on your keyboard to push the tempo up or down a bit at a time. Choose a basic roll and set the tempo at a slow pace on the floor. Tap in time with the F and J keys as the cycle runs; this will highlight every note that enters the tape. When you’re comfortable, turn on the tempo climb and see how fast you can go. Change to ladder mode for a stick family test of consistency. Go slowly. Follow the coaching metrics.

You should of tried it. It is more better than practicing alone.